Top 3 Management Processes that Lay the Foundation for Businesses

When it comes to creating a successful business, you have to have the proper systems and processes in place to ensure that your business is on the right path to becoming efficient and profitable.

Implementing Business Process Management (BPM) into your business is essential to make your company run like a well-oiled machine. The benefits include increased productivity within your team by already having identified processes for crucial aspects of your business, such as customer service. You will also see tasks being completed in a swift and orderly manner. Your time will begin to free up as you no longer scramble to complete important tasks. After all,and it must be used wisely. The most important is that you will see your business thrive as you begin to learn what works and does not work for your business.

If you’re a small business owner, you may struggle to identify and understand all the processes you need to implement that will take away some of the headaches. Some fundamental processes include sales and marketing, product delivery, and product development. If you do not have processes in place for these things, we highly suggest you get them in place because these are the backbone of your business. Without these processes as your foundation, you will waste more time, money, and energy on your business than you need to.

In this article, we want to share five processes that you may not already have in place in your business, but you definitely need to. These processes will build the relationship between you and your team, narrow down your marketing, and deliver your product or service more efficiently.‍

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Planning and Budgeting

You may have a lot of great ideas that you are excited to implement into your business, and your first inclination may be to just do it. The problem with this is that if you carry out new ideas and strategies without planning or budgeting, there is a prime chance that it will fail. Whether it’s marketing related or changes to the product, changes to your business need to be concrete in their planning for successful execution.

First, let’s consider budgeting. You may want to add a product line to your selection or add a new service to your list of existing services. Some things you need to consider are: how much does it cost to produce or execute, what is the expected return on investment, and can you afford to do it at this time.

Once you consider all the cost related aspects you can then assess the timeline of implementing these changes. Most people want to implement fresh changes at the beginning of the year. If all parts and pieces are not in place, then the project will be delayed to the second or third quarter of the year, so you’ll want to consider the availability of assets before setting a date.

Last, you want to consider who will complete or execute these changes. Have all of your team ready and prepared so you can assign tasks to them that will make the execution of the project flawless.

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Assign and Execute

When your plate becomes too full, things overflow off of the plate. There’s nothing worse than a meatball on the floor and the same goes for uncompleted tasks. Look at your company and your employees as a team. You can only eat if everyone plays a role and plays their role well. The best way to do this is to assign and execute.

Write a list of everything you do for your business on a weekly or monthly basis. Of this list, how many of these things can you assign to members of your team? Or how many of these tasks can be automated through online services and systems?

It may be easy to fall into the mindset of needing to do everything yourself. There are two things wrong with this: 1. You use up all of your time in the day with even the tiniest tasks. 2. You pull your hair out trying to complete them.  This will lead to you burning out yourself, which can negatively affect your business.

On a weekly or monthly basis, sit down with your team and look over the tasks and responsibilities for that period. Assign tasks based on everyone’s skill level, availability and interests. From there everyone can execute their task with minimal supervision from you. You will find after doing this that you have a lot more free time that you can put towards other aspects of your business.

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Test and Measure

The procedures that you already have in place may work, but are they bringing you the results you need to take your business to the next level? Too often, businesses remain stagnant in the processes they’ve developed and have been implementing since the beginning of their business. What they don’t realize is that these processes can drain their business of crucial resources such as time and money. Even if your processes are working, how do you know? Do you have the data to justify them? Have you considered that there may be something better?

This is especially important for your marketing, as these are the aspects that you are putting money into hoping to see a return on investment. To measure the success of these advertisements, you have to look at the conversion rates of each piece. How many new customers have you gained by running each piece? There are some marketing tools that can help you track conversion rates for digital marketing, but one of the best ways is to ask the customer directly. With every new customer, ask them,” So, how did you hear about us?” Take this feedback and keep a log of it and examine this log on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.

Examine the aspects of your business that aren’t working. These can be print media ads, pay-per-click ads, or social media advertising. If this aspect has low margins or a low response, you need to pull it, examine it, and find why it’s not working.

Consider the Kill, Examine, Modify method. Go through all of your marketing pieces and determine which ones are working and why they are successful. With all of your failed advertisements, pull them (or kill them) and examine what aspects are not working. Then, using notes from your successful pieces, modify the advertisement to make it better. For more information on creating a marketing plan, visit this page to learn about implementing a 10 x 10 strategy.

You can apply this practice to other aspects of your business that need work. Some examples include if your delivery speeds are optimized for client services. Or, if your data collection system is gathering data and organizing customer information in a timely and planned manner. You may not abandon these practices completely, but you can examine them and the alternatives available.‍

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Be Consistent and Have an Accountability Team

If you take the time to implement these, you will see tremendous changes in your business such as more efficiency, improved teamwork and more revenue. The key is to stay consistent in implementing these processes so you can see results. Sometimes when we start something new, we hope to see results right away, and when this doesn’t happen, we give up and move on to something new. On average, it takes about 3 months to see the effects of changes.

Ideally, you should rely on your team to keep you accountable for implementing these changes and sticking to them. You should do the same for them, all of you working together towards the success of the business.

If you are a business owner without a team or need someone outside of your company to keep you accountable, consider business coaching as an effective way to keep you on track towards your goals. Or, if you’re having trouble implementing some of these processes into your business, coaching could be a practical change that will make all the difference in your business and personal life.

Having a coach ensures that you set practical goals that are attainable and measurable. You can bounce ideas off of them and they can challenge your existing beliefs with the goals of finding the best solutions for your business. They can then guide you along your journey to complete those goals, giving you the support you need along the way. One of the best parts about having a coach is that they help you develop your business so that it runs efficiently even without you intervening. This means your business will operate with the aforementioned processes in place, while you have time to develop your business or invest into new ones, becoming a true entrepreneur.

For more information contact Business Coach, Tim Campsall of TBC ActionCOACH to take advantage of our complimentary coaching strategy session. Or, visit this link to read testimonials of past clients and how TBC ActionCOACH had a positive impact on their business.