The statistics are staggering. Nine out of ten startups will fail.
Let’s focus on the 10 percent of business owners who succeed. What causes their success?
In short, they recognize that inefficiences can be the death of their business. Many inefficiencies are hiding in paper-based processes and in not having processes at all.
Processes don’t have to be complex to be effective, such as setting up a way to follow up with prospects or setting up a consistent meeting to review your financial status.
Setting up processes may seem time consuming at first, but over time can make a real difference. One of my clients reviewed the processes she was performing regularly and how she could systematize it.
In reviewing her day, she noticed that she sent similar replies to inquiries. She created a simple response document that she could cut and paste replies into her response. She estimated that it saved her at least 15 minutes per email. As a next step, she looked into how her process might be automated without losing the personal touch.
As a business owner, you can’t do it all if you intend to scale your business. Select an important process to improve, such as a process that would result in a big lift to your bottom line.
Enroll your team in documenting the process. When you identify the process on paper or in your operations manual, this will also save you training time when you bring on new team members.
Documenting a process will also help you see how it could be done differently. Regardless of the complexity of the process, be sure to identify who is responsible for each step.
What separates best-in-class companies from the rest is creating a culture of process improvement. No matter what your industry, continuous improvement is one of the best kept secrets to sustainable success.
Your Excellerator Challenge: What process could you improve this week?
P.S. Watch out for our new app that will radically change how you get things accomplished (and in alignment with your Contribution in the World).
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