Table of Contents
Chapter 1:
Systemization – An Overview and Benefits
·
What is Systemization
·
Why You Need to Systemize Your Online
Business
Chapter 2:
Begin from the Start – Making a List of Most Recurring Tasks
·
Step 1: Identifying Recurring Tasks
·
Step 2: Organizing and Prioritizing the
Functions
·
Step 3: Developing Policies and
Procedures
·
Step 4: Documenting the Processes
·
Step 5: Implement the Processes
·
Step 6: Diagram the Flow of Your
Business
Chapter 3:
Systemization Tools for Your Online Business
·
Asana
·
Ontraport
·
Slack
·
Deadline Funnel
·
Lead Pages
·
Calendly
·
GoToWebinar
·
DropBox
·
Google Docs
·
Google Calendar
·
Webinar Jam
·
Screencast-o-Matic
·
HootSuite
·
Infusionsoft
·
MailChimp
·
Needls
·
Salesforce
·
IFTTT
Chapter 4:
Documenting Your Processes – Creating SOPs
·
How to Document Your Business Systems
·
Develop Naming Conventions
·
Writing Your First Procedure
·
Numbering the Steps in the Procedure
·
Creating the Action Steps for Your
Processes
·
Implementing Your New Standard Operating
Procedures
·
Get Employee Buy-In
Chapter 5:
Outsourcing Your Tasks Effectively
·
Step 1: Identify Your Outsourcing Task
·
Step 2: Write Your Project Description
·
Step 3: Eliminate Unqualified Bids
·
Step 4: Pick 3 to 5 Qualified Candidates
·
Step 5: Pick the Most Qualified
Freelancer
Chapter 6:
Automation Tools for Systemization
·
Zapier
·
Flow
·
Pipedrive
·
TextExpander
·
Alfred
·
IFTTT
·
Shortcat
·
Robotask
·
Tallyfy
·
Intercom
·
Delivra
·
Autopilot
·
mHelpDesk
Chapter 7:
Scale-Up Your Business to the Next Level
·
Create the Right Strategic Plan
·
Measure Effectiveness with Accounting
·
Focus on Sales and Marketing
·
Five Steps to Build a Baseline
Lead-Generation System
·
Implementing Marketing Controls
·
Hire the Right People
Systemization
– An Overview and Benefits
The Internet has changed the way people think about
companies, especially when it comes to owning a small business. Millions of
people have tried to start an online business, with many of them finding
success. While there are several reasons why one might fail to get their online
business off the ground, one of the main reasons is because the owner was
unable to systemize the company and utilize the available resources.
People who have found success with their online
business know that they need a great idea, as well as the resources to
cultivate a customer base for that great idea. They also understand that the
same daily activities that are done in a brick and mortar business, also apply
to an online business. They know that they will need to take the necessary
steps to either learn those skills or outsource them to trusted and reliable
sources is about combining the vision with the practicalities of the business
world to become successful. The process of systemization is no great mystery.
It is possible to learn how to effectively systemize your business and position
yourself to run a successful online business that makes a profit on a
consistent basis.
What is
Systemization?
Many online business owners, when they hear the
word “systemization,” turn to the idea of an endless array of meetings that create
a ton of action items that must be followed up on at the next meeting so even
more action items can be created. In short, people believe
that systemization is nothing more than an ongoing, convoluted series of
processes that only make running a business more complicated. This couldn’t be
further from the truth.
Having a systemized business doesn’t mean that
you’ll be caught up in so many policies and procedures that you lose all
ability to work on anything productive and it’s not about filling time or
creating the illusion of being busy. Systemization is not about creating a
machine and being dominated by that machine. Systemizing your business doesn’t
have to be complicated.
True systemization is about creating a stable
functioning procedure that knows what needs to be done, has a way to do it, and
gets the job done. When you have a truly systemized business, you free up more
of your time to focus on more important aspects of your business, like
marketing, strategy, and product creation.
When your company is systemized correctly,
the procedures make sense and always have a purpose. With systemization,
everyone in the business knows what to do and when to do it. There are no
endless meetings to deal with, no complicated policies to follow, and no time wasted
with spinning the wheels.
This isn't to say that all the processes within an
adequately systemized business are going to be fun. However, when organized
properly, the tasks can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, leaving
the rest of the day to work on something more interesting, like converting more
prospects to buying customers, creating a new product line, or writing new
sales copy. True business systemization, frees you, while a lack of
systemization creates endless work and stifles your ability to succeed.
Why You
Need to Systemize Your Online Business?
There are many benefits that you can gain by
systemizing your online business. With a sound system, people in your
organization have a clear understanding of the work they need to perform and
what is expected of them. Without policies, there are many unanswered
questions, and quality and service can’t be guaranteed. Now that you understand
why it's good to have a systemized business let's explore the benefits that you
can gain.
Reduce Costs
Managing your email
inbox or reading through piles of mail isn't the most efficient use of your
time. As the business owner, your time would be better spent analyzing new
business opportunities or developing new product lines. Delegating many of the
days to day tasks that are required to run a business, can free up your time so
you can focus your energy on the activities that will allow you to grow your
business and increase revenues.
Without clearly documented business procedures, you
can’t delegate those daily tasks that eat up most of your time. By recording
your processes, you can easily delegate tasks knowing that they will be done
correctly, allowing you to free up your time to oversee more projects, which
brings in more revenue for your growing business.
Increase Efficiency
Documenting procedures allows you to discover any
unnecessary steps that you may be taking. When you record your systems, you
provide yourself with the opportunity to improve the process, which can result
in cutting costs and freeing up your valuable time to grow
your business. It can also help you complete tasks with fewer mistakes. Taking
the time to document new procedures and re-document existing procedures can
provide you with opportunities to make the daily tasks more efficient and
freeing up your time to focus on growing business revenue.
Improve Performance
Businesses that lack procedures often have
employees that have their own way of handling tasks. While this can make your
employees happy, it can also lead to inefficiencies. Not having documented
procedures can lead your team to complete the same function in different ways.
Recording the best way to perform the task will allow everyone to become more
efficient in his or her jobs and improve their performance.
Improve Communication
One of the biggest killers of time and profit in a
business is miscommunication. When there are no documented procedures in place,
internal and external communication becomes a huge issue. When you have clearly
written procedures, there are fewer arguments over how things should be done.
Scale Your Business
Having procedures in place for training new staff
will reduce the stress your current staff endures when training new team
members. Following documented hiring procedures will allow
you to hire the right people for each job and they'll be able to follow
procedures without requiring additional assistance.
When your new hires receive better training, they
can become more productive at their jobs. They can be trained in a way that
reduces the number of mistakes being made and improve their overall
performance. When your employees perform better, you can gain more sales and
have fewer errors to deal with, ultimately cutting costs.
Measure Your Progress
While the money coming into your business is
one way to measure your progress, being able to measure your marketing efforts
or the development process of new products will provide you with a better
picture of the health of your company. If your business is organized and has
clear documentation of your procedures in place, you will be able to quickly
check on these things, as well as other areas of concern and obtain real-time
data on how they are doing.
Meet Deadlines
Without having a basic plan in place for each day,
the daily activities that are needed to keep your business operating can begin
to build up, eventually creating a bottleneck and bringing other essential
tasks to a halt. For example, if you aren't posting your Accounts Receivables
and Payables on a regular schedule, you can find yourself with a lot of work
when it comes time to pay your employees or
calculate
taxes for the current quarter. Having an organized, well-documented system in
place, ensures that you won't run into situations where you have to drop other
tasks to play catch-up.
Free up More Time
When your business is systematic in its functions
and operation, it frees up your time, so you can focus on the activities that
will help your business grow. Instead of spending the afternoon responding to
emails, you can work on your marketing efforts or promote your business at
local business events. Business systemization provides you with the opportunity
to spend your time on those endeavors without having to worry that your company
operations have halted because you're away from the office.
Take Time Off
Being able to take time off from the business is
one of the main benefits of a systemized business. When your business is
systematically organized, you can take a vacation knowing that your company
will still be able to run, even in your absence.
Now that you’ve been shown the many benefits of
having a systemized online business, it’s time to take a moment to evaluate
your circumstance and make a list of what you want to accomplish with your
online business. Write everything down, no matter how small, vague, or
inconsequential it may seem.
One of the easiest ways to become burned out before your business even has a chance to succeed is trying to master everything yourself and doing it all. No matter how good you are, this line of thinking is just not realistic. Developing a logical and workable business system will allow you to build and run a successful online business.
Begin from the Start – Making
a List of Most Recurring Tasks
Whether you already own an online business and find
yourself constantly exhausted from the daily work, or you are planning on
opening an online business in the future, there is still plenty of time for you
to get into the swing of systemizing your business. Once you start working on
the steps outlined in this guide, you may begin to realize that many of them
are simply common sense.
Step
One: Identifying Recurring Tasks
To start systemizing your business, you need
to begin by listing all the general functions that you do both daily and through
the course of the week. It doesn't matter if you are a brick and mortar
business, an online business, or a hybrid business that involves an Internet
presence as well as a physical site. Here are some of the more common tasks
that will apply to every business.
Accounting
When it comes to your business’s income and
expenses, you have to create some sort of process for keeping track of what
comes in and what goes out. Having business systems in place for your
accounting tasks will allow you to ensure that you are profitable, as well as
making sure you have the appropriate records to back up your tax filings, that
you have paid your vendors, and that your customers are paying you within your
set terms. It is also essential to make sure that your paying your employees on time and have the right amount of
taxes being deducted from their pay.
This is one of the systems in your business that
you have to keep a close eye on. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to do
the work yourself. Financial management systems will allow you to keep track of
everything from tracking credit card purchases to invoicing clients, to
following up on past-due accounts. Here are some of the other accounting
systems that can be systemized.
