Growing your small business can be tricky. In fact, rapid growth can actually harm your company if you don’t plan properly. When you are first starting out, for instance, you may not have the revenue to hire the staff needed to handle the increased business that rapid growth brings, and trying to do everything on your own is neither effective nor efficient.
At the same time, if your operation isn’t scaled properly, rapid growth can cause your costs and workload to quickly reach unmanageable levels, making growth unsustainable and even causing your company to implode. Fortunately, using a combination of outsourcing, processes, and technology, even the smallest operation can maximize growth, while keeping costs and workload at sustainable levels.
At LCO Law, we will support you to incorporate the systems, processes, and technology to ensure your business is positioned properly for rapid, sustainable growth. To get your growth started off on the right track, consider implementing the following strategies related to outsourcing, systems, and technology.
OUTSOURCING
If you don’t currently have administrative support, consider getting immediate assistance with answering the phones and managing new customer intake and/or new product sales. Intake and basic customer service are repeatable processes that you can easily train someone else to handle and free up your time considerably.
If you’re first starting out, it can be tempting to try to do everything yourself. But trying to handle everything on your own will not only cause you to burn out, but it can also cause you to neglect your core responsibilities as your company’s leader and visionary.
This is where outsourcing and delegation come in. To begin, we recommend you conduct a two-week time study, in which you track every single thing you do for two weeks, from the minute you wake up until the minute you go to sleep.
Out of the tasks that fall into these three categories, are there any that you could outsource or delegate to someone else? Remember, hiring is your #1 growth strategy—you can always make more money, but you cannot make more time.
TECHNOLOGY
Today’s business technology solutions allow even the smallest operations to achieve incredible growth with minimal staff and infrastructure. Many tasks that used to take multiple people can now be completely automated, allowing you to not only increase efficiency but also enhance the experience for your customers.
When you look at your weekly list from above, see if there are tasks that can be accomplished by a technological system rather than a person. There are numerous business programs and apps available to help you with a wide array of office tasks.
Frustrated with the difficulty or speed of locating customer records or information? Try using a content management system. Overwhelmed by the creation and maintenance of too many paper files? Consider moving to a paperless office to free up your team’s time—and yours.
PROCESSES
Take a good look at how your business is operating. Have you implemented processes like standard operating procedures to make the repeating tasks in your company as efficient as possible? If not, it’s easy to constantly reinvent the wheel with certain aspects of managing your company, causing you to lose valuable time and lots of potential income.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are detailed instructions describing the procedures for carrying out recurring business tasks. At first, creating SOPs for your company’s processes might not seem very important. After all, if it’s just you and a couple of other people doing all the work, creating step-by-step instructions for each key task might seem like a waste of time.
However, SOPs are critical for productivity and efficiency, and they can save your business both time and money in the long run. SOPs are also essential for growth, as they allow you to replicate key processes on a larger scale. Moreover, standardization facilitates training and helps ensure that your operation won’t come to a standstill if you lose a key team member.
LEGAL, INSURANCE, TAX, AND FINANCIAL SYSTEMS
Even if you’ve implemented processes, technology, and outsourcing to efficiently deliver your core product or service and maximize growth, your company is still at risk if it doesn’t have effective legal, insurance, tax, and financial (LIFT) systems. In fact, without solid LIFT systems, your business is just one accident, audit, or lawsuit away from ruin.
The LIFT Foundation System and Toolkit from us is specifically designed to help you integrate these cornerstone systems into your operations and provide your company with an unshakable LIFT foundation. To see how stable your LIFT foundation is right now, contact me to take the free LIFT 20-Point Assessment.
This assessment will highlight the gaps in your current LIFT foundation that need the most attention. From there, you can meet with me, Natalia Ouellette to conduct a more thorough audit and implement the full LIFT Foundation System and Toolkit.
If you’re ready to create the growth in your business that you’ve always dreamed of, schedule your two-hour LIFT foundation strategy session by calling 813-480-2309.