Business Focus Area #1 - Processes

We recently posted "If You Want Business Success in 2021, Focus on These 4 Areas of Your Business" where we suggested that SMBs focus on People, Processes, Systems, and Structure to both organize and prioritize their respective workloads. If you can spot one of those areas that needs the most attention, go ahead and focus on that first. Otherwise, we suggest that you start with "Processes".

We need to take a step back and first list your Goals, then we can define the Processes that support those Goals. For the sake of this exercise, the Goals can be qualitative or general in nature. So "increase sales" or "hire great staff" is fine for now. Later you'll want get more granular, and apply the SMART acronym to goal-setting, but that's an entirely different discussion. For now, let's focus on the "framework" of your business success. And "Processes" is a great place to start.

Next, think about the things you do to achieve those Goals, and how you go about it. That's the essence of your Process. Now, think about and list the discrete actions that you take, or the milestones that are achieved during this Process. Within it, they will be referred to as "stages". For the sake of example, let's assume that your business is a service that relies on providing estimates and pitching your proposal to get "jobs" or "projects". The "stages" of such a process might include:

1. Lead identified.
2. Lead contacted and qualified.
3. Estimate/Proposal completed.
4. Client accepts estimate/proposal. (Project Won)
5. Client rejects estimate/proposal. (Project Lost)
6. Contract or agreement is executed.
7. Deposit received.
8. Work started.
9. Project Stalled.
10. Work completed.
11. Final Inspection.
12. Payment Received.

Although these "stages" are listed in an approximate sequential order, recognize that for any given project, it might currently be in almost any of the "stages" or move in unusual steps between "stages". These Processes can be described by various terms including "Funnels", "Pipelines" or "FlyWheels", especially when they are used within the context of sales, business development, customer engagement, etc. But no matter what it's called, it represents a consistent, repeatable method towards accomplishing Goals.

And identifying and establishing these Processes can be applied to many, many facets of SMB including:

• Human Resources
• Hiring
• Training
• Discipline and Separation.
• Advertising and Promotion Campaigns
• Social media management
• Blogging
• Advertising 
• Customer Engagement and Loyalty
• Events Management
• Real Estate
• Fundraising
• Etc, etc, etc.

The "Business Focus Area #1 - Processes" work required is straightforward, but will still require thought and time:

1. Identify which Processes to focus on.
2. Think through the workflow and/or customer flow.
3. Lay out the "Stages" of each Process.

This work is absolutely worth it, because well defined Processes are the easiest to automate and make more efficient and effective.

You'll see how in our next post in this series, entitled "Business Focus Area #2 - Systems"