•
Purchasing
•
Tracking credit card purchases
•
Accounts payable
•
Accounts receivable
•
Deposits to the bank
•
Cutting checks
•
Profit and loss statements
•
Invoicing
•
Daily cash out
•
Petty cash
•
Employee expenses
•
Payroll
Putting these systems
in place will help to prevent employee theft and allow you to have a clear
picture of your business’s numbers. They will allow you to control your
purchasing and ensure that you sign-off on each decision that is made.
Administration
Somebody has to ensure that the day to day
tasks are being accomplished. Depending on the size of your business, this may
involve a central manager or supervisor, or several managers who oversee one or
more departments.
Administration is an essential area of your
business to systemize because of the high turnover rate that most administrative
roles see. Implementing a series of systems can help to reduce training time
and keep you from having to explain to new hires how the phone needs to be
answered every time a new employee joins the team. Here are the administrative
tasks that should be systemized.
• Opening and closing
procedures
• Phone greeting
• Mail processing
• Office maintenance
• Filing
• Paper management
• Document production
• Inventory management
• Order processing
• Creating orders
Marketing
No matter how good your products are unless people
know that are around, there is no chance of ever getting your online business
off the ground. Marketing involves creating strategies, learning how to reach
niche markets, how to position your product, writing compelling marketing copy
and general marketing collateral. Marketing your business is probably one of
the areas where you spend most of your time. You are most likely focusing your
efforts on generating new leads and getting more people to call you. These
efforts can be efficiently systemized and delegated to other members of your
staff. Here are some other marketing systems that you can systemize.
• Promotions
• Marketing calendar
• Advertising
• Direct mail
• Social media
• Content creation
• SEO systems
• Newsletter templates
You can use systemization to create simple
systems for your business's primary promotional efforts. Any of your team
should be able to pick up your marketing manual and implement a successful
email marketing campaign or create a purposeful advertisement.
Sales
Many people tend to lump sales and marketing
together. However, to create a truly systemized business, they must be treated
as different functions within the company. While marketing is about getting the
general word out about your business, sales are about following leads and
converting prospects into paying customers. Some of the sales systems that you
can systemize are as follows:
• Referral program
• Customer retention
• Sales procedures
• Lead generation
• Lead management
• Sales script
Technology and Data
It is almost impossible to operate any kind
of business without having reliable resources in place that can help you keep
your website functioning correctly, your servers running, and your workstations
from losing critical data. Your business needs to have clear systems in place
for managing both your paper and electronic organization to
ensure that your sensitive business information is protected and easily
accessible.
Implementing data management systems in your
business will help you stay organized. When everyone on your team knows where
information is supposed to be stored and how it should be handled, you can
reduce enormous stacks of paper from forming around the office. Here are some
other data management systems that can be systemized to ensure your business
continues to run.
• IT management
• Data backup
• Computer repairs
• Electronic
information storage
• Client files
• Project files
• Point of sales system
• Financial data
management
You need to ensure that your data management
systems include a data backup system. This will ensure your data and business
are protected in the event something happens to your server or computer
software.
Human Resources
Even if you only have one other person
involved in your online business, someone has to make sure that you are
functioning within the guidelines and regulations that apply to the kind of
business you are running. Managing HR policies and procedures can get very
involved, so it is essential that this particular function is controlled by
someone else who has an eye for detail and who can assimilate a lot of data.
Along with creating systems for hiring,
firing, and training employees, your HR systems will include documented
processes for the following:
• Recruitment
• Retention
• Incentive programs
• Employee reviews
• Employee feedback process
• Employee training
• Professional
development
• Ongoing training
• Job descriptions and
role profiles
• Uniforms and dress
code
Employees with clear expectations and clear
structures are happier and more productive in their positions. Establishing a
clear training manual will save you the time of training each new staff member.
Communication
Communication is an essential aspect of any
business and is often one of the most time-consuming pieces. Sales letters, fax
cover letters, internal memos, newsletters, and reports are all types of
communications that need to be created on a regular basis by different people
within the organization.
Most of the time the communication systems that you
use in your business aren’t much different from one to the next. However, each
one is created by a different person, from scratch. Your communication systems
provide a massive opportunity for systemization. Systemizing these
communication systems ensures that you will have consistency in your business.
• Internal memos
• Letterhead
• Team meeting agenda
• Internal emails
• Newsletter templates
• Sales letter
templates
• Meeting minutes
• Reports
• Internal meetings
• Scheduling
Customer Relations
Another critical area
that you need to consider systemizing is your customer relations. This includes
everything that a customer sees and touches in your business, along with the
interactions they will have with your staff.
Establishing a system for your customer relations
will ensure that any new employees will understand how your business handles
customers. This allows you to maintain a high level of customer service. Theses
customer relations systems are perfect for getting your business systemized.
• Incoming phone call
script
• Outgoing phone call
script
• Customer service
standards
• Customer retention
strategy
• Customer
communications
• Ongoing customer
communication strategy
Purchasing
No matter how lean
your run your online business, you will be required to purchase items for your
business from time to time. While you may only be buying general office
supplies, a software program from time to time, or promotional materials,
having a process in place can ensure that you never run out of the items that
you need. Some of the purchasing systems that you can systemize include:
• Inventory
• General supply orders
• Shipping materials
• Evaluating pricing
• Policy compliance
• Filing paperwork
It is essential to have someone in your
company that is capable of establishing relationships with your vendors and can
maintain the rapport to ensure that you are getting the best prices on the
goods and services that you are purchasing.
Your initial list needs to encompass all of the
essential functions that are related to operating your business. Once you have
the list in place, you can begin the next step of the process.
Step
Two: Organizing and Prioritizing the Functions
Once you’ve identified all the recurring tasks in
your business, it is time for you to organize and prioritize those functions.
Depending on the size of your business, you might be able to combine some of
the tasks into a single, general category, as long as your business remains
relatively small. It's also important to remember that you can always split
categories later on as it becomes necessary. Here are some examples of how you
can prioritize your essential business functions.
Before you can even start a business, you need to
have a core product or service that you can offer to potential customers. This
makes product development one of the most critical functions in your business
and thus should be placed at the top of your priority list. Product development
is likely to continue to remain high throughout the course of business since
you will need to continually improve and refine your product over time for it
to stay competitive in your market. Coming up with new products that will
compliment your core line will also be a function that you will have to perform
throughout your time in business.
Administration and
Accounting
For small businesses, combining the administration
and accounting functions makes sense. You can hire a single office manager who
can take care of the day to day clerical tasks as well as posting credits and
debits to the books. As your company expands, you can split these two functions
into separate teams. Before you can start selling your product or services,
these two areas of your business must be structured and in place.
Tech Support
You can’t
successfully run an online business if you don’t have a functioning website or
if you have problems with your equipment. Having someone who knows how to build
and manage a site and keep your equipment running is essential to have in place
before you make your first sale.
Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support
When you are first starting your online business,
these business functions can be combined and handled by one or two people. Over
time, as your business gets off the ground and continues to grow, you will need
to split these functions into their own department and have separate policies
documented for the processes that go along with each task.
After you’ve analyzed your list and
prioritized the functions according to their importance and need for getting
your business up and running, the next step is developing the policies and
procedures that will be essential for keeping your business running, even when
you aren’t in the office.
Step 3:
Developing Policies and Procedures
When you have your priorities in order, it’s time
for you to begin developing the policies and procedures that will be at the
core of your business. These policies and procedures will keep each of the
essential functions of your business running smoothly so you can focus your
time and effort on growing your business. It is necessary for you to keep in
mind as you work through this step, that even if you are combining several
functions under one umbrella initially, that each of these functions must be
clearly defined with their own specific processes and responsibilities.
Developing policies and procedures is nothing more
than creating a logical process that can be documented in a training manual.
They must be as relevant for a team of three as they would be for a group of
three hundred. Here are some examples to help you begin crafting the procedures
for each of the essential functions of your business.
You should have policies in place that include
guidelines to how frequently posting should be done to Payables and
Receivables, when taxes should be determined, how to handle employee payroll,
and how to track expenses.
Administration
The administration policies and procedures
should include guidelines on how to schedule employees, how to draft letters
and general correspondences, how to arrange and maintain the filing system,
booking travel for department personnel, and ordering office supplies.
Sales, Marketing, and
Customer Support
The sales, marketing, and customer support
departments will need to have clearly defined instructions on how to interact
with the public. Marketing will need guidelines for how to create compelling
ads that appeal to consumers while the Sales and Customer Support departments
will be representing the company when approaching prospective customers and
taking care of existing ones.
Step
Four: Documenting the Processes
For your business systems to work correctly, they
need to be clearly documented so that there is no opportunity for
miscommunication or confusion on what should be done in any given situation.
While recording your processes and procedures can be intimidating, there are
some excellent resources for managing this.
Your new hires, presumably, will have some experience in the area where
they will work. Draw on this experience to help you create the policies and
procedures for your business. To cut down on the time you spend writing down the
processes, turn to templates and samples found on the internet or obtained from
other companies. There is no point in your spending your valuable time
reinventing the wheel. A lot of the information that you need has already been
written and can be customized to work for your company with minimal effort on
your part.
If you genuinely don't have the time or resources
in your company to help you document your policies and procedures, you can
always hire a business consultant to help you create a training manual and a
workable employee manual. The money you spend on this type of service will be
well worth it in the long run.
