Episode 68 | WHY Streamline Your Processes in Your Business?

Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. Today, we are going to be speaking about how you as a business owner can start streamlining your processes and developing standard operating practices. These are foundational elements in your business that you need to get ahold of now, as you're starting to build your business. So that way, when your business grows and flourishes, and you add team members, you're not getting all confused and mixed up with the processes that are required to run your business smoothly. We had a major growth spurt with Also Sophia, and we had to really nail down our processes quickly so we could delegate out tasks to our team members. 
 
And again, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a small business owner, as a startup, it doesn't matter what line of business that you're in, it can be a nonprofit, it could be healthcare, it could be for-profit. There are SOP, Standard Operating Practices, required at all levels of business and in all sectors. You'll notice there is a Standard Operating Practice for people in the McDonald's drive-through. Obviously, that was the way McDonald's scales. They had to have these Standard Operating Practices already established in one location, and then they disseminated it out to all the rest of their locations. That's why your chicken McNuggets at one McDonald's tastes exactly the same at another McDonald's. It's prepared likely exactly the same way with the same number of steps, but by different people. And that's why the model is scalable.  
 
Now, regardless if you are looking to create a great big enterprise or if you're looking to have a lifestyle business where you can work on your own terms, it doesn't matter. Having a Standard Operating Practice or SOP will help ensure that the results you want are achieved by different people if you were to hire them. Now, with our business, Also Sophia, we have processes in place for things like filing customers' claims if there are damaged items. We have Standard Operating Practices for how we do our social media. And then we have Standard Operating Practices of how we onboard influencers for Influencer Marketing campaigns. So it doesn't matter who is running the show that day, it doesn't matter if I'm doing it or another team member's doing it. We try to stay true to the Standard Operating Practices so that way then we know that the results will be achieved the same way. There won't be some missing part on some level of confusion if some other team member takes over. 
 
The same is true with podcast editing. We have a team who is assisting us with editing the podcast. Shout out to the team. They are doing a wonderful job. And of course, there is a process or a procedure that we follow so that way no one is chasing anyone else. We all know that certain things are due at certain points in the week, and we all know where to find them. And so these are really simple things, but I want you to think for a moment about your own business or your own startup or your own Etsy shop, whatever it may be. It could even be a Standard Operating Practice at home. Really, if you think about it, we use these Standard Operating Practices throughout our day with simple things like getting our kids ready to go to school, who's making the meals. These are processes in play even though you may not have it strategically written down. So if you are wanting to your business to grow, if you are the type of individual like, okay, you know what, I don't want to be working by myself forever. I do want to have a team one day. I do want to have my business work for me rather than me working in my business. And if those are things that you want to accomplish, you have to be able to delegate out your tasks. And the best way to do that is to have a Standard Operating Practice already ready to go.  
 
If your Standard Operating Practices are already ready to go, it's very easy then to make video tutorials on how to achieve that process. That's what I did when we hired our first team member. I literally made videos of how I would like my process to be completed, how I would like the procedure to be completed, and that became the Standard Operating Practice. And so now I know that any team member who comes and joins us, can watch the same tutorial, and now they know that this is how to do the job. It also helps with making the team members feel a bit more confident. They're not guessing. They don't have to come back and ask you questions although, that's always available to them if they do need to speak to you. But the point is if you start now really strategically thinking, okay, if I get an order and how do I complete that order? What are the steps that I need to take? Or if I get a complaint, how do I achieve the maximum results so my customer's still satisfied even though there's been a complaint. There are things that you're doing already in your business. So think about them and start putting a procedure on them. And then it actually becomes less work, if you think about it.  
 
