I’ve met with clients across different industries and one thing comes up over and over that would drive me crazy. One day after stepping back and reviewing my business processes, I realized I was doing the same thing. Hopefully when you started your business you established processes. These would allow you to do the work in the most efficient way possible, and make your growth process easier since training a new member of your team is as simple as training them in the processes that apply to their part of the work. As you grow, and as things like technology change those processes should also change to keep up with the times.
We’ve always done it that way
So if you hadn’t yet guessed, it’s the “we’ve always done it that way” phrase that constantly comes up. I would see a process someone is doing that seems inefficient and when I asked why they did it that was always the answer. A good employee that has a good understanding of how your business operates might bring something up to your attention when they see a process that seems inefficient. However most employees won’t do so. They are there to do a task, whatever task you put them in charge of doing and collecting a pay check. It’s not their hob or responsibility to make your business efficient. You might expect a manager to fix this, but even managers are only there to manage the people you put them in charge of, and make sure those people are doing the tasks assigned to them. Unless you explicitly hired them to do so, they are not going to be managing your business processes, with some exceptions of course.
Work on your business not in it
There comes a point where even if your are still just self employed a one person shop, you need to step back and stop working in your business to work on it. This is where you look at your business processes and figure out if they are actually working for you. Look at individual tasks and ask yourself, is this the best way to do it? Is there a way to do it faster, or better? Are there any new tools that can help facilitate the process or even automate it?