Step
Five: Implement the Processes
Once you have started documenting your processes
and procedures, you'll want to take them for a test drive. Start implementing
the processes to determine if the basic structure is sound. Don't be upset if
you run into bumps along the way, no business, no matter the size, gets it
completely right the first time. As you do a test run on the processes, consider
whether the process has the potential to be tweaked along the way to ensure
that your company is capable of running smoothly when you’re away.
As your company grows, you will find it
necessary to add positions to various departments, adjust policies and
procedures to accommodate new laws and regulations, or create new departments
by splitting older ones. If your primary system is sound, these new
developments in your company will be relatively painless to deal with and won't
require you to overhaul the way you do business entirely.
Step Six: Diagram the Flow of Your Business
It isn't enough for you to merely identify and
prioritize the functions in your business. You also need to ensure that there
is a logical ebb and flow between each of these essential areas.
While this may seem
redundant once you've figured out what each department is supposed to do, you
can think of it as creating the jewels that go into the necklace. They may be
beautiful in their own right, but if they aren't correctly linked, nobody can
wear them.
Here are some ideas to help you with the
diagramming and definition of the communication flow within your business.
• Start with diagraming
how things flow through each department. For example, a new customer order
begins with Sales, makes its way to Order Processing, then finds its way to
Shipping, and finally ends with billing. At some point, Customer Support will
need to be involved in following up and making sure the customer is happy with
their purchase.
• Next, identify who is
responsible or accountable for each progression in the flow.
• Evaluate how long it
takes for the flow of the order to make its way through the process and
determine if any areas need improvement.
Taking the time to diagram the various processes will help you in a couple of ways. First, it will make it clear whether or not the policies and procedures that you have implemented are working correctly. Secondly, it will help you and your team spot any areas where you can improve communication, more clearly define procedures, and which steps can be streamlined to save you both time and money.
While this may seem
like a great deal of work, it is relatively easy to accomplish. The degree of
detail and time that you spend developing these procedures will depend on the
size and nature of your business.
While some of the steps will be able to be
completed in a matter of minutes, others will take days or weeks to accomplish.
Building a solid foundation when you are first starting your business will save
you a considerable amount of time and money once you have your company up and
running.
Systemization
Tools for Your Online Business
If you want to build a successful business that is
capable of generating steady, predictable sales, then you need to develop
systems that will allow your business to continue to run even when you’re not
in the office. If you are feeling stressed by the overwhelming number of tasks,
email, projects, clients, and social media marketing that you are tackling on a
daily basis, several tools can automate your tasks and free up your time.
The following tools will help you to automate many
of the essential daily tasks that are required to run a successful business. By
utilizing some of these tools you can free up your time, so you can be more productive
and focus on those tasks that you need to work on.
Asana
Asana (https://asana.com),
is a tool that helps you move your work forward. It is the easiest way for your
team to track their work and get results. Asana can help you free up your email
because any conversation that you have with your team happens in the app. While
asana was designed to be used by organizations, individuals running their own
business can also benefit from utilizing the tool in their business. Here are a
few highlights that make this an excellent tool if you’re trying to systemize
your business.
•
It splits your “to do” list into actionable tasks
based on when those tasks are due, who was allocated to work on the project,
and by the project themselves. This feature will allow you to collaborate on
larger projects with your team or focus on small, individual tasks.
• It allows you to
delegate tasks more efficiently.
• It works with Google
Drive and Dropbox, so you can easily share files within the project.
• It’s free.
Ontraport
Ontraport (https://ontraport.com) is an all-in-one
business automation tool that brings together all your business tools, customer
information, and data into a single application. It is a true marketing
automation system that will allow you to market your business using email,
postcards, SMS, and more. It also has a feature that will enable you to sell
your programs, products, and services seamlessly with a payment processing
option for PayPal or the merchant provider for your business. Here are just a
few of the reasons why Ontraport is a great automation tool for your business.
• It allows you to map
your entire customer journey. While most marketing tools show you either how
your email performs or how your pages convert, Ontraport shows how your whole
business performs on one single campaign map.
• You can see who’s
converting when, where they are coming from, and their lifetime value through
the tools campaign reporting feature. The data you receive can then be tied
back to your marketing activity, so you know which campaigns are working.
• It allows you to
build your campaign from scratch or choose a campaign from its vast library of
turn-key templates that include emails, pre-designed pages, and everything else
you need to launch your campaign.
Slack (https://slack.com),
is a business tool that allows your team to kick off a project, hire new
employees, review a sales contract, finalize your budget, measure and A/B test,
and more; all from its easy to use interface. The program will help you save
time when collaborating with your team by providing you a single place for
messaging, files, and tools. Here are just some of the features that Slack has
to offer your business.
• Organized
conversations, utilizing channels to bring conversations together. The channels
can be organized by team, project, or client and allow team members to join and
leave any channel as needed. It also features threads that keep side
conversations from derailing the project or topic at hand.
• Slack also allows you
to search conversations and turn them into common knowledge. Users can explore
everything that has been posted in channels to see if their problem has already
been solved.
Deadline
Funnel
Deadline Funnel (https://deadlinefunnel.com)
is a program that will allow you to sell your programs live through webinars,
as well as allowing your customers to enter into mini-launches, which are fully
automated, using timers that countdown to the expiration of the cart. The
countdown timers that deadline funnel uses are personalized to each visitor, allowing
you to add a sense of urgency to your marketing funnel. With deadline funnel,
you can build real, evergreen campaigns that provide each of your subscribers
with their own deadline. Here are several reasons why businesses utilize
deadline funnel in their companies.
• You can create
deadline campaigns for your product launches, with the ability to set the same
deadline for everyone.
•
It integrates with several powerful business
systems including ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, MailChimp, and Ontraport.
Lead Pages
Lead Pages (https://leadpages.net)
helps businesses to build stunning opt-in campaigns easily allowing them to
quickly capture leads, convert customers, and integrate their campaigns across
all their favorite digital marketing tools.
• Create mobile friendly
templates that seamlessly adapt to your audiences favorite connected devices.
• Easily build ads with
the integrate Facebook Ad Builder that pulls content directly from your page to
create compelling ads instantly.
• Fine-tune your
campaigns quickly and create maximum impact by testing multiple versions of the
ad, side-by-side, so you can keep what works and get rid of what doesn't.
Calendly
Calendly (https://calendly.com)
helps businesses schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails. Calendly
allows you to create simple rules and share your Calendly through links via
email or embedded in your website. Calendly works with your Outlook, Google,
iCloud, or Office 365 calendars, so you never become double booked. Here are
some of the features in Calendly that business owners love.
• They have complete
control over their schedule. The program allows you to set buffer times between
meetings, prevent last-minute meetings, create secret events, and more.
• The program is
extremely flexible and supports joint availability meetings, round-robin
meetings, and one-on-one meetings.
• It works with all
your favorite business apps like Salesforce, GoToMeeting, Zapier, and much
more.
GoToWebinar
Webinars have become
a massive part of many online businesses. GoToWebinar (https://gotomeeting.com) lets you quickly and
more efficiently communicate with employees, prospects, and customers. It can
easily handle large groups of people and turn your presentation into a
conversation and the conversation into sales.
Both large corporations and small businesses can
tell their story with GoToWebinar and reach their audience. The following
features make GoToWebinar an indispensable tool for any business.
• The email automation
feature allows users to create custom email invitations, confirmations, and
reminders. With automated email templates, you can let the tool do all the work
for you.
• To indeed make the
webinar yours, GoToWebinar allows you to display your company logo and custom
image on all the material used in your webinars.
• Add the ability to
share videos to make your webinars more impactful. Upload MP4 files or share
video clips on YouTube or share a promotional video and more with high-quality
video.
DropBox
With Dropbox (https://dropbox.com) business, you can grow
your company without limits, while maintaining complete control over your
company’s sensitive data and other activities. Flexible storage plans and team
storage management are just some of the features of the powerful file sharing
business tool.
• With the
administrator dashboard, you can monitor team activity, view connected devices,
and audit sharing activity from one place.
• The remote wipe
feature allows you to clear files from lost or stolen devices to ensure that
all your company files are kept from getting into the wrong hands.
•
The Dropbox paper feature is a simple, yet powerful
way to create, share, and keep all the members of your team in sync, with the
added benefit of admin controls.
Google
Docs
Google Docs (https://docs.google.com)
is a robust document sharing and editing tool that allows team members to work
on documents in real time. With immediate syncing capabilities, the program
reduces the chances that someone will over-ride someone else's contribution.
Google Docs brings all your business documents to life with smart editing and
styling tools that make it easy to format text and paragraphs. Other features
include:
• Hundreds of templates
that are designed to make your work more professional and your life much more
comfortable. With a wide variety of report, resume, and other pre-made
documents you can get a head start on all your document creation needs.
• Since Google Docs is
a web-based tool, you can get all your documents anytime and from anywhere. You
and your entire team can access, create, and edit documents from your favorite
devices, even if there isn't a connection.
• All the changes that
are made in documents are automatically saved as you type. The program also
keeps the revision history, so you can quickly view old versions of the report
and sort the changes by the date they were made or who made the change.
Google
Calendar
Make the most out of
your days with Google Calendar (https://calendar.google.com).
The newly designed app helps you spend less time managing your schedule and
more time enjoying it. All of the events that you add to Google Calendar are
stored online so you won’t lose your schedule if you happen to lose your phone.
•
With the assists feature, you can create events in
just a few taps. With smart suggest, you can quickly and easily generate event
titles, add people, and places to your calendar.
• Get multiple views of
your day, week, and month. Easily invite guests to your events and view your
calendar on the web.
• Events from your
Gmail account are automatically added to your calendar.
