Why successful businesses care about operations
We are all in business to generate a healthy profit at the end of the day and for good reason. As CEO of your business, you are looking at revenue, return on investment, take-home profits, etc., on a regular basis as you should be. However, eventually, even the healthiest business might get stuck and plateau. They have trouble reaching certain revenue goals and find profit margins dipping lower.
Many business owners feel it might be sales or team that is the issue. However, if the back-end operations are not in order, that can cause the backslide. How tight a business’s operations are will drive that organization’s ability (or inability) to quickly scale.
When your operations aren’t in check, functions will feel sluggish and redundant and you start to notice frustration from team members. The more this happens, the slower your business will be to adjust, grow and scale.
What are Business Operations?
Operations are a huge part of your business. This term encompasses all the activities you do in your business day to day to earn a profit. It’s the back-end, behind-the-scenes work that allows you to deliver your product or service to paying customers.
Operations can include the systems and software that you use as well as the people in the organization and their individual tasks or roles. As an example, a sales team operations would include behind-the-scenes steps to onboard the new customer. Operations aren’t any of the front-facing activities in a business.
Increase Efficiency
Systems and software we have available to us allows for more efficiency, as long as we’re using them correctly. The more hands off you can be with a system, the less errors there will be in the process – and the more time you will save.
This requires setting up workflows and automations that don’t rely on you or a team member to complete the task, mark things complete, double-check work, or notify the next person in the workflow.
Document Systems
Documented systems let everyone know who is responsible for which part of the project and how it needs to get done. Taking this a step further having these systems stored in a project management tool allows you and your team to complete routine tasks and projects with minimal back-and-forth. The software can automatically notify the next person in the workflow and allow you to communicate with one another easily. This becomes even more important as your team grows and begins working on multi-step projects.
Train Teams
I have to take a minute to point out what may seem obvious, but is sometimes forgotten. Systems won’t help your business if your team isn’t using them. Each team member needs to be trained on the systems that impact their roles, and they need to know exactly what can happen when the optimal process isn’t followed.
For example, a team that handles the publishing of new content (social media post, blog post, podcast recording etc.) can’t do its job until the content has been written, recorded, and/or edited. Every stage of the process depends on another team or team member – this is what we refer to as a “dependency” in project management. If a team member is waiting for their supervisor to approve something or waiting for the next stage in the process to be complete, work comes to a standstill until that happens.
Elevate Financials
The truth is that healthy financials in business are of utmost importance. Without the cash flow to stay ahead, even the best systems and team members won’t keep the lights on or provide the opportunity for growth. I encourage you to elevate the importance of reviewing financials in your business by setting aside dedicated time each month to review the numbers.
This is much more important than “just another administrative task”. The bottom line is that your financials inform the rest of your business. They’ll let you know when and how to hire, at what price point you hit profit, and at what step of the process you could be leaving money on the table. Financials aren’t just another item to check off in your business; they’re vital to its ability to thrive, grow and scale.
If there is one thing you remember from this post, let it be this: you already have operations in your business, no matter how large or small your business is. If you’re feeling all over the place, inefficient operations could be the reason why. Making operations the main thing and incorporating it into every other corner of your business is the key to growing your business beyond your wildest dreams.
