How to Make Your Small Business Run More Smoothly in 4 Simple Steps
The steps to making your small business run smoothly will depend greatly on … well, what part of your business is not running smoothly. Crazy concept? More often than not, the cause of something not running smoothly is due to a system or process that’s broken, nonexistent, or inefficient. Even if you're experiencing a “bigger issue”, it's often the result of several smaller issues that have built up over time. And let’s be honest, that’s most things in life.
The answer to this question could be a simple fix, or it could be slightly more complex, but let’s start with this belief - NOTHING is unfixable. I have a display on my desk that reads “Everything is figureoutable”, and in the following explanation, we will lay out the framework for how to take any problem in your business and fix it.
The 4 simple steps to making your small business run more smoothly
Identify the parts of your business that are causing you the most problems.
Is it the paperwork and bills you spend hours after work trying to follow up on?
Is it the communications between you and your staff, or among your staff or contractors?
Is it your vendor relationships?
Is it your immense workload that you can’t get relief from?
Ask yourself how you’d like these pieces to function (Unfortunately, “efficiently” is too simple of an answer here.)
If they are set up in a way that is unclear to you and your employees, then you know where to start.
If there isn't a set process in place, the next step is determining whether the issue calls for an entire system or if a simple process is all that's needed.
I will stop here by explaining what I mean by a system versus a process.
The Difference Between a System Versus a Process
A process is a simple guide, often explained in steps, for how to go about a certain task. For example, if you need your employees to do certain tasks to close the day out, you may display and train them on a 5-10 step “closing” procedure. Step 1. Open the cash drawer and count the cash. Step 2. Log the amount in the POS system. Step 3. Place the cash in the bank envelope and secure in the volt. Etc. etc
A system is multiple processes that work cohesively together for a shared purpose.
For example, in order to help you maintain accurate budgets, you may ensure your software systems are connected to your accounting software, and when your employees are closing you may include a step in there that helps transmit financial information accurately (like how much cash was leftover at closing). When you go to reconcile your books at the end of the month, you have minimal things to fix because your system works cohesively across all parts to provide accurate information.
Determine the most practical solution for fixing the problems.
No doubt, if you’ve been a business owner for more than 5 days, you’ve received tens of calls from folks telling you what you need for your business. The reality is that by doing a brief review of your processes and systems, you can often determine the problem and fix it yourself. In the world of AI, you can often figure out how to solve a problem on your own. But in some cases, hiring someone to help you may be the answer.
What you don’t want to do is immediately assume you need more staff or spend thousands of dollars on software you don’t know how to use. Usually it’s not the issue of needing more, it’s the issue of reconfiguring how you’re currently operating and investing in the correct resources.
Could that be another person? Yes.
Could that be a different software? Yes.
All of these things are possibilities, but without intimately understanding how your company is operating “silently,” you really can’t tackle the root issue. By “operating silently,” we mean the things people are trained to do or do by default that make up how they accomplish their tasks. If these silent operations aren’t clearly laid out, the expectation is that you and/or your employees will figure them out on your own. And we know that people don’t always default to the right way of doing things, because what feels “right” can be subjective to you as the business owner.
And I cannot reiterate enough, you cannot skip from Step 1 to Step 4. None of these steps should be skipped.
Here's why: We often have business owners come to us asking for assistance, and because we love helping people, we usually start learning about their business and understanding their heartaches before they've paid us a dime. What we often find is that business owners assume they know what the issues are because they haven't stopped to think critically about them, which is exactly what Steps 1-3 force you to do.
Instead, they're busy surviving. They're feeling the heartaches and frustrations, but they haven't stopped long enough to determine what the actual problem is. So they assume.
These assumptions are often influenced by other people who don’t care about their business but only care about getting hired by them (hello, most marketing folks, no offense), so then they assume their issue for growth is whatever that last fella said, or whatever the random guy on the internet is telling them they need or they will fail.
Steps 1-3 force you to stop, think about YOUR business and how YOU operate, and then make a determination based on YOUR budget and YOUR own capacity. We know… this isn’t a quick thing, but we promise it is worth your attention for a few hours on a Monday before the work week gets crazy.
Implement the Solution
The final step will be the key to long-term success, and that’s implementing the solution.
There isn’t a best solution, but there is a practical solution. Usually the most practical solution should be simple and sustainable - one that fits within the company budget and your capacity. Once you’ve determined the solution, it’s time to implement.
The most practical solution is one that accomplishes the following:
Works with how you as the business owner best function
Is simple enough that your team AND YOU will follow it
Can be scaled down or up, added to as needed, but has the foundations to be a solution for a long period of time
Is flexible to adjust with the business and doesn’t rely on one particular factor to never change
Action Steps to Make Your Small Business Run More Smoothly
Running a small business more smoothly doesn’t always require a major overhaul. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of taking a step back, identifying what isn’t working, and putting the right systems and processes in place to fix it.
And if you’re not sure where to start or need help putting the right solution in place, we’re here to help. We offer a free 1-hour consultation and we’d love to help YOU.
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