Even if you're working as a solopreneur, it will become less work because then you'll know exactly what needs to be done. And in the event that you can't do it and you can delegate off to even a family member or a best friend, then you can say, hey, I really need help with these things because it's going to become a busy season. Especially for many of us who are filling orders for Christmas and the holiday season, we will get slammed. And it wouldn't be great to just say, I already have training for you. Just go ahead and watch the video and help me out. So that's my first tip. Really dial down on what are the processes and steps that you're taking on a daily basis in your business? It could even be for home again. I feel like business and home collide so much, are so intertwined that you can take a lot of tips from business and apply them to your home life. So think about what can you do that can really streamline your processes and you can package it nicely into a Standard Operating Practice. Write it down, and then you should be able to go ahead and make a video tutorial if you're at that level. If you're at that point and the process requires some type of visual. And when I say make a video, I mean like screen record your computer because imagine that most of your processes might be online and even if they're not, if it's something to do with how to package your item, you can record quite easily using your phone these days and upload it into a Google doc. Very simple things, but it will make the world of difference when you do plan to bring somebody on. 
 
Another great tip when you do plan to grow your business is I really like the technique of having one man for one job. And I know at the beginning, you're one man, one woman to a bunch of jobs. Another tip that I really like is one person-to-one job. And I know at the beginning, you're a solopreneur, you're one person to probably a hundred jobs, let's face it. But if you can think about it this way, you can say, okay, in the future, I'm going to have a social media manager who is going to be dealing with all the copy for my social media. I'll have one social media manager to deal with all the engagement. I'll have one social media manager available to do all of my posting and scheduling, and that can be a scheduling person. I like that technique, and I like us to think about it so that way, we can really divide up our tasks into buckets. And as you realize that your bandwidth, your energy, your time, your resources are being depleted, you can look at that bucket and you can say, I really don't like writing copy.  
 
If I have to write another post, I'm done and over with business. Because eventually, you will run out of stamina and you'll run out of steam, and it's good really dial down on what is causing you to feel depleted. A lot of people are energized when they do work because they get in a flow state, and they really enjoy what they're doing. But then there are others that, oh, I can't stand it. I can't stand copywriting, for example. That's not me. I'm just giving an example of something that somebody might say. I don't like copywriting. I don't like to write captions for my podcasts. I don't like to write captions for my posts on social media, whatever. It could be something along those lines. 
 
If you know that is going to deplete your energy, you're not going to enjoy that, you're not in a flow state, you could say, okay, I'm going to hire a copywriter on contract who can then write all my copy for everything, and then I don't need to write copy anymore. You could take the photos, you could schedule it for example, and then you can say, hey, they're ready for the captions to be written, or, hey, my blog posts are ready to be tweaked based on the points that I made. Whatever it is. If you can say one person for one job, then it makes it easier to delegate out those jobs. It also holds people really accountable because right now at the beginning, you're trying to figure things out, and you may hire a VA for example, a virtual assistant. And they're meant to be there to help you with everything. 
 
But sometimes, when there's too much stuff for you to provide to your VA, you get confused and you're like, I don't know how to ask them, or I don't know what to ask them for support. And that could be a bad thing if you don't know how to access or rely on your VA because you're really confused. So if you bucket your tasks and priorities and you say, I want my VA to do copywriting for me, or I want my VA to first start with scheduling, I want my VA to help me with my website, whatever it is. If you bucket your tasks and you can say, okay, I really don't like this task. I'm going to be delegating it out. And that will make your entrepreneurial journey a little bit more enjoyable.  
 
Okay, the final tip I have on streamlining your processes and starting to align your SOP, or your Standard Operating Practices is really dialed down on the number of products and services you are offering. And I am extremely guilty of this. I tend to get carried away with everything that I want to offer. I tend to want to give you the world. I want to give you everything that comes in my head and put it out on paper, and wrap it up in a nice bow and give it to you. But sometimes when you offer too much or you give too much variety, it makes it very difficult for the client or your customer to actually carry through and make the purchase and the transaction. And so our goal ultimately is to either sell our product and provide a service that way, or we want to see a transformation in our client and so they have to purchase because we say that if they're not purchasing, then they're likely to carry out and commit to making that transformation. So we do need them to put some skin in the game through a transaction so they can actually follow through and get that that we're looking to help them achieve. 
 
