4 Things You Can Do to Streamline & Simplify Your Business For Growth
Business Growth Can Feel Messy — 4 Things You Can Do to Streamline & Simplify Your Business
Business expansion can be messy, particularly for solo business owners who are preparing to expand their team or automate their process. It can take a lot of work to go from working solo to managing a group and training new staff.
Here are 4 things you can do to simplify your business as you grow to make the transition a little bit easier.
Plan for Change
First, let’s have a think about the types of things that will change as your business expands.
Revenue
This is the fun one; more money is always exciting. It gives us the ability to produce more, invest in ourselves and our business, and even to consider hiring help. Plus, more income just plain feels good!
More Clients
Depending on who you ask, this can be a fun one or a stressful one.
More clients = more work. So we need to be prepared to handle the new workload; this might mean tightening our onboarding and client journey processes or hiring a team to help handle the extra work.
More Admin
Whenever we increase our client base, earn more money and produce more work, there is an inevitable increase in administrative tasks. Emails, bookkeeping, customer enquiries, and filing, just to name a few. To grow, we must anticipate this increase and have systems in place to manage the workload.
Growth is messy, but it can also be fun.
The key to managing your business growth is to be prepared. Preparation means planning. Planning for the increased workload, planning for training new staff, planning for dealing with the added responsibilities.
4 Things You Can Do To Simplify Your Business
It’s time to walk through the 4 things you can do to simplify and streamline your business in preparation for growth.
Automate Your Onboarding
If you don’t have a system in place for onboarding new clients, now is the time to set one up.
You can use automated welcome email packages, new client assessment forms or automated chatbots on your website and social media. These help clients feel seen, heard, and acknowledged, all while being nearly 100% automated.
Prepare For New Staff Before You Hire Them
Do you have procedure documents written up? If the answer is no, you might not be quite ready for staff members just yet.
For any tasks you want to outsource, create a guideline for your new team to follow. A step-by-step process list for each task will benefit you both; the new employee will know exactly what to do, and you won’t have to step in to micro-manage them!
Account for New Revenue
Make sure you have a plan for tracking your income; this includes receipts and any additional transaction information. If you already have an accountant or bookkeeping software, great! If not, you should look at your options.
These numbers don’t just help at tax time, but can show you things like:
- percentage increase in revenue
- best seller products/services
- or how frequently you are requested to refund
Revise Your Business Plan
Expansion is the perfect time to review and revise your business plan (you do have a business plan, right?). Think about where you’d like to end up and fill in the steps you need to take to get there. A business plan can help you decide when to hire or outsource, which products or services to focus on, and when to raise your prices.
Business growth is all about stepping up to a new level. This can sometimes mean scary changes, like moving from a solo entrepreneur to managing a team.
The key to thriving through an expansion period is to be prepared. Set up your systems, go in with a strategy and make sure each player knows their part.
It really can be that simple!
Originally published at https://www.optimiseandgrowonline.com.au on January 31, 2020.
