The most valuable method for growing your business is a solid strategy that utilizes best practices and proven efficiency processes. Resolve Works is a small business accounting firm based out of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. We utilize a team of experts in accounting, analysis, operations, and strategic planning to help your business succeed. Can you increase profits without increasing revenue? Absolutely! Training, turnover, mistakes, and process inconsistencies increase your costs substantially. Our experts can help you identify and eliminate unnecessary operating costs and help you improve your profit margins. Let’s examine how standard procedures can facilitate the growth of your business.
Why Your Business Needs Process Standardization
The absence of standard procedures breeds inefficiency, errors, conflict, and hinders your ability to focus on sales and growth strategies. Many businesses are on autopilot and may do something because it’s just the way it has always been done. Or worse, they make up a new way of doing business every day. Since nothing is documented or formalized, employees need to rethink the processes every time they do it. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, employees are asking questions like, “Where do I get that information, again?” or, “What are the steps I need to take to complete this?” or “Who is the right person to deliver my results to?” This process is a burden on operational efficiency. Instead of doing the work with a systemized process, employees are tasked with re-inventing the process each an every time.
Developing Your Procedures For Peak Operating Efficiency
An important step for developing your standard operating procedures is critically thinking about why something is done in a particular way. The first step is for the leadership team to conduct an initial assessment of operating inefficiencies and areas of opportunity. You must have a feel for who is responsible for what and how they accomplish the tasks. An initial analysis of your current operations can help you discover opportunities for best business practices to ensure proper utilization and efficiency.
After the initial analysis of current processes is complete, the Leadership Team should work with key employees to define the best practices for each department. Each division in your company should have their own a standard operating procedure in place. When preparing your procedures, include your key departments such as human resources, training, accounting, IT, sales, purchasing, warehouse, distribution, and customer service. It’s a good idea to have key members of each department involved in developing the procedures. After all, they are most familiar with the day-to-day work. Each department should identify the procedures that are the most critical to their department and start documenting those processes first. It’s a good idea to follow the 80/20 rule, i.e., document the 20% of the procedures that will get you 80% of the results. No need to create a 500-page procedure manual. The process of creating standard procedures can often help you uncover hidden inefficiencies in your normal “way” of doing business and also gets your team on the same page as they discuss and agree on the best way to operate the department going forward. This discovery effort is a cost-effective way to streamline the entire process and eliminate inefficiencies from the day-to-day workflow. It also gives your employees a sense of ownership and accountability because they were involved in the creation process.
Implementation and Employee Response
When your blueprint for standard procedures has been finalized, it’s time to document everything. The company should have a procedures manual applicable to the entire organization, and broken down by division. Remember again the 80/20 rule. Document 20% of the procedures that get you 80% of the results. When employees have negative reactions to standard procedures and documentation, it often means the procedure is not practical or too difficult to follow. Once all of your procedures have been finalized, it’s a good idea to store the final procedures manual in a cloud-based environment so it’s easily accessible by everyone. For recurring projects, it's also a good idea to use a project management tool to create recurring checklists for tasks that will happen repeatedly.
Continual Improvement and Analysis
Once you have your standard procedures in place, the work doesn’t stop there. Modern business environments are fast-paced and constantly changing, requiring ongoing auditing of processes and procedures to ensure they are the most effective. A standard operating procedure has to evolve organically in tangent with your evolving business needs. Using a small business accounting company with a focus on operations can help with the strategic planning of your standardization efforts.
Small Business Strategic Planning Services In the Twin Cities
Implement standard procedures and start growing your business today with Resolve Works. We are a Minneapolis-based small business accounting firm highly specialized in operations, strategic planning, bookkeeping, and controller services. Call our professional team today at 612-293-9368, or you can message us at info@resolve-works.com.
