“Does your business only work if you do?” In his book Clockwork, Mike Michalowicz discusses how entrepreneurs can define their most important function and make their businesses work for them.
Curtis McHale, a fellow reader of Clockwork, discusses one of his takeaways, “What we miss there is that more hours does not equate to more value creation. As we put in more hours we often are giving our least optimal brain power towards the tasks we’re doing. We’re so worn out from the hours that many of them are junk.”
Our business model is to help business owners scale and grow, so we were excited to see how Michalowicz breaks down his strategy. One way it has helped Process Partners is by helping us identify the Queen Bee Role!
What’s the Queen Bee Role & How Do I Find It?
One of the crucial parts of streamlining your business is deciding what the main role of your entire business is. Michalowicz calls this the Queen Bee Role (QBR). Your organization’s QBR is the key function upon which your business success hinges. What is the one thing that needs to happen regularly for your business to be successful?
To find your QBR, Michalowicz walks readers through an exercise with sticky notes:
- Write the top 6 important tasks your business needs for success
- Take 2 of the tasks away
- Take 2 more away
- Take 1 away
What’s left? The thing left over is your QBR.
What Do I Do with the QBR?
Now that you’ve found your QBR, defend it. This means prioritizing it and supporting it. Every person on the team must protect and serve the QBR as a top priority. Continue to trash, transfer, and trim items to allow more focus, time, and energy to support your QBR. Once you find a rhythm in proactively and successfully carrying out your company’s QBR, your team can return to their primary roles while still keeping the QBR in mind.
Remember, the QBR is the main function of your business. The QBR must be delivered regularly and consistently because your company’s profits and reputation depend on it.
What’s ACDC & How Does it Relate to QBR?
Every business has 4 essential functions that Michalowicz refers to as ACDC.
The ACDC model stands for the following:
- Attract: Attract business, clients, views, etc. This refers to marketing.
- Convert: Convert leads to clients or customers. AKA sales.
- Deliver: Deliver whatever you sell to the customer. This is essentially your operations process.
- Collect: Collect your profits, testimonials, etc.
To systemize your operations, key tasks in each of the 4 essential functions should be documented. Remember, the goal is to always defend the QBR. So, by creating an efficient and effective training strategy, you ultimately make sure tasks are delegated and completed while your company as a whole focuses on the QBR. Document your policies and processes, make the training videos, organize it all together in a way that your team can use it as a reference, and then watch your business begin to work without you (the business owner).
