Having a business that operates at full efficiency is crucial. You also want to be innovative and stand out from other businesses. But what do both of these mean, and which one is more important when it comes to having and running a successful business: innovation or efficiency?

With over 30 million small businesses in the United States, it is important to know what works. 
Let's take a look at what you should be doing.

Business Innovation 
Innovation has a lot to do with creativity, but that is not the only part of innovation. When you are innovative in business, you are coming up with useful ideas to work smarter and better than you were before.
Innovation simply means new and useful, whether that is a huge discovery or something simple that makes the work process easier.
To create something innovative, you usually have to think outside of the box. You should clarify the idea, ideate it, develop it, and then implement it.

Importance of Innovation 
Innovation is the key to flexibility in a business. If you are innovative in your work, you are more likely to be flexible with how you get things done and how you run your business.
This will lead to more growth since we live in a highly competitive world. With more innovation comes more flexibility, and with more flexibility comes more growth and success. 

Business Efficiency
Business efficiency means getting work done faster and smarter without doing more. Instead of working harder or working more to get something done, you are actually doing less to get more done.
That means you are using fewer resources, like less time or money, and maybe even fewer materials or effort in something.
To do this, you have to prioritize your goals. From there, you can be more efficient in reaching them by getting rid of the unnecessary components that may be in the way or don't help you work toward your goals at all.

You can also try the following to increase business efficiency:
- All tasks should link to goals
- Be fully transparent across teams on a daily basis
- Embrace automation 

So, Innovation or Efficiency?
The bottom line is that both innovation and efficiency are important to a business. They both allow for different things to blossom and grow in a business, but the means of achieving that growth stem from different ways.
For instance, innovation is creating something new that is useful for the business, while efficiency is getting things done in a smarter (and usually faster or easier) way.
By using both together, your work process can become that much better. Productivity will increase as well as more revenue and sales in the business.

Key to Growth 
Now that you know both innovation and efficiency are important, you have to figure out how to prioritize both in your business. 
So the question is, innovation or efficiency first?
To figure this out, you can start to streamline your processes to narrow down your goals and reach them faster. Once you are more efficient, you can begin to innovate.
If you are looking to do both, you can schedule a free demo with MAPEGY to learn more about how to innovate and become more efficient in your business.