What would it take to streamline and document your processes? The whole point in streamlining your business and training employees for efficiency is to build a company that can run independently. In his book Clockwork, Mike Michalowicz asks business owners, “Does your business only work if you do?” Unfortunately, most small business owners traded their 9-5 for a 24/7, and that is not sustainable.
How Do You Streamline Your Business?
Michalowicz discusses how business owners can streamline their businesses through the following steps:
- 4D Mix: The first step in streamlining your business is determining if an entrepreneur is DOING too much.
- Trash, Transfer, Trim, or Treasure: The next step to streamline your business is to make your processes and systems more efficient.
- Queen Bee Role (QBR): The third step in streamlining your business is to determine your business’s main function and determine how to best serve that role.
Once you’ve completed the above steps, you’ll want to train your team on the most efficient processes. We suggest creating video training and documenting those tasks in a digital format. As a result, team members will have access to reference them at any time. Through video and detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs), you’ll never have to explain how to perform the task again.
Can You Take a 4-week Vacation?
The true test of a business operating independently of the owner is to get the owner away for a month. It’s time to plan for a 4-week vacation. Michalowicz says the process leading up to a 4-week vacation is slow. We’re talking 18 months of planning here! He suggests that business owners plan milestones and mini-vacations over 18 months. Owners can use this time to prepare their team (and themselves) to run the company without the business owner on-site.
Start by leaving the office one day per week or for an extended weekend. If anything goes wrong, treat it as an opportunity to refine your systems. Continue to trim, trash, and transfer until you and your team get it right.
Continue leaving the office for more and more time as you work your way up to being able to take four weeks off without any issues. The objective is to train your team to manage their tasks without your help. If they have questions, they need to know how to refer back to the training–this is where the video training in a digital operations manual becomes super helpful.
Do you need help analyzing your operational procedures and processes or creating a digital operations manual? We have a team dedicated to acting as a fractional COO for your company to do just that! Schedule a 15-minute consultation with Erin to see how we can help analyze business processes and set you up to train your team effectively!
