Have you ever thought about whether your business is wasteful? I’m not talking about recycling (although that’s important). There are many other examples of a wasteful business that are crucial to consider.

Identifying waste is essential — once you know where it’s happening, you can make adjustments. By eliminating waste in your business, you can make better use of your time, money, and other resources.

There are several different ways to categorize business waste. I’m partial to the Lean Six Sigma approach that identifies seven different types of “muda” (waste). 

Business Wastefulness #1: Overproduction

As the name implies, overproduction simply means producing more than what is needed. It can also apply to producing things before they’re needed. 

This is a delicate balance, especially for small businesses. For example, if you sell physical products, you want to make sure you have enough on hand to ship when orders come in, but you don’t want to carry excess inventory that won’t sell. 

If you sell digital products or services,  you don’t want to waste time and resources on creating things that aren’t needed — or that won’t be needed for a long time. (For example, creating an entire graduate-level course before anyone in your audience has gotten a grip on the fundamentals.)

Here are some examples of overproduction:

• Creating more marketing materials for a promotion than you could possibly use, rendering half of them unscheduled and outdated before they can be published in the future
• Producing more content than your audience will engage with, like writing a 70-page eBook when your primary audience is newborn parents
• Adding product features that your customers aren’t interested in, such as weekly in-depth workshops that are poorly attended

Do any of these sound familiar? Can you identify any other examples of overproduction in your business?

Business Wastefulness #2: Waiting

Do you lose f time in your business because you’re waiting on something or someone before you can complete your task? This often happens when there are bottlenecks in your processes. 

Waiting can also refer to making your customers wait on you. For example, if you deliver a document to a client but forget to alter the permissions so they can access it, they’ll waste time waiting for you to change the permissions. 

Here are some common sources of waiting in business:

• Outdated technology or tools that slow down productivity
• Long turnaround time for customer support inquiries
• Slow response times from team members or contractors
• Lack of communication and coordination between business owners and team members
• Inefficient workflows, required approvals, and processes that cause delays and bottlenecks

Waiting waste adds up quickly. You may not think a  few minutes here and there would add up, but as a small business, it can easily become hours to days of lost productivity in a single week. For example, if your video editor set aside their Thursday to edit your videos, but you haven’t turned over the raw files… you now have to wait for their next available day or pay rush charges. Factor in frustration and carry-over waiting (like the “setup” time you have to spend getting back into work mode after an interruption), and you’ll find these moments compound waste over time.

Business Wastefulness #3: Transportation

Transportation waste covers any unnecessary movement of materials. This can include moving products or supplies from one location to another, as well as unnecessary movement of workers within your business space. This type of waste is often caused by poor organization, inefficient layouts, and a lack of planning. 

In a business that sells physical products, it might involve physically moving items from one place to another, like when your assembly area is in a completely different part of the building than your shipping area… or your storage is in your basement, requiring you to carry boxes upstairs every day to create your goods. 

In an online business, transportation waste can happen in virtual spaces. For example, it might look like sending files to multiple different people, which can result in version control issues. Or, it might involve navigating through too many online tools and platforms to complete a single task, causing unnecessary back-and-forth movement and wasted time.

Business Wastefulness #4: Overprocessing

Unnecessarily complicated processes are wasteful, but they’re also extremely common. I see this often in the online business world, especially when well-intentioned entrepreneurs try to create processes for every aspect of their workflow. 

Here’s an example: You’re a Graphic Designer and you require your clients to complete a form for every single request they have. So if you regularly design thumbnails for their YouTube, and they film two videos a week… you’re asking them to complete a form 8-10x a month! Instead, you can ask to have access to their project tracker (Asana, a spreadsheet, whatever it may be) where they keep track of all their upcoming videos.

Think about the processes in your business:

• Are there duplicated or redundant steps?
• Could any of your processes be completed as effectively with fewer steps?
• Have you created complicated, multi-step processes for workflows that don’t really require them?

Another aspect of overprocessing relates to over-development aka are you producing things at a higher quality level than your clients want or need? Are you adding unnecessary “bonuses” and “bundles” to your products? Ask yourself, “Does the customer truly get value from this output?”, if the answer is no, then you’re wasting time, money, and resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

Business Wastefulness #5: Defects

Traditional companies that sell physical products are well aware of the high financial cost of defective products. But this category doesn’t just cover products developed or manufactured incorrectly.

If the production process is incomplete or includes wrong information, that’s another type of defect that can cost time and money. For a virtual business, defects may look like…

• Sending customers incorrect information (about your offers or a promotion, for example)
• Technical glitches that compromise coupon codes or online purchases
• Incorrectly segmenting your email list
• An incomplete onboarding process for new clients
• Having outdated details or broken links on your website

Can you identify any defects in your business that are causing frustration for yourself or your customers? When was the last time you actively sought feedback from customers to ensure their needs are being met and their issues addressed? Regularly reviewing customer complaints or negative reviews can provide insight into potential defects that need addressing.

Business Wastefulness #6: Inventory

This one is pretty straightforward. Holding onto extra inventory is wasteful. But that doesn’t just apply to physical products. 

If you have an online business, are you…

• Keeping an underperforming offer instead of retiring it?
• Creating too many digital products (more than your audience can support)?
• Accumulating digital assets (like stock photos, templates, or software subscriptions) that you aren’t using?
• Keeping outdated or obsolete content on your website?
• Paying for advanced website features or plug-ins you’re not using?

Inventory waste doesn’t just refer to physical things, so think about your business’s virtual assets as well.   Regularly reviewing and decluttering your digital products, assets, and tools can save you money and make your business more efficient.

Business Wastefulness #7: Motion

Similar to transportation, motion waste traditionally refers to the unnecessary movement of people or machines. In a physical business, for example, it might be something like people walking around a warehouse looking for tools or materials.

So, what does motion waste look like for a virtual business?

• Poor website UX design that confuses customers and wastes their time
• Complex website navigation that requires too many clicks to get from place to place
• Manual data entry, which is tedious and prone to errors
• Generating reports manually instead of using an automated system
• Frequent switching between tasks, platforms, applications, or even browser tabs

Webpages that require an excessive amount of scrolling can also be wasteful (for you and your clients). Consider breaking up long pages into multiple, easy-to-navigate sections. This will save your clients time and help them find the information they need more efficiently. 

Business Wastefulness #8: Underutilization

Technically, Lean Six Sigma only recognizes seven forms of waste. But I’ve seen some experts add this eighth category: underutilization.  Not only is it a financial drain, but it can also lead to demotivation and disengagement for those individuals.

This type of waste can take several forms:

• Lack of training
• Minimal delegation
• Micromanaging team members (aka keeping all the decision-making power in your hands)
• Excessive team meetings
• Limited career advancement opportunities
• Insufficient collaboration

If your team members are wasting time on tedious manual tasks that could be automated, that’s another example of underutilizing talent. To avoid this wastefulness, it’s important to regularly assess your team’s workload and responsibilities, as well as the tools and resources the team uses. Make sure that everyone is being challenged and engaged in meaningful work, and provide opportunities for professional development and growth.

Want Help to Reduce Waste in Your Business?

As you can see, physical resources aren’t the only things that a business can waste. It’s easy to lose time, money, patience, and effort to inefficient processes, poorly designed systems, and overly complicated workflows.

Once you start looking, it may be easy to identify waste in your business. But fixing it is often more challenging. That’s where a strategic partner can help.

I can help you eliminate wasteful practices by building better systems, implementing more efficient processes, and improving your operations to better serve your team and customers. If you’d like to learn more about how I can help, book a free call with me.