Webinar
Jam
Webinar Jam (https://webinarjam.com)
offers business owners unmatched flexibility and high-tech precision at a value
that can’t be matched. With the ability to invite up to six co-presenters
Webinar Jammer is one of the best collaboration tools on the market. The
program is compatible will all browsers, operating systems, and devices, making
it easy for anyone to attend your webinar.
• Draw and mark up
directly on your screen and turn your whiteboard ideas into reality. You can
quickly highlight and write annotations on the screen as you run presentations,
training, software demos, lectures, or share mind maps.
Screencast-o-Matic
With Screencast-o-Matic (https://screencast-o-matic.com) you have everything you
need to create, manage, and share videos with your team. The integrations allow
you to use the platform end to end or as video editing and screen recording
tools. Screencast-o-Matic is an intuitive, powerful screen recording and video
editing tool for businesses of all sizes.
• It features an
advanced screen recorder to capture your screen or webcam while you add text
annotations, shapes, or draw freehand. You can also import or export and mix in
other video and audio media seamlessly.
•
With advanced video management and sharing, you can
efficiently manage all of your videos and how they are viewed. Quickly set up
channels by topic, set user options like comments and notes, and set
permissions for who can see the videos.
• Easily integrate your
workflow into your training, communications, support, and learning management
system with API.
HootSuite
Do more with your social media with HootSuite
(https://hootsuite.com). HootSuite is
dedicated to not only enhancing your social media engagement but helping you
automate it across more than 35 global networks like Twitter and Facebook. It
identifies the social media influences in your industry and automates social
media strategies for you.
• Save valuable time by
scheduling all your social posts through an easy to use interface. Keep your
business's social presence active around the clock by automatically scheduling
hundreds of social media posts at once.
• Track and prove your
social return on investment (ROI) with the programs social analytics feature.
Quickly measure the impact of your social media campaigns with comprehensive
reporting. Measure each social channel’s conversion rates and separate ROI
between paid and owned media.
Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft (https://infusionsoft.com) is an all-in-one
marketing solution specifically designed to help small businesses. It allows
you to automate lead scoring and capture and a segment with the tool's powerful
customer relationship management (CRM), features. Quickly integrate with
hundreds of third-party business services through the expansive marketplace of
apps.
•
Get more organized with Infusionsoft. All of your
customer information is gathered in one place, which allows you to review all
of your previous customer interactions quickly. The simple dashboards and
reports show you exactly how your audience is responding to your campaigns.
• Get more customers by
creating follow-up email campaigns that are targeted to your customers.
•
The marketing automation feature allows you to work
leads down the sales funnel and build a sales pipeline that works. With easy to
read analytics you can quickly see what’s working and what’s not.
MailChimp
MailChimp’s (https://mailchimp.com)
primary focus is on email marketing and is one of the most affordable
automation tools on the market. Its marketing automation features allow you to
target customers based on specific data. Create customer workflows with
scheduling and segmentation tools with their application program interfaces
(API), and it easily integrates with numerous Web technologies.
• Connect your store to
one of the hundreds of e-commerce integrations offered by MailChimp to create
targeted email and ad campaigns.
• The robust marketing
automation in Mailchimp ensures that your emails are getting in front of the
right people at the right time. It allows you to target customers based on
preferences, behavior, and previous sales.
• Reach a wider
audience with Facebook, Google, and Instagram ads to grow your bottom line in
fewer steps.
Needls
Automatically create,
target, and optimize all your digital advertising with Needls (https://needls.com). All you have to do to get
started is upload your images, videos, and primary message, and let Needls do
the rest for you. Stop spending hours trying to come up with the perfect ad.
Arm yourself with all the tools you need to turn your visitors into sales.
•
Needls will quickly identify your ideal customer as
they post their wants and needs to their social media accounts and then display
timely ads, so you have the best chance of gaining their business.
• Automatically
optimize and retarget your ads, 24/7, 365 days a year.
• Create simple, high
converting landing pages that capture more sales, inquiries, and phone calls.
Salesforce
One of the leading
business automation and customer relations management companies in the world,
Salesforce (https://salesforce.com)
can be leveraged by businesses to enhance your digital marketing campaigns. The
powerful marketing and sales automation tools can integrate with hundreds of
third-party business apps through its vast market of APIs.
• Manage all your
contacts and track opportunities from any desktop or device.
• With predictive
scoring, actionable insights, accurate forecasting, and intelligent automation
turn your customer data into closed deals with Sales Cloud Einstein.
• Build a single,
comprehensive view of every one of your consumers to power one-to-one journeys.
IFTTT
Standing for “If This Then That,” IFFTT (https://ifttt.com) is a streamlined automation
tool that allows businesses to create recipes that perform specific actions
based on triggers that are predefined. There are currently more than 240
third-party app connections for you to automate your business across the web.
• Get all your apps and
devices talking to each other in new ways with a touch of a button.
These automation
technologies enable you to free up the time you spend on completing redundant
processes, so you can start to focus your attention on those tasks that are
needed to grow your business. With the team collaboration tools and tools for
documenting, you can easily stay on top of projects and work seamlessly with your
employees, no matter where they are located.
Documenting Your Processes –
Creating SOPs
To truly systemize your business and ensure that it
continues to run smoothly, you have to document your processes and create a
Standard Operation Procedures Manual, or SOP. Standard operating procedures are
an essential part of the operating system for any company. The idea is a simple
one and is used by the US military and successful businesses like McDonald's.
The SOP guidelines
are created to facilitate the entire way that you do business. They are
designed to make things run smoother and more effortless and help to prevent
costly mistakes from occurring. Not only do SOPs simplify and formalize every
task in your business, but they also make it, so no process in your company
rests solely in the hands of a single member of your team.
The lack of SOPs in your business creates a
condition that if key people were to leave, their knowledge and expertise
wouldn't disappear with them. Without these systems in place, you are running
the risk that your business may eventually be crippled because you have an
operational reliance on the expertise of a handful of individuals who are the
only ones who know the “secret sauce” of your business model. Having SOPs in place
means you won’t have to worry that the loss of key people could cripple your
business.
How to Document Your Business Systems
When documenting your business systems and creating
an SOP, it is essential to include both how the task is done and the reason why
the task is done and the importance of the task to the overall success of the
business. Your employees must understand that no matter how menial they might
think a function is, it is, in fact, an essential part of the overall design
for the success of the business. The initial draft of each procedure should
include the following:
• The Title of the SOP
• The reason for the
SOP
• The specific action
steps that are required to complete the task
These three items
must be covered in the draft for the process to be successful. The method of
drafting the document is simple. You want to think about it as having a
conversation with a person that you want to complete the task. You are
essentially having a written communication and covering every step of the
process from inception to completion. You may find it helpful to include photos
in the document. Illustrating the tasks could be essential for the person to be
able to comprehend the task. Videos of the process can also prove to be helpful
in showing a multi-step process. Your goal, when documenting your methods is to
completely illustrate the task to eliminate any potential questions that might
be raised as to the how and why.
Develop
Naming Conventions
The first thing you need to do before you even put
pen to paper, is to develop a standardized naming convention for the documents
you are going to create. Having a standardized naming convention will allow you
to remain consistent and will make it easier for employees to find the correct
material. While you may only have a few documented procedures to start with, as
your business grows, so will your SOP. Here are some
tips for developing naming conventions that will help you control how
procedures are written, reviewed, published and archived.
What are Naming
Conventions?
Simply put, naming conventions are how you name
your documents in a structured manner. The key is to have consistency across
the SOPs. Your primary goal in adopting a naming convention is so that you and
others can quickly identify the type and purpose of all the SOP documents. You
want to make sure you use a naming convention that is easy to follow,
understood by everyone in your team, and that is meaningful. You want to avoid
using obscure or cryptic terms because if they aren't practical, those tasked
with writing the SOPs may stop using the guidelines. The following are
important guidelines that you should follow for naming your SOP documents.
• Client Name or SOP
Document Owner - e.g., RAM
• Project Name – e.g.,
PUR for Purchasing or ADM for Administration
• SOP to show that it
is a standard operating procedure
• Abbreviated Title –
e.g., ReceivingProducts
• Version Number –
e.g., v1_0, v1_1, v2_0
• Document Number –
e.g., 21
Using these
guidelines, the official name of the SOP would look like this:
RAM_PUR_SOP_RecievingProducts_v1_1_21
Before you start
writing your SOPs, it's essential that you give some thought to how they will
be managed in the future. You need to consider how hundreds of documents, with
different versions, and status controls will be managed. Be sure to create
meaningful conventions and document them so that if someone takes over the
process of creating SOPs, he or she will be able to use the same standards and
keep your documents uniform.
Writing
Your First Procedure
Your standard operating procedures are nothing more
than instructions for completing a given task. To fully understand the process
that you’re documenting, you need to put yourself in the shoes of those who
will be performing the task and write the document from their perspective. When
you start recording your procedures, you'll want to keep the following in mind.
• Write in the present
tense. Keep in mind that the person who is following the procedure is
performing the task now.
• Avoid being vague
with your instructions.
• Be concise.
• Get to the point and
keep the words short.
• Keep the steps in a
logical order. Steps should follow each other logically.
• Highlight any
exceptions. You can use a symbol to flag the exceptions and how to go about
handling those exceptions.
• Highlight warnings.
Warnings that the user must use caution when performing the task, have to stand
out. If you have warnings in your procedures, use a larger font or different
color to highlight these areas.
• Include the meaning
of acronyms before placing them in the text.
• Number each step in
the process.
Finally, the process of writing your SOP requires
you to consider all the action steps in the procedure and perform a risk
assessment before any work can begin.
Numbering
the Steps in the Procedure
Every procedure
should list all the actions that need to be done to complete the task. To keep
things simple, record the action steps in sequential order, starting at 1 and
continue working upward. The most critical aspect of numbering the actions
steps is keeping the style consistent. Don't change styles in the middle of
creating your SOP.
