BOOSTING

STREAMLINING business operations means more productivity and profits, a lesson learned by a small group of enterprise operators in Chatuchak (a district near Bangkok, Thailand) at its world-famous weekend market.

The market, the largest in the country and possibly in Southeast Asia, has nearly 10,000 stalls covering 14ha. On a typical weekend, it attracts almost a quarter of a million visitors.

The traders sell all kinds of products and goods, ranging from plants, antiques, fresh food, drinks and even pets.

A team from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) spent several months working with some of these small business operators, almost an equal number of women and men, some in their late teens and others in their mid-40s.

The experience can be of significant benefit to the micro- and small-businesses in Malaysia, which is why I wish to highlight what was gainfully learned and put into practice.

The limitation to higher productivity and profit was the inordinate amount of time and effort traders spent on manually organising, accessing, preparing and storing their raw materials, products and goods.

Record-keeping was haphazard, done on scraps of paper or notebooks, stuffed into pockets, bags or hidden on site.

True, many had handheld calculators and smartphones, but these were mainly used for basic calculations and communication.

Family members, neighbours or friends accompanying the traders, supposedly to help, were mostly uninitiated in the work they needed to do, often relying on direct instruction from and supervision by the traders.

On the eve of the weekend market, we had a few successful Thai small-business owners, whom we had oriented, interact with a select group of traders using ILO’s “start and improve your business” modules. A facilitator was assigned to work with each of the two dozen or so traders over the weekend.

On Sunday evening, as traders were packing to return home, we had a quick feedback session to see how successful they had been, problems encountered and what could be done better.

The most significant changes to their performance that enhanced their operations, efficiency, output and profit were:

WITH a simple Tablet or iPad, paperwork was minimised by storing, searching and sharing information online;

USING mobile devices for requisitioning, invoicing and paying expedited and took the stress out of these actions. It ensured accurate and trackable dealings, and allowed them to focus on servicing customers;

USING a simple online tool for creating and managing to-do lists, setting reminders and interacting with others saved time and prevented last-minute desperation;

IT’S typical for these smallscale operators to want to manage and handle their business on their own, not wishing to delegate even where they can. From entering

information to simple errands, delegating to family members, neighbours or friends proved beneficial; and,

USING the right digital tools to streamline conversations and monitor how the market is faring boosted efficiency and return on investment.

The main takeaway from all this is, don’t let inefficiency prevent you from achieving success in business. One needs to work smarter to be more productive and increase profit and, thanks to the digital age, the tools are available.

You can’t add more hours to the day, but you can use your time and direct your effort more prudently and profitably by investing in, learning and utilising the available technology.