We all like to see our businesses grow. A business strategy of growth is synonymous with greater wealth and more financial security. However when we think about a business growth strategy we normally associate it with increasing sales – after all, increasing sales mean increasing profits right?

We all know cases (sometimes intimately!) where sales have grown, and yet the business profit fails to keep pace, and may even go backward. In fact, many businesses can fail due to their growth – they expand too quickly without having the necessary business processes in place.

So what if I told you that you could grow your business without adding to sales? That there is a way to improve your profit without adding an extra dollar of revenue?

The secret to a successful growth strategy isn’t just through increased sales but through the business processes that you set up. The growth and development of your business will always come back to the systems and procedures that you establish.

There is no better example of this than McDonald’s – after all their business processes are built entirely on developing business procedures that can be implemented by teenagers without adult supervision!

You can learn a valuable lesson from McDonald’s in your own business. Having effective standard procedures in your business leads to increased profits, greater opportunity for growth, reduced errors, lower costs, and greater employee and customer satisfaction. With all this in place, why would you not want to spend time in this important part of your growth strategy?

So what are the key steps to implementing effective business procedures?

1.      Document the best business process in each area. Chances are you already have a system in place, or certainly a best practice in each area of your business. Is it documented? If it isn’t then it will be open to interpretation by each staff member and will evolve of its own accord into something that might not be the most effective way. Everyone doing their own thing will lead to errors and inconsistency for the customer experience.

2.      Maintain the system regularly. A “set and forget” approach to your systems will seldom work. You need to review them regularly to ensure they are as effective as they can be

3.      Check they are being used. It pays to spot check the use of your systems. A regular audit of your business processes will show up inconsistencies in the way the systems are being implemented

4.      Have the staff involved in the process. It’s important there is employee ownership of the standard procedures you are implementing. In this environment, they will buy into what is being achieved, and they will be more likely to follow the procedures.

5.      Automate. In this era of technology, the last thing you need is a large added workload and a collection of dusty manuals sitting on the shelves. There is software available that can take the hassle out of setting up and maintaining your business processes and procedures.

One we particularly like and recommend is Sweet Process which enables you to quickly and easily set up business processes that will help in the growth and development of your business. With Sweet Process you can walk your way through their step by step process for setting up each procedure. You can also add images or videos to help with the documentation process and forward completed procedures to anyone you want to share it with via email.

The other beauty of the Sweet Process system is it lets you track activity for each process so you can see if the correct procedures are being followed. Comments and follow-ups can be added. The process is fully mobile functional and can be accessed online from anywhere.

If you need to develop your business processes by implementing standard procedures as part of your growth strategy, then contact us today to discuss how to get started towards a happier, healthier business.