By numbering each step in the procedure, you
ensure that the reader will start in the correct place and it removes any
ambiguity or misunderstanding that could happen if you don’t number the steps.
Numbering also ensures that there is an agreed upon way for all employees to
perform the same task.
Creating
the Action Steps for Your Processes
The action steps are nothing more than the
individual steps that are performed in each procedure. Most of the systems that
you will document will be presented as a sequence. However, you also need to
consider other factors, like multiple choices when performing a task, any
secondary functions that may need to be completed, and other related
procedures. To finalize the system, it can help to put it in context. You want
to consider where the system occurs in the larger scheme of things and if there
is anything the user should complete before getting started and things that
should be avoided.
Procedures for Creating
Action Steps
1. Include a summary
sentence. Before you write any steps in your procedure, you will want to
open with a summary sentence that explains what will be achieved by performing
the process. The summary sentence helps to orient the reader, so they know with
a quick glance if they are on the correct page. You want
to keep the summary sentence short and concise. Below is an example of a
summary sentence for receiving products.
When receiving products, there are several steps
that you must take to ensure the correct quantity of products have been
delivered and that the number of products ordered, accepted, and paid for are
accurately reflected on the invoice.
2. Identify the main
task. In the procedure heading, you will need to identify the primary
task. Identifying the main task defines the starting point for the procedure.
It should be written using a verb that ends in ING. For example:
Receiving Product Orders
3. Write out the action
steps. Clearly write out each step in the procedure, making sure that
each step is numbered in sequential order.
1. To verify that the
items that are being received match what was ordered, you need to perform the
following checks.
2. Confirm the product
quality matches your product’s specifications.
3. If everything meets
your expectations, accept the order by signing the invoice. If you are not
satisfied with any of the product, follow the procedure for rejecting product
and request a credit memo for the product you are refusing.
4. Once you have
accepted the order, move the product to storage. You will need to deal with all
refrigerated and frozen products first.
4.
Include any sub-steps. If the procedure
requires a series of options, instead of continuing with the numbering,
you'll want to create sub steps, for example, 1.a, 1.b and 1.c. This helps the
reader see that these steps occur under step number 1. To highlight this even
further, indent each sub-step like the example below.
1. To verify that the
items that are being received match what was ordered, you need to perform the
following checks.
a.
Check the product quantity and weight to ensure
that the amount that is stated on the invoice matches the order that you are
receiving.
b. Check the product
unit price to ensure that the unit price on the invoice matches the unit price
on the purchase order.
5.Identify secondary
tasks. Identify any secondary functions that might need to either be
performed with the primary task or if the task is complicated, the second
series of steps. This shows the reader that the procedure is really two parts,
preparing them for what’s coming up.
6.
Include warnings and notes. You want to be sure
to highlight any potential risks that the reader may encounter while
performing the task and any notes to provide the reader with more information.
For example, if dangerous equipment is being used to complete the procedure
highlight those dangers using icons to make them stand out.
7. Include Related
Information. Each procedure is a part of something larger; no one system
stands alone. At the end of each process, create a "For More Information"
section that lists any related process.
For More Information:
Checking Temperatures of Key Items
Storing Products
Chemical Storage
Rotating Products
Your goal is to
ensure that the reader has enough information to complete the task without
having to ask for help or look at another document. One of the challenges that
you will face when writing your procedures is being able to determine the
readers’ experience and knowledge of the system. Here is what a process for
creating a sales receipt in QuickBooks would look like.
Creating Sales
Receipts
1. Open QuickBooks
2. One the QuickBooks
homepage, select the “Create Sales Receipt” icon.
3. Track the sale by
entering a customer or job name into the space designated “Customer Job.”
a. For existing
customers, use the arrow next to the space to select an existing customer from
the pull-down menu.
4.
Click on the item column to enter the item sold.
Either select an existing item from the drop-down menu or enter a new item name
in the space provided.
a. If the item is new,
select the item type from the “Type” menu located in the “New Item” pop-up
window.
b. Enter a description
of the item in the "Description" window.
c. Select the account
type that the income from the sale will apply to using the “Account” menu.
d. Enter the price of
the item and tax code in the appropriate box.
e. Press the “Save &
Close” button to return to the sales receipt window.
5. In the Sales Receipt
Window, select the quantity sold.
6. Click on the “Payment
Method” arrow to select the payment method used for the sale.
7. Place a check in
either the “to be printed” box or the “to be e-mailed” box to select whether to
print or email the receipt to the customer.
8. Click on the “Save
& Close” button to save the receipt for your records.
Implementing
Your New Standard Operating Procedures
After you’ve documented your business systems, you
will need to begin implementing them in your daily operations. Before you fully
implement them, you will want to take the time to test and
measure each documented process to ensure that it works, without your
involvement.
Implement the new systems for a period, like
a week or a month. Allow your employees to use the documentation that you've
created to follow the new processes. At the end of the agreed upon timeframe,
speak with your staff, vendors, suppliers, and customers and ask them for their
feedback. Use this feedback to revise and improve the systems. You will need to
do this on a regular basis to keep all of the processes up-to-date.
Get
Employee Buy-In
As you develop and revise your new business
systems, involve your employees as much as you can. Your employees are the ones
who have been completing the tasks and will be the ones who will be using the
newly documented systems moving forward. You can even have the employees
develop the initial draft of the processes, leaving you to review and establish
the final versions. This can help to speed up the process and gives your staff
ownership of the process.
Developing and documenting processes for your
business will allow you to systemize your processes to help free up your time
to focus on the more critical tasks related to running your business and keep
your business running smoothly when you're out of the office.
Outsourcing
Your Tasks Effectively
Unless you have unlimited funds, chances are you
won't be able to hire many full-time employees to handle the various essential
functions when you first start your business. As a small online business owner
for you to have the same efficiencies as a more massive corporation, you will
have to outsource many of the essential functions of your business.
When most people think about outsourcing, they
envision a "superstar virtual assistant" who does everything while
the owner of the business sits back and relaxes. Unfortunately, this is nowhere
near the reality. In reality, no online business can run on autopilot. To be
successful, you need to take an active role and be there when it comes to
making the crucial decisions.
Outsourcing works
best when you have an established framework and documented processes in place
that allows anyone to complete the necessary tasks. It's best to hire different
people who can handle small aspects of your business, rather than looking for a
single person who can do it all. By outsourcing to different people, you gain
the following advantages.
• You get the right
person because you are hiring for a specific job.
• You save money
because you aren’t employing full-time employees who get paid even if there is
no work to complete.
• You don’t encounter a
“single point of failure” where your business grinds to a halt if a worker gets
sick or quits.
• You won’t have to
worry if someone is right for the job.
You may think that
outsourcing is a huge hassle because you have to deal with multiple people.
However, it is a smart business decision, especially when you are a new
business owner because each project becomes cost-effective and completed by
people who know what they are doing.
Your ultimate strategy in outsourcing is to
build a capable team where each member specializes in doing one thing really
well. Outsourcing allows you to present a professional image while making sure
each of your essential business functions is cost-effective.
Here is a five-step
process for locating and hiring a great freelancer. Follow this
strategy
for every new hire that you make, and you will soon have a team full of talented
people who are capable of doing excellent work on every single project.
Step
One: Identify Your Outsourcing Task
To be successful, you have to start every
project with knowing precisely what you want to accomplish. You will need to
know what skills are necessary to complete the task, what outcome you are
looking for, and the level of expertise required to be successful. This is the
best way to find and hire the right person for a specific job.
Before you write the description of the
project, you will need to answer the following questions.
What is the exact goal of the project?
• What problem will it
solve?
• Is it an ongoing
project or a one-time solution?
• Have you completed the
process yourself?
• Can you describe the
mistakes that you made during the process?
• Have you hired a
freelancer in the past for this kind of project?
•
What did you learn from the experience?
Take the time to complete this exercise and be
thorough when answering the questions. This step will help you in identifying
any potential problems that might arise between you and the freelancer. Plus,
it's an excellent way for you to make sure the project description includes
every feature and elements that you need for your freelancer to possess.
Step
Two: Write Your Project Description
Most of the freelance websites that you will
use implement a bidding system for projects. It's your job to write a detailed
description of what you want. Once the project description is posted on the
sites, people will be able to place a bid for the project by submitting a cost
estimation and information about their level of expertise.
Depending on the project that you post, you
could receive anywhere from a handful of bids to dozens of proposals. Trying to
filter through the proposals you receive can be a daunting task and one that
can quickly overwhelm you. Here are some of the ways that you can begin to
evaluate the proposals you receive.
• Price
• Feedback rating
• Prior work experience
• Communication skills
• Work samples
Every freelance website is full of talented
freelance workers. The trick to getting their attention is to write a
compelling project description. It needs to be written in a way that encourages
the top-notch freelancers to respond while subtly discouraging the unqualified
freelancers. Including the following seven elements in every job description
will ensure that the best freelancers will reply to your post.
Element One: Include a Specific Project Title
Rather than being cute with your project title,
it's better to write a short description of the work that you are looking to
have completed. For instance, if you need to hire a writer for a 10,000-word
social media marketing report, then you should write: "Need Professional
Writer for a 10,000-word social media marketing report." Write the project
title, so it focuses on the primary goal. Don't try to gain more attention by
writing a catch header. You want people who are interested in this project, not
bidding merely because they need the work.
Element Two: List the
Required Skills
It's not enough to just post a job description,
especially if you want to find the right freelancer for the project. The best
way to go about looking for the right person is to ask for specific experience
with the task. In other words, you want to include specific skills that will
deter anyone who is a generalist, or those who think they can do an excellent
job of bidding on your project. Instead, you want to attract those freelancers
who can demonstrate background and expertise in completing the kind of project
you are looking to outsource.
