The reason you started a business was not to work in it the whole time and not having time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Starting out in business you tend to do whatever it takes just to get the sale and stock out of the door in order to make enough money to stay afloat.
Many entrepreneurs get stuck in this mode of only attending to matters once it gets out of control and need immediate attention. The recurrence of this on a regular basis puts you the entrepreneur under unnecessary stress which leads to you sometimes questioning “why did I sign up for this!“
The best way of getting a handle on your business and letting it run like a smooth well oiled machine is to start implementing processes and the people that can execute them.
What is a process?
A process is a set of related tasks or activities that is performed in order to produce a product or service.
Depending on the business you operate the main process categories are defined as follow:
The operational processes which is your primary activities you perform on a regular basis in order for your business to work. Example of this in the fast food industry:
- Delivery of the edible product
- Taking an order from the customer
- etc
Supporting processes are not needed for the everyday running of your business but is also needed to run an optimal business and could include the following:
- Debt collecting
- Marketing
- People management
These are typical things that does not provide value to your customer directly.
Management processes become more relevant and important once your business reach a maturity stage and involve typically things like:
- Internal communications
- Governance
- Strategic planning
- etc
Which processes do I focus on?
There is no definite answer here but take the following in consideration to help you with focus:
- Which activities have the most impact on revenue generation? (Look at the operational processes first)
- What activities do I (the owner) have to perform which I absolutely hate doing?
- Is there a problem that reoccurs frequently that needs your intervention?
What is next?
A very important step is to start documenting the processes and share it among all your employees for their input. The documented process also helps with the training of new people joining your company as it gives them something to reference.
Building a company takes time but getting your processes in place and optimising them will make you grow faster.
I hope this post motivates you to start thinking differently about your business no matter how big or small you are currently. I appreciate you taking the time to read this post, please share how you have implemented processes in your business.
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