When first starting a business, it’s common for the owner to be a jack-of-all-trades. You may not have the funds to hire specialists or access to the technology that can help you establish the required processes. As your business grows or as you look to take a smaller role in your company, you may find the business has become overly reliant on you, which makes it difficult for you to take a step back.
Here are some steps you can take to help your business thrive, even if you’re not there.
Review workflows
Have someone interview everyone in the company to find out what their role is and how they fulfil their tasks. Look at how they do things to see if there are ways to make their tasks more efficient and seamless, and you could even look into the best practices at other companies to see how they manage their tasks.
The goal is to make processes as efficient and straightforward as possible. Take out any unnecessary steps and ensure each process only involves vital tasks to successful completion.
Automate what you can
Often in business, people continue to do a task inefficiently simply because they have gotten used to doing it a certain way. That can lead to hours being wasted, which could be potentially automated. Look at regularly carried out tasks and investigate whether software exists that will make the process easier for you.
For example, suppose your staff spend hours each day updating your customer database. In that case, it’s worth looking into a customer relationship management (CRM) software, which will automatically take care of that for you, reducing the risk of errors and saving you time. If your team spends time following up on unpaid invoices, consider switching to an online invoicing system that automatically sends out overdue notices.
Document the processes
Write the processes out once you have an idea of how team members carry out their responsibilities and have identified ways to automate or improve them. If possible, keep the documents digital to be updated as your business evolves so everyone can easily find them. If you’ve purchased software to automate processes, ensure all team members who would need to use the software know how to access it and can do so easily.
Finally, ensure the documents are stored safely and accessible for your staff. You could use Google Docs or software designed to help with business process management.
Train your staff
Now is the time to train your team in your optimal workflows. Ensure everyone has read and understands the documented processes. Make sure they know how to access and use any technology or software you’ve purchased. Ideally, you’ll have a couple of team members trained to cover each area of your business, so if someone becomes ill or is unable to work for a while, another team member can easily step in and carry out those responsibilities.
Make your business self-reliant
You want your business to be able to function without you, so it still thrives if you become ill, need a holiday or can’t work for a while. Examine your processes for the areas where the company is still overly reliant on you and look for ways to foster self-reliance. This may mean identifying gaps in your team member’s expertise and hiring new people with complementary skills, working with consultants and outside service providers to fill in gaps, finding new ways to automate workflows or creating an FAQ document.
Final Thoughts
As your business grows and you step away, you’ll need to make sure you have team members who can take over various roles. By reviewing and documenting your processes, automating what you can, and identifying areas where your business is overly reliant on you will be setting yourself up for success.
If you have any questions, feel free to Join the conversation…