For example, let’s say you need to hire someone to
create press releases. Since these kinds of documents are usually written in a
formal, third-person format, you wouldn’t want to hire someone who only has
experience blogging or creating articles. Instead, you want to find someone who
has an extensive background creating excellent press releases.
As part of the
description, you want to ask for examples of similar projects. The freelancer
should attach these to their bid or provide you with a hyperlink where you can
check them out and evaluate their work.
Element Three:
Eliminating Certain Candidates
When it comes to outsourcing, some people are
right for the job, and there are those who aren't. To save yourself a ton of
time, its best to weed out those who aren't right for the job before they place
their bid. The best thing you can do is be clear about what you need from the
beginning. This way you won't waste a freelancer’s time if you don’t think they
are a good fit for the job.
For instance, when hiring a writer, you may want to
ask for a native English speaker because you want the informal and
conversational style that you don’t usually get with someone who speaks English
as a second language.
Over time you’ll start to develop a feel for
what you need for your projects. Don’t hide your requirements. Instead, post
what you need specifically in the initial project description, so you don’t end
up wasting yours or the freelancer’s time.
Element Four: Provide
Specific Parameters
It is essential that
the description you write for the project are incredibly detailed regarding
what is required. You have to include every possible element so those bidding
on your project can provide an accurate bid price.
For instance, you
might include the following:
• Specific technical
skills required to complete the project
• Exact word counts for
the project
• The niche market for
the product
• Description of the
target audience
• Example products and
websites
• Links to your current
product line
• Elements you like
about your competition
Providing detailed descriptions of the
project and what you need will help to weed out any lazy freelancers. Detailed
job descriptions usually ensure that the people who are bidding on the project
are confident in their ability to deliver a quality project.
Element Five: Create
a Private Description (Optional)
Sometimes the job you are outsourcing requires a
certain level of privacy because you don't want to reveal too much about your
business. For these situations, you'll write a vague description informing the
candidate that you'll explain more in a follow-up description for those
candidates that are selected. From there, you'll have them sign a
non-disclosure agreement before you provide them the rest of the details of the
project.
Element Six: Include
a Statement About Plagiarism
Unfortunately, when you are hiring a writer,
plagiarism is something that will have to be taken into consideration. Every
once in a while, you'll come across a freelancer who thinks it's okay to use
the same content from someone else's website. To combat this, you need to
include a "zero tolerance" policy within the description of your
procedure addressing plagiarism. Inform bidders upfront that you will be
checking for plagiarism on every project by running the content through a
plagiarism checking site like Copyscape.
Element Seven: Embed a Code Phrase
Paying attention to details is a skill that can't
be taught. Either someone understands how vital it is to read instructions
thoroughly, or they don't. For those that don’t, you want don’t want them to be
involved in your business.
A simple way to test someone’s attention to detail
is to include a “code phrase” somewhere in your job description. Either at the
end of the job description or somewhere in the middle of a long paragraph. To
see who paid attention to the details of your project description and find
freelancers who can follow direction, have them submit their bid with the code
phrase at the top.
Step
Three: Eliminate Unqualified Bids
Depending on the project, you'll often get dozens
of bids, which can be incredibly overwhelming. While it's essential for you to
examine each one, it will take too much time to go through each candidate's job
history. Here's a simple system that will allow you to eliminate unqualified
candidates quickly.
• Eliminate any
proposals that look like a template and those that don’t answer your questions.
Only keep those proposals that provide clear answers to your questions.
• Eliminate any bids
that didn’t include the code phrase.
• Eliminate any bid
that doesn’t include examples of similar projects.
• Eliminate candidates
that don’t have any job history on the site.
• Eliminate any
candidates that don’t have at least a 4.5 or better feedback threshold.
• Eliminate candidates
that don’t possess the specific skills that you need.
Surprisingly, you can eliminate many
freelancers with these six rules. Notice that cost isn't included on this list.
Right now, at this point in the process, it's more important to eliminate
freelancers who aren't a good fit for the listed project.
Step Four: Pick 3 to 5 Qualified Candidates
After quickly
eliminating unqualified candidates, you'll still have a large pool of freelancers
that you will have to sort through. This will require you to go through the
list again and disqualify specific candidates. Your goal with this step is to
narrow down your choices to 3 to 5 qualified candidates. This step can be hard
because the candidate pool is now filled with excellent freelancers. Now is the
time for you to carefully look at each bid and decide which is the most
qualified candidate for your project.
To narrow down your
choices again, look at the following criteria.
The Bid Price
This is the step in the process when you have to
consider cost. When deciding on a candidate, you'll want to pick a range of bid
prices that are acceptable to you and eliminate those candidates who are above
this number or who fall below the figure. It is important to remember that you
get what you pay for, so you want to be sure to eliminate the low bids because
this is usually a good indicator that you will receive poor service.
Companies v.
Individuals
Pay close attention to the language of the bid. If
the proposal includes words like "we" or "us" then it's a
good sign that they are representing a company. While you don't have to
eliminate companies and agencies automatically, you need to be careful when
analyzing their work history to make sure they are worth the increase in cost.
Many of the bids that you receive will be a
"cut-and-paste" response that shows the project description wasn't
thoroughly read. While the bidder may have included the code phrase, they do so
in a generic response that lacks any personality and connection.
While you are going through the bids, you
want to look for freelancers who seem like they are genuinely interested in
working on the project. You want to look for freelancers who include comments
about how they are uniquely qualified to work on your project and who can
relate parts of your description to something they've done in the past.
Project Examples
Always look at the freelancer’s work examples that
they provide with their bid. This can be a link to an article they’ve written,
an app, an image, or a website they designed. You will also get freelancers who
attach samples of their work history directly to their bid. Carefully examine
these examples to see how they stack up to your expectations.
Past Feedback Ratings
For each remaining bidder, click on their feedback
ratings and examine the work they’ve completed on the freelance website. Even
though a freelancer has a high feedback level, doesn’t mean that they have
experience working on projects similar to yours. Eliminate anyone who doesn’t
have related work experience.
Timeline
Even the most
experienced freelancers can be a waste of money if they can't complete a
project on time. Every bid you receive will give you an expected timeline for
completion. Pay close attention to the delivery dates submitted and eliminate
any proposals that go beyond the norm.
These few simple rules will allow you to reduce a
large pool of candidates. Be prepared to repeat this specific step a few times
to find the right candidates to the short-list. Once you have a few qualified
freelancers chosen, you can now move forward with selecting the most qualified
candidate to complete your project.
Step
Five: Pick the Most Qualified Freelancer
This is where you will make your final decision and
hire a qualified freelancer to help you complete your project. Each of the
candidates you’ve selected should be fully qualified to work on your project.
Now you have to determine which person is the right fit for the particular
task. Here are four things you can do to move forward with making a final
decision in selecting a freelancer for the project.
Create a Small Test
Timeliness and attention to detail are crucial when
running a business. You can test the qualified applicants for these qualities
by having them complete a simple test. Give each of the potential hires a small
task to finish to see how quickly and accurately they accomplish it. Here are a
few ideas you can use.
• Ask them a question
about their bid
• Ask them to reaffirm
the bid price
• Ask them to sign a
Non-Disclosure Agreement
• Ask them to provide
you with another sample of their work
The purpose is to give each candidate a simple task
that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete. Give them a couple of
days for them to respond. If a candidate gives you excuses or takes too long to
complete the task, it’s a good indicator that you’ll get the same kind of
service on your project.
Run a Small Project
If your project is complicated, you may want to
consider offering a small fee to each qualified candidate to complete a little
project. The best way to determine each candidate’s qualifications is to give
each one a similar task and see what they come up with. While this step will
cost you a small fee, it is a great way to test the actual level of experience
of each candidate.
Look for Interest in
the Project
While you are waiting for each candidate to
return the small project you assigned them, take some time to look at each of
their portfolios to see if they show any interest in the market. It helps to
work with someone who is passionate about the kind of project you’re offering,
although it is by no means a mandatory requirement. The freelancer you choose
will work a bit harder and be more eager to do an excellent job on the project
if they have some interest in the market.
Check References
Most of the freelancers that you have
short-listed will have references from previous work they’ve completed. Contact
these former clients and talk with them about the freelancer’s job performance.
Talk to them about the level of quality, communication, timeliness, and
attitude toward the project.
Don't be afraid to try and a lot of feedback about
a particular freelancer. This person is someone who has the potential of
becoming a crucial part of your online business, so it makes sense to try and
get as much information on them as possible.
Following these four action items should help you
to find the one candidate that is a perfect fit for your project. At this
point, you have to rely on your instincts. If one of the freelancers feel like
a better fit than the others, then they are the one that you should hire. After
making the final decision, you'll create a contract and begin working with the
freelancer on completing the required task.
Finding qualified freelance workers to help you work on the documents you've created will help you build a successful business that is fully systemized. Follow these guidelines to help to choose the best candidates for all your business outsourcin
Automation
Tools for Systemization
As a small business owner, you are losing
approximately10 to 15 percent of your time when you don't automate simple tasks
like posting to your business’s social media accounts. Business automation aims
to improve a company’s performance by reducing costs, increasing the accuracy
of data, and minimizing delays. Most standard small business functions can be
handled with software solutions. Once a company automates its primary tasks,
they will notice that other aspects of their business will begin to work more
efficiently. Here are some of the best automation tools that your business can
start to utilize to systemize your business today.
