When you start out in business you throw things together and make them work. This works for the initial chaos of building a business, but it doesn’t work when you’re trying to stabilize and grow.
Henry David Thoreau said, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
You’ve built your dream castle and now it’s time to give it a firm foundation and support. It’s time to make sure it stands beyond you.
Support Your Foundation
What would happen if you “got hit by a bus”? Would your business survive? Could you just walk away and have your business continue to run?
What if you wanted to sell it…would the person purchasing it be able to get it up and running with minimal transfer time?
If not, your business castle is built on sand and one small storm could bring it to its knees.
One way to ensure you have a strong foundation for your business is to create and document your processes. Start small and high level. Get the basics written.
And do yourself a favor, don’t do it alone. You have tunnel vision when it comes to your business. You will go down rabbit holes and drive yourself crazy as you start to see all the things you could document.
As a client said to me once, “It’s like processes are mating rabbits! There are more and more every time you look around!”
Key Supports To Have
The key is, you don’t have to document everything. Just the key items. Figure out your customer and business journeys. That will give you the high level overview so that you can start to pick and choose the processes that will give you the most bang for your buck. These will be the main support for your business.
For your customer journey, think about how you attract new customers, how do
- they dip their tow into your world,
- they jump whole hog into your products (purchase 😝),
- you on-board them,
- you deliver, and once they’ve consumed your product,
- how do you keep them coming back for more?
For your business journey, think about how your team communicates with each other as your customer moves through their journey.
- Are there special team conversations or pass offs that need to happen as the customer moves through purchase to delivery?
- How do new products come about?
- Where has the business been and where do you want it to go?
Start with what you have in place right now. Don’t worry about the future or how you want things to be, that comes after you’ve figured out where you are now.
Whether you’re just starting out in business or have a team that is doing a good job but may be a little scattered and stressed, now is the perfect time to start getting your business “on paper”.
Need some help with getting started? Download the 3 Easy Steps to Identify Your First Process.
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