Processes— A formula for success
You might not know this about me, but I’m not a mathematician…not by any stretch of the imagination. But I know a formula when I see it. A formula I see often is around the amount of influence business owners have on their organization. The influence and the vision you have as a business owner is inversely proportional to the number of employees and staff you have.
The more your business grows, the more diluted your influence becomes. This is because bringing people into your own little world means they’re going to bring all their own experiences and ideas and personality to your business.
Which is AWESOME….
Except when it’s not.
So how do you make sure you’re striking the right balance? You need to create processes for key areas of your business to make sure that the overarching values are still in place.
A few areas that business owners need to consider creating sound processes for:
Client experiences: You’ve built your business around the service, product, or experience you want to provide. That’s your brand. And as you get more people in your organization, you want to be sure that these experiences are the same for every single client. Processes for client experiences, should cover greeting and language, troubleshooting client issues or complaints, and following up with potential clients. This creates the expectation for your employees to make sure they’re delivering that brand experience just as you would.
Operational Tasks: Take it from someone who knows, business owners will bury themselves in all the stuff that needs to be done in order to run a business. All the accounts payable, accounts receivable, marketing, emails… all of that. I’ve seen business owners get neck deep in working ‘in the business’ instead of ‘working on the business’…. Why? Because it’s right there. And there’s so much to be done. And what?? NO way, I’m going to trust someone else to do it?? But you DO!!!! You need to delegate. And how do you delegate and make sure something it done properly?? Create a process. Creating a process on how and when to do operational tasks will allow you, as a business owner, to step back a bit and turn over some of the day to day demands. This will free you up, to run your business!!
Social Media Management: These days, most businesses have a social media presence, whether it’s a page, a group or just sharing posts. But as is the case with all social media… there’s a chance of conflict. Conflict could be an unhappy client, an unhappy employee, outdated information… anything. So as a business owner what are you doing to make sure you’re steering your online presence appropriately. And that might take a social media policy. Outlining who’s responsible for updating your page or group, answering comments and questions, and even how to deal with trolls and bullies… all of these things should be in your social media policy.
Think about it this way, by writing out the expectations of operating within your business, you’re protecting and growing your brand. A little overwhelmed at the prospect of creating these policies but know you need to? Well, that’s what Plan-It Documents is for!!