Zapier
Zapier (https://zapier.com) is one of the leaders in
task automation. Zapier connects all your apps and allows you to automate your
workflows by automatically moving info between your web apps so you can focus
on your most important business tasks. You can integrate more than 1,000 apps
like Slack, Asana, and Google Docs.
• Features a visual
designer that allows you to set up integrations and administer integrations
without having to use code. The easy to use visual interface makes setting up
your integrations a snap.
• Easily connect almost
any application programming interface (API), to another API. Use logical
functions and multi-step algorithms for your connects to avoid triggering
specific workflows when they aren't needed.
Microsoft’s Flow (https://flow.microsoft.com)
turns your company’s repetitive tasks into multistep workflows. The automated
workflows that you create between your favorite apps and services will send you
notifications, automatically synchronize files, collect data, and much more.
• Create, use, and
share automated approval workflows to respond quickly and process and approve
everything from time off requests to travel plans to sales opportunities and
documents.
• Connect securely to
your cloud base services and on-premises data so you can make the most of the
data you already have.
Pipedrive
A CRM and pipeline management tool, Pipedrive
(https://pipedrive.com) helps you
focus on actions that matter. The visual sales pipeline prompts you to remain
organized, take action, and stay in control of your complicated sales process
by bringing all the sales data into a single place.
• The mobile app gives
you access to your contact and deal information when you’re on the go. Schedule
activities, take notes during a call or meeting, save call logging activities
easily when you’re away from the office.
• Use Pipedrive’s
reporting feature to understand where you’re losing deals, forecast results,
and identify opportunities for improvement.
TextExpander
TextExpander (https://textexpander.com) lets you instantly
insert snippets of text from a collection of emails, boilerplate, and other
content, as you type. Using the quick search feature or an abbreviation you can
recall your best words instantly.
•
You can share your snippets with your team so that
they can stay on track and on message. Access all your snippets from any device
with a TextExpander account so you can give your entire support team the
current answers to all your customer inquiries.
•
You can also streamline your email and use the
fill-in-the-blank feature to create custom forms with multiple filed types and
sectors.
Alfred
Alfred (https://alfredapp.com)
is an award-winning app for Mac OS X. It's a workflow automation tool and a
hotkey tool that allows you to navigate your interface with your keyboard
rapidly. You can create and automate complex workflows that you trigger from a
hotkey.
• Launch applications
and find files on your Mac and the web. Alfred learns how you use your Mac and
prioritizes the results, saving you countless hours.
•
Alfred’s Powerpack feature uses powerful workflows
to perform tasks more efficiently, allowing you to cut down on the repetitive
manual tasks that eat up your valuable time.
IFTTT
IFTT (https://ifttt.com)
stands for If This Then That and is the free way to get all your apps and
devices talking to each other. With IFTT you can bring the Internet of Things
(IoT) into your pocket with mobile-based automation tools.
• Use widgets to run
specific Applets with the simple touch of a button on your iOS or Android
devices.
• Automate tasks
between a wide array of apps, services, and devices. Their web and mobile app
are easy to use and support IoT devices and voice assistants like Google Assist
and Amazon Alexa.
Shortcat
Shortcat (https://shortcatapp.com)
allows you to navigate your screen with your keyboard, effectively rendering
your mouse useless. It helps you to boost productivity by removing the need to
take your fingers off the keyboard.
• It leverages the
Accessibility API, which is supported by all applications that are included
with Mac OS X and many other applications.
• The program lets you
keep your hands on the keyboard to click, which saves you both time and energy.
Robotask
Robotask (https://robotask.com) is a powerful tool for
PC users who are committed to automating their workflow. The program allows you
to automate repetitive tasks on your PC that range from launching applications
to checking email.
•
With Robotask you won't have to create batch files
or write complicated scripts to develop simple or complex automation tasks. It
uses its visual interface to allow you to select and combine actions to fit
your needs.
• Create automated
tasks and automatically execute them when certain conditions apply.
Tallyfy
Eliminate the chaos from your business processes
with Tallyfy (https://tallyfy.com).
This workflow software turns your daily tasks and approvals into automated,
repeatable processes. It eliminates the pain of emails, calls, papers, forms,
and spreadsheets.
• You can easily map
existing flowcharts or SOPs into Tallyfy templates and simplify your work into
actionable steps that reflect real-life workflows.
• Its open API allows
you to connect to most of your existing tools.
Intercom
Catch, convert, and keep more customers with
Intercom (https://intercom.com).
Intercom is a customer messenger platform that allows your customers to get in
touch with you straight from the web. It’s perfect for sales, marketing, and
support.
• Use bots and live
chat to automatically qualify, route, and convert more leads in less time.
• Send targeted emails
and push and in-app messages to quickly onboard and engage customers, turning
more signups into paying customers.
Delivra (https://delivra.com)
is a results-driven email marketing automation platform that makes it extremely
easy to engage your audience and increase revenue.
• With its marketing
automation, you can deploy smarter email campaigns that are more efficient and
customized for your audience. You can create triggered responses, easily
segment subscribers, send emails based on consumer behavior and create dynamic
content.
• With weekly reports
delivered directly to your inbox, you can keep track of the progress and
performance of each email campaign. The weekly insights will provide you with
subject line analysis, the top-performing content, and the number of social
shares by channel.
Autopilot
Spark new customer relationships and rekindle
old ones with the simple and straightforward Autopilot (https://autopilothq.com) program. Engage with
your customers at the right time with personalized emails, SMS, in-app
messages, and postcards.
• Use the program to
connect to your apps and automate tasks to capture a richer view of all your
contacts and engage with them based on their behavior.
• Easily track your
performance to get insights into which messages convert, how your messages are
trending, and what is driving sales. Quickly visualize your revenue funnel and
optimize your process on the fly with real-time results.
mHelpDesk
mHelpDesk (https://mhelpdesk.com)
automates your customer contact, scheduling, billing, communications, and
everything in between. The program was designed to supercharge your repetitive,
manual business processes so you can focus on what really matters.
• Track every stage of
the job with complete visibility of your workflows. You’ll be able to see the
progress of every job in real-time. See every change in a job that has occurred
using the Activity Log feature and holds your team members accountable for
their actions.
• Save yourself time
and money and speed up your cash flow. In less than 60 seconds you can start
accepting Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover with the easy to set
up payment processing system.
As you start to put stable systems in place in your
online business, consider adding one or more of these powerful and easy to use
automation tools. Automating the repetitive and repeatable business tasks will
free up your time so you can focus your time and energy on the essential
functions required to grow your business.
Scale-Up Your Business to the
Next Level
Now that your online business is structured
correctly, and you have the right people in place to handle the essential
functions, the time has come for you to begin scaling your business. Having a
well-structured operation in place will provide you with the luxury of using
your own skills to grow the business in whatever area where you're an expert.
This is where most
people try to start their online business. The general thought is that if you
are an expert in a given area, that will be enough for you to start and run a
successful business. However, talent in one area is simply not enough.
You, unlike so many other small business owners,
have a distinct advantage. Unlike other online business owners, who quickly
find themselves in over their heads and scrambling to try and master a dozen
different tasks at once, you have a reliable system in place that has freed you
up from having to deal with every little task personally. Instead, you can
concentrate your efforts on utilizing your specific talents to grow your
business.
Scaling your business might seem overwhelming
at first when you're already swamped with work and home life. While it can be
challenging to find the time to focus on scaling your business correctly, the
following information can help you tackle the process without breaking a sweat.
A good part of scaling a business merely involves getting your ducks in a row
before you start ramping up business.
Create the Right Strategic Plan
Your strategic plan is the road map that
directs your company’s focus to the fewer and better things that will allow you
to dominate your market niche and create explosive growth. It prompts you to
look at the big picture. It also helps you to prioritize and allocate your
company’s resources to their best advantage. Finally, it helps align your team
on the big picture, so they can better manage their responsibilities and
contribute more to the needs of the company.
When it comes to creating your strategic
plan, you have to ask yourself the following three questions:
• Why is your company
in business? This first question cuts to the heart of why you’re in business in
the first place.
• What is your singular
goal? You need to think about the one goal that you are mobilizing all your
company resources to accomplish over the next three to five years.
• What’s in it for you
and your team?
Creating a strategic plan isn’t a one-time
activity, but one that will continually evolve as you learn, refine, and
re-create your business. Every quarter, you need to revisit your plan and map
out the next 90 days. You’ll want to determine your top three strategic
priorities for the coming quarter and write up a simple one-page plan of action
that specifies exactly what you must do that quarter to grow and develop your
business.
The reason why this process works so well is
that it forces you to take a fresh look at your business every three months
while also allowing your team to dive deep into the execution of actually
accomplishing meaningful progress on the areas of the most importance in your
business.
Done well, these
90-day sprints will reward your business with the most significant benefits of
regular opportunities to change and adapt to the market demands.
Measure
Effectiveness with Accounting
Sound systems have a way of increasing efficiency
throughout your business, allowing you and your employees to accomplish
objectives and give your customers what they want every single time. Your
business accounting should be the master system of your business that can
measure the effectiveness of all your business processes. Your accounting
system is the brain of your business, processing all of the data related to the
activities of your business and providing you with strategic information that
will allow you to drive growth and profitability.
In many small businesses, accounting is seen
merely as the system that is used to pay the bills, reconcile the bank, invoice
customers, and prepare tax returns. What many small business owners don’t
realize is that it is the perfect system for gathering business intelligence.
Your accounting information will reveal the
strengths and weakness of your business. It can tell you what went wrong in the
past and what can be done to improve in the future. The accounting systems you
use in your business can reduce large quantities of complex data into
understandable and straightforward information that contains the seeds of
solutions for all the problems your company may be facing. It is also the basis
for making critical business decisions.
