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Automate Your Business This section of our site is easily one of the most
important to the small business owner. Automating your
business is probably one of the most rewarding and time-saving
things a small business owner can do.
Once your business is automated, the business can
"run itself" to a certain degree, allowing
the business owner to concentrate on marketing and sales,
improving processes, new product development or to simply
to take a "real" vacation! Automation
is key.
What Does "Automating
Your Business" Mean?
By "automating your
business" we don't mean having a supercomputer
process orders, do sales calls, handle accounting and
handle customer service. We do mean, however,
that you should have a process for doing
these tasks in your business.
This process should
be well documented and should be able to be understood
by anyone you hire (or yourself) for that particular
task. In fact, there should be a process for running
your entire business, a "Business Operations Manual"
that we will discuss further below.
Why
is "Automating Your Business" Important? The most consistently successful type of business
is the franchise. You see them all around you: McDonald's, Orkin,
Pep Boys, H&R Block, 99 Cents Store, Jiffy Lube,
etc. These businesses almost always succeed no
matter where they are opened or who runs them. Why
is this?
Because each of these franchises have a "franchise
manual" and training program that allows virtually
anyone to learn their internal processes and deliver
a consistently good product or service. Everything you
need to know to run that particular business, from
hiring
employees to marketing and sales is written down in
the "franchise manual".
This is an important lesson for the small business
owner. Even if you never intend to expand to other
locations or open up multiple offices, a well-documented
"Business Operations Manual" for your company
can help you do several things:
- Easier management and growth; you can focus
on perfecting your product or services and processes
while employees do the day-to-day tasks.
- Hire staff with relatively little experience,
they simply follow the tasks outlined in your "Business
Operations Manual".
- Focus on marketing and sales.
- Focus on "Big Picture" things instead
of being overwhelmed by repetitive daily tasks.
- Take a real vacation!
How Do I Start Automating
My Business?
We'll assume you already
know how to deliver the product or service you sell.
The next step is to create a "Business Operations
Manual" using the following steps.
1.
Determine How Large You Would Like Your Business to
be in 1 to 3 Years.
Do you want to run a 3 person shop or have 100 employees?
How big do you think your business can grow and
do you want it to grow that big? How much revenue
and how many employees? Determining how large your
business will be in the near future allows you to get
an overall sense of the next step.
2. Create an Organizational Chart for Your Company
With a general idea of
how large you want your company in the next few years,
create an organizational chart that details what tasks
will need to be performed on a daily basis. Examples
include sales associate, marketing manager, vice-president
of sales & marketing, accounts payable and receivable
clerk, retail clerk, forklift operator, operations manager,
financial manager, etc.
Once you know which tasks need to be filled, create
a detailed job description for each that lists
that job's daily, weekly and monthly tasks and
responsibilities; also include whom they report to.
With this organizational chart, you can see exactly
who you need to hire and what their job responsibilities
will be. You don't necessarily need to hire for these
jobs immediately. Truth-be-told, you will
probably be doing most or all of these jobs for now.
Just keep your organizational chart as an overall
vision of how you would like the company to eventually
be structured.
3.
Create a "Business Operations Manual" Now that you know the general structure of your business,
begin creating your "Business Operations Manual"
knowing that there are specific job descriptions for
each part of your business.
Creating your Business Operations Manual can be a
difficult process, and every company's manual will
be
different. Remember, you want to create a manual
that will allow a complete stranger to take over the
operation of your company. Every daily, weekly,
monthly, quarterly and yearly procedure must be outlined
for every employee. Every process must be detailed
step-by-step including opening and closing procedures,
order handling, sales calls, customer service, etc.
Below, we've provided a basic outline of a Business
Operations Manual.
1. Introduction, Letter from the Founder
2. Organizational
Chart
3. Employee Information (protocol, contact
#'s, etc.)
4. Human Resources (hiring/firing, vacations,
overtime, payroll, etc.)
5. Products & Services
a.
The Industry
b. The Organization
c. Business Management
d.
Daily Operating Procedures
e.
End of Week, End of Month, End of Quarter and End of
Year Procedures
6. Sales Policies and Procedures
7.
Customer Service Policies and Procedures
8. Advertising
& Promotion
9. Reports & Records (business
reports, keeping records, etc.)
10. Safety &
Security
11. Maintenance & Repair
12. Legal
Matters
4. Use and Maintain Your Business Operations Manual
There's no use in creating a Business Operations
Manual if you don't use and maintain it properly. Make
sure to update any changes in policy, processes or procedures
immediately in your manual.
Also, continually work on simplifying and refining
your manual to make it as easy as possible to understand:
group similar topics together, color-code different
sections, integrate procedures from computer software,
fax machines, etc.
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