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How to Scale-Up Your Processes and Systems For Business Growth
Updated: Jan 7
Are you looking to scale up your business process and systems while letting go? – Welcome to the everyday entrepreneur challenge!
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. “ – Benjamin Franklin
Every successful entrepreneur knows that business growth and diversification rely on you to delegate and take a step back from running the show.
As such, every startup should have a solid growth strategy plan, and every strategy must include:
Your value proposition and selling point
Target customers and market segment analysis
Efficient People and Talent Management hiring systems
Optimized Process and Systems
Performance management and KPIs
Prudent financial control and budget forecast plans
Scaling up a startup business is typically a 10% strategy and 90% execution, where robust processes and systems come in. Your processes – the way you do things – can even be a source of competitive differentiation, especially if you can systemize and automate effectively.
All startups and entrepreneurs reach the point where their business is scalable and ready to grow.
Identify the Process & Pain Points
We get it! Your startup business is a product of your conception and successful delivery. You nurtured it through the early stages of life, observing as it first crawled, then rose to walk among others in the business world.
Just as a child is prepared for their first day of school to scale up your baby, you must now be ready to 'let go and watch it grow!'. Falling and scraping a knee is a common occurrence for maturing children. What does a grown-up do in these situations? The parent or guardian applies an antibacterial ointment to prevent infection in the area.
To automate your business thoroughly, you should have a good idea of the business processes that you and your team use every day. These are across all areas of your business, from sales lead generation and digital marketing to hiring a team and reconciling your cash flow.
Once you have a good idea of the processes, you will identify the pain points or "chokeholds" that create unnecessary headaches and delay for the business to operate as elegantly as you would like. These are ideal areas for you to explore automating to maximize your business productivity.
Simplify the Process to Automate
One of the critical rolling blocks is the time it will take to organize and align those process areas that would benefit from simplification and automation. Don't let this stand in your way.
There is no replacement for preparation and making sure you invest in researching the optimum solutions to fit your business operations requirements, i.e., don't buy a full ERP suite of modules if you only require HR and Finance. Is outsourcing your digital marketing and content creation the best option in the short term? As you start to hire permanent staff, is payroll outsourcing the right fit for you?
A few areas that would typically benefit from process automation and potentially outsourcing:
New Hire Training – From new hires to those employees taking on new roles, an automated training system can reduce actual human resource work hours while presenting immediate ownership benefits to the trainees.
Streamlining invoice operations – Automating the collectibles and bill-paying process alone will create self-sufficiency for managing your cash flow. In addition, utilizing cloud accounting software can eliminate some day-to-day bookkeeping duties of your employees.
Managing Payroll and Expenses – For businesses of all sizes, it's a good idea to have an expert looking after your payroll, expenses, pensions, and personnel benefits. Several companies offer payroll outsourcing facilities, which is generally a sensible option if you're not an expert. For your staff morale, everyone wants to get paid and correctly!
Other outsourcing opportunities include digital/social media planning, sales and lead generation, supply chain, and IT operations.
As an entrepreneur, you realize that business growth will require additional office space or staffing or significant investment in technology. So investigate carefully in this area before you make a substantial capital expenditure in purchasing new assets.
More prominent corporations were quick to create in-house advertising/marketing, payroll, and other departments in years past. However, if you are no longer the status quo as businesses (large and small) have developed the outsourcing process, the "freelancing" movement is on the rise. Check out these websites – Upwork, Fiverr, and Business Talent Group. Software and process automation areas may be part of your answer, to name a few in these areas. Still, you'll need to weigh all the factors involved and the immediate impact on your cash flow.
Managing Your Performance
Now that you've identified and implemented new and improved processes, perhaps invested in some new technology to improve productivity further, focus now on running the show.
Everything discussed boils down to creating an atmosphere where overall performance is vital to you and the team and will continue to improve as you scale your business further. Don't forget about Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and management dashboard reporting.
Utilize systems automation, implement reporting metrics and other newly created business operation methods to track areas of importance such as website traffic, new customers (and immediate added value by your company). For example, how much return is on your marketing/advertising spending, advertising spends versus marketing channel, i.e., spending £120 to run a daily Facebook campaign that only delivers £30 return on investment (ROI) in customer spend.
Enacting these business changes can result in you returning to your entrepreneurial roots, looking at different ways to improve this business (or even branch out into a related entrepreneurial opportunity). Determine areas of need (production roles or sales training, e.g.) and take a direct interest in improvement.
You may be surprised how much more you will accomplish now that you have delegated many daily business procedures.
Are You Ready to Simplify Your Business?
It's pivotal for a business to have concise and well-developed business processes and procedures to provide the best chance of ongoing business success and scalability. If you're still struggling to develop your business efficiently, check out our future scale-up articles for even more help. Let's talk!
To learn more about the Noirwolf Consulting team and how we can help you scale your business operations, contact us today.
About Noirwolf Consulting
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Our business plan development process includes all critical aspects to help you create a successful business plan customized to meet your individual needs, whether it is starting your business or looking to secure a bank loan.
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