To develop the perfect business requires
discipline and a systematic course of action. You must understand where you are
at, where you are going, and how you are going to get there. To do this, you
must use strategic information and systems to achieve financial control. When
managed correctly and grown correctly, your
business
can become profitable and reward stakeholders while creating economic and
personal freedom for you.
Every business has one or two "key
numbers" that drive its economic engine. If you want to be able to scale
your business, you have to have knowledge of and control over these numbers.
When this happens, everything else will fall into place. If you haven't already
identified these numbers, you need to do so now. Paying attention to these
critical numbers will make all the difference in your ability to scale and grow
into a successful business.
Focus
on Sales and Marketing
Every company has to
generate leads. If you don’t have any leads, then you won’t make any sales. If
you can’t make any sales, then you won’t have a business. It’s that simple. If
you want to sustainably scale your business, you have to evolve from growth
based on your personal production to growth based on the stable base of system,
teams, and controls you’ve established.
Sales are everything you do as a business to make
your offers as useful as possible and to close selling opportunities. Your
offers can be delivered in a variety of ways, from call centers taking phone
calls to trained sales reps, to sales letters to an interactive website and
everything in between. It is your sales and marketing efforts that will find
your clients, generate sales, and increase revenue.
Too many small business owners focus solely on
sales and marketing because they feel they have to as opposed to wanting to.
They feel intimidated by the idea of selling, but to be successful, they must
focus a majority of their energy on generating profitable sales. If you don't,
your business will never thrive, let alone survive.
When you first start
your venture as a small business owner, you focus your time and energy making
sure that sales happen, which usually means meeting with clients and closing
the deals yourself. As you begin to look at scaling your business, you have to
focus your attention on creating repeatable and scalable selling systems that
don't depend on your involvement to function. This might involve building
advertising systems that will generate leads, hiring and training new sales
reps to close deals, or eventually hiring a sales and marketing manager to take
over.
To build a sales and marketing department
that can function without you, the following systems need to be included in
your growth strategy.
• Lead generation
systems that can consistently generate the lead volume that is needed to make
sales.
• Lead conversion
systems to consistently convert leads into paying clients.
• Tracking and
reporting systems to measure the effectiveness of your marketing and sales
efforts. This will allow you to optimize your selling system over time.
Tacking your results is an essential part of
scaling your business. You can do this by creating simple spreadsheets that
tell you what is and is not working. After you've gathered the numerical data,
you can determine the best lead generators, the best lead converters, and the
best current client resellers and invest in scaling up those efforts.
The first step to removing obstacles to scaling
your sales and marketing efforts is to pinpoint your company’s most costly
lead-generation weaknesses. The following checklist can help you evaluate your
company's lead-generation challenges.
You don't have enough
leads to sell to, or your lead generation is erratic, and you don't have a
consistent lead stream you can't count on.
You don’t have a
system to organize and maintain your leads.
You don’t have a
structured lead scoring system.
You don’t
systematically track your lead-generating efforts.
You don’t have a
system to generate leads.
Your current
lead-generation processes aren’t scalable.
Your current cost per
lead is too high.
Your lead quality is
too weak.
You have a ton of
lead-generation ideas, but you just aren’t able to effectively implement them.
Your marketing is too
reliant on you.
Check the box for any of the challenges that are
currently hurting your business. If you check more than three boxes, go back
through the list and circle the one pain point that hurts your business the
most. This is where you will need to focus initially.
Five
Steps to Build a Baseline Lead-Generation System
It’s not enough for
you to just learn new tactics to generate leads and close sales.
You need to build the
systems that help you to accomplish these tasks.
The problem with having informal systems in your
business is that they leave your business vulnerable. If you get sick or busy,
there is no one else who knows how to do the fundamental processes that you
have stored in your head. Informal systems that are locked in the minds of you
and your key employees aren't scalable. Here are five steps to take to build
out your baseline lead-generation system so you can scale your business.
Step One: Determine
the Marketing Tactics to Focus on First
Look at all the lead-generation tactics that you've
used and picked your single most important one. This will be the tactic that
you will systemize first. If you're not sure
which
one is the most important, ask yourself if you could only do one thing to
generate new leads, what would it be?
Step Two: Draft the
Process Layer of How to Implement the Tactic
Using sticky notes, write down the steps that
you will need to follow to implement this marketing tactic. Each sticky note
should contain a single step. This is an effective way to document your process
because it frees up your mind to lay out the steps and edit them as you go.
Once you have the process of executing the marketing tactic, write it up into a
simple step-by-step recipe.
Step Three: Create a
Round Scorecard to Track the Tactic
The key to this step
is to gather relevant, objective data that will tell you how well your
marketing efforts are going. You need to be able to compare tactics to make
smart, strategic decisions about where to invest your time and money.
Step Four: Package
the Process
You need to determine
the best way to package the process that will ensure your team and business
follow the steps consistently to get the results you want. You need to ask
yourself, what the best format is to package the critical stages of the system
so that it is followed consistently.
Step Five: Implement,
Track, and Refine
When you pay close
attention and track the results from your lead-generating efforts, you’ll start
to spot opportunities to improve your system. You and your team will
continuously find ways to tweak and improve your baseline lead-generation
system so that you can continue to produce more and better-quality leads.
Implementing
Marketing Controls
When it comes to your marketing efforts, there are
four essential controls that you need to have in place to make sure that the
right steps are being taken, at the right time, to get the correct results. To
make sure your marketing systems continue to operate smoothly to produce quality
leads for your company.
Marketing Calendar
The first step to ensuring that the sales and
marketing systems you've put in place operate smoothly is to develop a
marketing calendar. Take the time to lay out your essential lead-generation
campaigns for the next 90 days on a standard calendar. Next, add the deadlines
for any key steps that are required for you to run that campaign successfully.
A marketing calendar is an excellent visual control
to make sure that you remain on track with the precampaign steps required to
make your lead-generation efforts successful.
Standardized
Marketing Collateral
Whether you develop a
template email that is sent to everyone who registers on your website, a glossy
white sales brochure your sales reps use, or a white paper that prospects can
download from your site, having standardized marketing collateral is an
effective control to make sure your prospects are getting your best sales
message.
Your marketing collateral will not only help
your prospects learn about your products or services, but they can be used to
train new employees on the product knowledge they will need to have to be a
productive member of your team. Start small and build out your marketing
collateral in bite-sized chunks.
Develop a Marketing
Scoreboard
Create a simple scoreboard that gives you the
high-level of results of your marketing efforts. Start by using the following
three numbers.
• Your Cost per Lead –
measure the total cost of a particular marketing campaign and divide it by the
total number of leads that were generated during a specific period. Knowing
your cost per lead helps you compare which lead tactics are the most
cost-effective.
• Your Cost per Sale –
measure the total cost of a particular marketing tactic and divide it by the
total number of sales you made from that tactic.
• The Return on
Investment – a powerful way to equalize various marketing tactics so you can
see which one has the most significant return on investment. Calculate it by
dividing the total sales you made with that tactic by the total amount you
spent on the tactic.
Implement a Customer
Relationship Management System (CRM)
Your CRM is the system you use to organize your
customer and prospect data and how you manage those relationships over time.
When used correctly your CRM can help your business
ensure that leads are appropriately captured and followed up with on a timely
and effective basis.
Hire
the Right People
To grow your business, you’re going to need
talented members of your team to both spark and support growth. Whether you are
adding new members to your sales team to increase sales or engineers to design
new products, your company's most significant source of leverage is its ability
to attract, hire, integrate, and empower talented employees.
One of the only ways for your company to create and
sustain rapid growth is for you to systematically make your business a place
where great talent wants to work. Here are some simple ways in which you can do
that.
•
Deliberately define and profile your ideal
employee. Take the time to establish a profile of your business’s perfect
employee. While the specific qualifications will vary between positions, you
can think of several common traits, beliefs, and drives that you want your
employees to encompass. Think about how you can build simple filters in your
hiring process to weed out any candidates that don’t fit into your profile.
•
Be selective about whom you invite on your team.
Great talent tends to thrive when working with other talented individuals. Keep
your standards high as you hire and consider upgrading weak team members as you
have the opportunity and cash flow to do so.
•
See the whole person and manage individually. While
your company has to have standard HR policies in place, you can still use your
common sense in applying those standards. The goal isn’t to treat all your
employees the same, but to produce amazing results by getting your team to
perform at its best.
•
Remove poor performers quickly. If you have poor
performers on your team, it is essential that you provide them with proper
guidance, coaching, and training. However, if after a time it becomes clear
that they can’t perform at the level of those around them, then you have to
remove them swiftly and decisively.
Now that you've found the right talent you can
begin to enlist them in developing ideas to scale and improve your company.
Every six months, ask each of your team members to go through the company,
department by department and write there three best ideas for scaling and
improving your business.
Once they've completed, the tasks spend some time
going over the results. Choice the top suggestions and hold a team meeting to
go over the results and allow them to help you pick out several of the best
ideas to implement in the company immediately.
Repeat this process over time and watch how your company benefits and improves with the ideas, as well as how your team responds and grows when they see you take their input and ideas seriously.
When it comes to
running a successful company, it is important to remember that your business,
as well as the markets you serve, are not static, but are in a constant state
of flux. This means that over time you'll need to refine and redesign your
systems and controls. The more you grow, the more that growth will require you
to evolve your systems.
Rapid growth will continue to make increasing
demands on your outdated systems. The systems that worked for a $500,000-a-year
business will no longer be sufficient
to
cope with a $5 million company. This is why you need to approach your systems
and controls as a work in progress as you continue to scale your business.
As you grow your business, your policies and
controls must grow with you if you want to run a successful business.