OWNERS LIKE YOU --- Attainable Scaling
The Relentless Pursuit of Cutting-Edge Administrative Efficiency
OWNERS LIKE YOU --- Attainable Scaling
The Relentless Pursuit of Cutting-Edge Administrative Efficiency
You May be Thinking...
Things that can improve your chances of finding the perfect candidate include leveraging your network, offering flexibility that fits your business, evaluating your culture and your benefit package, being visible in community involvement, and much more. Recruiting goes far beyond the ad.
Most business owners have felt this way. The goal of a business is to provide the founder with income to fuel their life. If you do not feel safe using your income to enjoy your life, something is wrong with the current processes, or there is a lack of trust and transparency among the team and with the leadership. The ultimate goal is to retire and have the company still furnish equity and income. You can build a legacy business, but it takes efficient processes, and a dedication to change and delegation.
Thanks to technology, you can collect data on everything! If you feel blind about a decision, this means it's time to figure out what data you need and how you can collect it. Investing in access to the right data is invaluable.
More revenue = more workload. If you can't take on more work, it's time to investigate the bottlenecks in your processes.
Larger clients = larger requirements. It may be that you can find ways to have your company "dress the part" of a business that can support larger clients. This can be as simple as having a book of ethical policies that many larger companies require to do business. Maybe offering smoother banking transactions, or e-signatures will make the difference.
No one wants to spend an entire day doing something they don't get excited by or find joy in. You built this business for a reason. Perhaps improving your systems will improve everyone's morale. If you're ready to retire or move on to a new project, it may be time to create and implement a succession plan.
Administrative and customer service problems almost always trace back to poor training practices. A documented procedure with clear expectations is invaluable. This includes the onboarding from HR's standpoint, the policies and SOPs that are needed, clear job descriptions and role definitions and an understandable chain of command.
Small businesses that hire sparsely as needed often develop a horizontal structure where everyone is their own boss and knows everyone else's job. That's fine when you have less than 5 employees. With growth comes a need to verticalize and create clear departments in order to support internal needs and serve more or larger clients effectively.
While everyone should feel valued and important, no one should be so completely indispensable that they cannot take time off work (or be terminated if necessary). Everyone should have a backup who can cover their role. Written SOPs and job descriptions also have a crucial role to play in this. An SOP should be so clear that someone who has never done the job before should be able to walk in and follow the instructions successfully.
Whether this is poor file systems and file maintenance or a result of bottlenecks such as requiring verbal or written approval or waiting for "the person with the key/password/etc." this is one of the biggest pain points for admin staff, and one of the easiest to fix.
If you think this every time you go through a process, chances are other people have to...and someone has already come up with a solution. Software systems have user forums that can be very helpful. Perhaps the solution is updating the software, or upgrading your license level. Maybe a training class can teach your staff the optimal way to do "the thing".
As mentioned above regarding data, manual bottlenecks are a huge pain point. We live in an age of affordable technology that often includes automated workflows to reduce or remove these bottlenecks. Businesses have to take advantage of this technology in order to compete today.
Always ask yourself if there is a better way. Can one software program be used better? Can an ancillary program be purchased whose job is to communicate between non-linked programs? Does this information need to be entered manually?
While each team member should feel empowered to organize their tasks each day in a way that works for them, each team, department, and the company as a whole should have clear goals that they are aligned on. Project management is invaluable in this regard.
As a business, everyone should be on the same team, even when it comes to fun competition such as sales teams might sponsor. Everyone should be able to trust the information they're getting and feel that the workplace is a "safe place" in that it is not a hotbed of stressors. This is a case for great company culture and making sure you attract the right team members.
The key to growth is in forecasting and preparation. If all decisions are made as reactions to sudden issues, sustainable scaling will never occur. This type of culture will also lead to increased levels of burnout and turnover.
Do NOT overlook this red flag. If customer service is in anyway dropping the ball, there are clear issues that have to be addressed. Seek professional help now!
Discover. Efficient. Essential.
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