Tips to Evaluate and Improve Your Business Systems & Processes

Tuesday, February 9, 2021 at 9:25 am in
staff following standard operating procedure

Every business has its own unique circumstances and there are no hard and fast rules that apply to all organizations. There are, however, best practices that apply across many industries.

Business systems and processes are the most important operational aspects that an organization must get right in order to scale efficiently and succeed well into the future. According to Inc., “Underdeveloped work processes are the most common risk factor for growing companies and are the first thing that will crater a company in tough economic conditions.”

Some of the most successful businesses are today’s most popular franchises, including McDonald’s, 7-Eleven, Dunkin’, The UPS Store, and Super Cuts. This is due in large part to their rigorously tested and disciplined processes and systems. It’s also worth noting that public and private sources of capital place a high value on autonomous businesses.

Here are some of the best practices that we’ve utilized in evaluating and improving business systems.

•    View your entire company as a system. All routine and repeated duties are able to be systemized and documented as standard operating procedures (SOPs). Include staff training, marketing, inventory and cash management, etc. in your SOPs. When developing processes and systems it is a common mistake to only consider the direct steps in delivering your product to the customer.
•    Know your costs. We can’t emphasize this enough. Without the exact knowledge of your cost of doing business, no prudent decisions can be made. Period.
•    Leverage software. Ensure that you are utilizing your current software in ways that best suit your systems. If you have had your current software for many years, there have likely been updates that have made the program better. Furthermore, you may not be using the full functionality of the software. Consider contacting the software company to request a refresher course and a Q&A session for your team. 
•    Evaluate supervisors. Are the staff members you have appointed to lead each system capable of completing their assignments at a high level without your involvement? Are they well respected and thought leaders in your organization? Are they continuously providing valuable insight for process improvement? You may need to communicate your need for them to fulfill those roles. If they are not capable then it is time to assign the leadership role to someone else.
•    Ask for recommendations from your staff. There may be a lot of insight to gain from your front-line workers that are active in the day-to-day operations. Be sure to solicit feedback in a welcoming, safe, and non-judgmental environment. When the opinions of your employees matter to you, they will likely strive for improvement naturally.
•    Get curious and creative. Visit businesses in your local market or online that offer a similar product or service and try to understand how their systems are designed. Keep an open mind and tap into your creativity. Consider what aspects make their systems better or worse than yours.
•    Test. Test. Test. Choose a time, before a shift or during a down time, to test the new process with all of the team members that will be working with the new system. Perform multiple iterations and continuously solicit feedback and suggestions.
•    Document everything. Once testing is completed, document the entire process and include in your SOPs. Every routine process in your organization should be thoroughly documented.
•    Train with emphasis on discipline. Ensure that the SOPs for each task are followed exactly as written. This will ensure that your business is running exactly as intended.

To explore any of these points in greater detail, contact Small Axe Consulting here and book a free discovery session online.