So for a client and a service-based business, I would really nail down on maximum of three programs. I wouldn't do more than that because if you do more, it becomes really confusing for the client. And we can do another episode on this, but if you can start with a really entry-level product that allows them to understand who you are, get a feel for your teaching style, and get a feel for the rhythm and harmony that you may both have together as a client or a coach, or a client and service provider. That's how I look at that. And that can go across the board. You can do mini sessions. For example, as a photographer, you can do one-on-one consults in a number of different fields. As a cake or baker, you can provide samples in different forms before they order the big cake for a big occasion. And then once they get a sampling of your service that you're providing, they will likely go onto the next thing in your value chain. And again, we'll do an entire episode on this. I think it's extremely important. the takeaway here is to have only three products. Do not offer the world. Have an intro product. Have a product for individuals who are a little bit more invested in you and then have a final product where they are at the top of their game and they just need that additional support from you. And that can be with everything from photography, real estate agents, all the way to a coach. And I feel like if you really hone in on service-based businesses, there is a natural value ladder in all levels of consulting. So you can do a deep dive on that if you like, but that's my suggestion. Don't boil the ocean, just focus on three.  
 
And then the same goes for any product-based business. We tend to offer our customers a lot of choices. And sometimes when we do that, we offer them too much choice. And then too much choice comes uncertainty and indecision. So I say, don't offer your customers more than three varieties per product. So for example, if I was a shoe business, I would only offer my customers three colors in one style. No more. So they can have a black shoe or white shoe and a red shoe, done. And then the next style could have an array of different colors. You may also see this with larger companies where they only offer you a certain variety of colors. I know there are a few companies out there that offer you every color in the rainbow but generally, when there's more than three, there is going to be a level of indecision from your client or from your customer. I have a really good example of this too that happened to me recently. We were at a tea shop, and it was a high tea shop. It was gorgeous, beautiful in our local community here, and they had so much tea. They had like over a hundred flavors of tea. And because it was so many different varieties of tea, I didn't know which one to pick. And so, I was going to walk out with a bag of tea. My plan was to, of course, have the tea party, the Thai tea with my family, and then buy a bag of tea. But because there was so much tea, I didn't know which one to pick. And so I didn't purchase. Great example right there. There were just too many options. If they had perhaps given me like 20 options, I don't know, maybe I would have finally made a decision. But because there were just too many options, I was like, forget it. I'm going to decide later and come back the next time. Failed opportunity right there. Again, that might not be the situation for everyone. But my suggestion is if you are looking to really dial down on the number of products you're offering, it actually might help convert your customers and make it easier for them to make that final decision and check out.  
 
Okay guys, let's go from the top and go through the three tips we have for streamlining your processes and establishing your SOP, your Standard Operating Practices. So the first is, of course, to identify processes that you're already doing in your business. And again, this can go to your home life as well. Try to write down the processes and if possible and if appropriate, take video and do video tutorials so that when you do hire a team member or you do delegate a task to somebody, you already have those video tutorials or training available for your team.  
 
The next is to try to think of one person per job. And that way, if there's something that you do not like doing, so for example, the copyrighting. If I don't like doing it, then I can say, I'm going to hire a VA to do all my copywriting for all my projects. Simple example. And this will help you then align things that you enjoy doing in your business to things that you do not like doing in your business. Another great example is picked and pack. I'm sure if you've been on our journey together with Also Sophia, you'll know that I do not like to package my products. I love that our customers get them, but to package them up every single day was becoming a nightmare for me. And so, that was one job that was passed on and delegated to a warehouse. So that's another great example and a very obvious example. if you ask me, and I think many product-based businesses would agree that picking and packing your products take so long that that's an obvious first delegated task for many product-based businesses.  
 
The final tip was, do not offer too much variety to your customers and your clients. For product-based businesses, I say three variations per design. And for service-based businesses, three products, and then perhaps have it in a value ladder arrangement so they have the opportunity to come in at a lower price point or even a free price point the next tier, and then the final tier would be where they really need a high touch and high expertise from you. 
 
Okay, guys, that is all we have for today. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and then you took a couple of takeaways. Remember, really dial down on your processes and your SOPs. Make sure that you are thinking about them strategically. And think about how you can always delegate off tasks that may be weighing on you and take the joy out of your entrepreneurial journey. We want you to enjoy this. We want you to feel energized, and we want you to really ensure that you're not burning out because we want you to really take away the best parts of owning your business. Okay, we will talk to you guys next week, same time, at the same place. And remember, make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all.