Picture of John Pyron, the Business Doctor

John Pyron, the Business Doctor

Key business processes and business management

On the Small Business Owner’s Mastermind call, we will discuss a different topic to cover the most important business points. In a week, we will talk about sales, a week about marketing, and operations in the third week of the month (which we talked about in this week’s issue), business accounting and finance in the fourth week, and then the month where there are five, we do a workshop.

 

Operations

This week’s topic was business systems, processes, operations, etc. So, to start, you should think, what were some of the best practices you learned, and what will you implement in the future? When we hire employees, we position them to the right, put them in the correct seat on the bus, train them, and then think we never have to follow up with them. So, what are some of the things you learned?

Technology expert Alan Reeves confessed to us that he is one of those people, like being a surgeon, who wants to be able to walk into his building in the middle of the night with no lights on and put his hand on the exact tool he wants. At any time, without turning on the lights, he has to be in his place.

For this reason, everything that enters or leaves our facilities, and everything in our clients’ locations, is labeled with the proper name, nomenclature, and naming scheme. And if you see something that is missing an identification marker, an address is assigned, it must be addressed at that time, no walk past and go. Oh, you know what, I’ll look at it tomorrow.

 

What should you do?

As a business owner, if you are starting now, you are in a much better place. Compared to this client that I just hired this week, which has about $3.7 million and 27 employees, and they have no processes or systems, I’m still in awe of how they got to where they are compared to the startup.

So you can learn now and start. I mean, you don’t have employees yet. That is what I would consider as you are in startup mode. Because until you have a payroll you’ve covered, you’re probably only self-employed right now.

Everything changes the moment you introduce the first person. Okay, and I’ll show you how to make that decision in a second.

So, as the owner, at some point, you will have to write the processes and systems. And then once you bring in that first employee, you must make sure you hire the right person at the right time, use evaluations, do background checks, and never hire anyone when you need it at the last minute. That way, you always make a mistake.

Then, you need to check and balance them. So, for me, in the companies that I own and have managed. In the companies that they consult, in the future, it is necessary to have a monthly or quarterly review, depending on the size of the business review with that employee.

If you are in a company that hires professionals to do a very special type of work that you do not know is very important, you have some checks and balances in place to make sure they are doing what you pay them to do.

So if everything you need in business, from a process and procedural point of view, were written in the book, we wouldn’t have enough pages to print the book, right? So what you have to do is start from where you are. Every time you bring someone in, you want to make sure they are better than you. Then, you use the proper delegation, ensure they understand what it is, are required to know what success is like how you currently do, and permit them.

This is where most small business owners fail, such as permitting them to own. Well, you are the owner of this process and system. Now, it’s up to you to make the upgrade and keep it up to date, but you can’t just leave it up to you; you have to check and verify it.

 

Roadmap

It is a step-by-step process. This is how you systematize your business at the end of the day if you want your business to function without you.

By the time you finish this exercise, you can be based on the time per week, and then you can decide if you will hire an employee right now. Or will I hire Joe or Mary, the US or the Philippines subcontractor, or wherever to take this task off my hands? And once you’ve got 20 or 30 hours to spare here, I’d look at an employee.

 

Alan Reeves Reflections

Many business owners go into business because they are good at what they do. They didn’t go into business because they love the process, payroll, human resources, compliance, OSHA, and everything their industry entails. And then they come to you guys, they come to John, well they come to business coaches, because they say, I don’t understand how to create a structure around a business.

So, I think it’s crucial that we identify the issues with the processes that need to be implemented and then have partners who know how to help them implement those processes and delegate where necessary. And whether some people use the outsourcing model, with what we do, we hire everyone to do their payroll, their human resources, and their risk in their business strategy together. And I think that’s what makes a business successful: getting people who are good at what they do and delegating what speaks to them as good.

 

Conclusion

You have to do all the nonsense in your business that you don’t want to do until you make enough money to hire someone to do the nonsense you don’t want to do. The only reason I’ve ever hired an employee is when I want them to do things that I don’t want to do, or I want them to do more of the things I am running out of time to do.

Our job as business owners is to create a structure and a system in which employees do not have to guess what is expected. Most employees don’t want to start their own business—some do—but most of them want to hear about it.

They want to come to work in a great environment, act, and leave feeling fulfilled. This is how you get to 95% utilization. Are you happy, do you want to be there? Well, the written processes, systems, procedures, and, especially, obtaining their input will help you have absolute freedom.

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