Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @SweetProcess. Owen McGab Enaohwo is co-founder of SweetProcess, an application developed to document repetitive tasks that eat up precious time for a small business owner, giving you the systematization you need to scale and grow your business. For more info, visit http://www.SweetProcess.com
SmallBizLady: What are some of the signs that your business needs to be systematized?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: You have become the bottleneck in your business because you are the only one who knows how stuff gets done correctly and without you everything stops. Your employees always come to you for answers and direction for the same things over and over again or your customers complain that they are not getting the results that they desire and their experience is not predictable.
Whenever you hire a new employee you scramble trying to figure out how to get the employee up to speed and the same thing happens when you let go of an employee – you scramble trying to figure out what he/she was responsible for and how they got tasks done.
SmallBizLady: What are a few examples of the most significant transformations you have seen a company experience as a result of systematizing their business?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: McDonalds, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and Cold Stone Creamery are just a few examples of well-known, multi-million dollar companies that are literally run by teenagers because of the systems.
Phil Thomas, founder and CEO of Got Memories is able to only work 15 minutes a week, travel the world and yet generate over $200K annually in profit because his business is systematized.
Misty Young purchased a struggling restaurant without any systems, a restaurant that did not have a means to accept credit cards at the time she bought it. She systematized the entire business and now it successfully generates over $4 million a year in sales without her.
SmallBizLady: Why should you document procedures for your business in order to systematize it?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: A business that is systematized is made up of a number of systems which are all working together to achieve a specific outcome. An individual system in a business is made up of one or more policies and one or more processes and a process is made up of one or more procedures which literally is a document that outlines step by step how to correctly perform a specific task in your business.
Using driving analogy, a policy is a rule that you have to follow and abide by, just like the rules that you have to follow when driving a car. A process is a high level map just like a road map and a procedure is the step by step directions that you have to follow in order to get where you want to get to.
So at the very least, in order for you to systematize your business, you will need to start documenting procedures for every repetitive task in your business so that your employees can know exactly how to perform them.
SmallBizLady: What is the first thing the listener should do to get started with documenting procedures for their business?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: The first thing to do is to find the biggest bottleneck of your time and prioritize the list and eliminate anything on the list that is not required for your business to function. Once you prioritize your tasks, start with the most time consuming task and document a procedure for how to get the task done.
After you have documented a procedure for the task on the top of your list, the next thing to do is delegate the task to your employee so that they can follow the procedure and use it as a checklist as they work on the task.
After you have successfully delegated the task on the top of your list to your employee, move down the list to the next prioritized bottleneck and repeat steps 1 through 3.
SmallBizLady: How do you document a procedure for the task that generates the most revenue for your business?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: By now you should have freed up more time to use to focus on those tasks which generate the most revenue for your business. Follow these steps to document a procedure for the task in your business that is responsible for generating the most revenue.
- Step 1: Identify the tasks that generate revenue for your business and prioritize them
- Step 2: Document the procedure for your employee(s) to follow to complete the revenue generating task
- Step 3: Identify the best employee capable of executing the revenue-generating task and delegate it to them
- Step 4: Measure the results delivered by the employee and make improvement to the procedure when necessary
- Step 5: Move down the list to the next prioritized revenue generating task and repeat steps 2 through 4
SmallBizLady: What are the 7 reasons why documenting a procedure for your business is actually profitable?
Owen McGab Enaohwo:
- Allows someone who makes less money than you to properly handle your tasks
- Makes you more efficient and eliminate unnecessary costs
- Makes your employees more efficient and reduce expenses
- Improves communications between your employees and enable them avoid costly mistakes
- Makes it easier to hire new employees to scale your business; improve new hire training, reduce training duration, and cut costs
- Makes your business safer, prevent employees from getting hurt on the job and reduce costs due to worker’s comp.
- Helps you avoid legal issues, cut insurance costs, fines and lawyer fees
SmallBizLady: How DO I document non-boring procedures that my employees will actually use to get tasks done correctly?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: Appeal to your style of learning, appeal to intrinsic motivation, show the big picture, give employees ownership by empowering employees to suggest improvements, and recognize those who actually suggest improvements to encourage other employees to get involved and keep those who suggest improvements engaged.
SmallBizLady: How do I document procedures for my business if I do not have the time or I am not good at documenting procedures?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: By recognizing that you do not enjoy the process of documenting procedures and that you do not have the time to document procedures for your business.
Solution #1: Instruct one of your employees to document your procedures. Talk about typical costs, pros and cons.
Solution #2: Hire a systems consultant to document your procedures. Talk about typical costs, pros and cons.
Solution #3: Hire a Process Designer to document your procedures. Talk about typical costs, pros and cons.
SmallBizLady: How do I calculate the return on Investment (ROI) of paying someone to help document procedures for my business?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: Let’s assume your time is worth $150 an hour. In this example it doesn’t make sense for you to spend hours documenting a procedure when you can simply have an employee that makes $25 an hour document the procedure. Let’s say it takes two hours to document a single procedure. That’s $300 if you do it yourself at $150/hr. In this example, having an employee document the procedure will only cost you $50.
SmallBizLady: What is the quickest and easiest way to document a procedure?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: The quickest and easiest way to a document procedure for a repetitive task you already know how to do is to create a “Minimum Viable Procedure”; a skeleton procedure that has only the title of the procedure and the titles of each step of the task. Essentially, you do not have to fill out the details each step just yet, I will explain.
Just like when a house is being built, the builder first starts with the foundation (<<<— the title of the procedure) and then erects the wooden/iron framework for the house (<<<— the title of each step in the procedure). Then later they add in the walls based on the framework (<<<— the details of each step in the procedure).
So whenever you are about to start working on a repetitive task, create a Minimum Viable Procedure with just the title of the procedure and as you get work through the task enter in the title of each step of the task. Do not enter in the details of each step.
Later on get your more experienced staff or managers to enter in the details for you. Then once they are done entering in the details of each step, review the entire procedure and test it to make sure it delivers the results you want and it is easy to follow.
SmallBizLady: How can I improve my hiring and training process for my employees? / How can I improve my new employee on-boarding process?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: You can improve your hiring and training process by conducting exit interviews whenever an employee resigns or quits. This way you can find out what was wrong with your company so you can improve. Also you can improve your hiring and training process by conducting interviews with your best employees to learn of all their behavior assessments so that you only bring on new employees who match closely behavior-wise with your best employees.
SmallBizLady: What are 7 books that I should read if I want a systematize business that runs without me successfully?
Owen McGab Enaohwo:
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
- Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter
- Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
- Get Your Business to Work! 7 Steps to Earning More, Working Less and Living the Life You Want by George Hedley
SmallBizLady: How can I make sure that my employees to help me document procedures for my business?
Owen McGab Enaohwo: Tell them that they are not promotable if they are not replaceable.
If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9 pm ET; follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter. Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e
For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.
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