The biggest missing piece to a lot of small businesses is structure. Most small business owners jump in and start selling to make money. They hit brick walls with growth and scale because there was never structure created in the business. Here are four high-level areas to create structure in your business to set a foundation for business growth with systems of repeatable processes.
- Structure around your offer. I can’t talk enough about the client journey as the GPS for setting the structure for the operations of your business. The full client journey is all about how you get the client to, through, and out of your offer. Need more information on the client journey, go HERE. What happens within each step and what happens to get from step to step.
- Structure around your technology. To quote one of my tech gurus Chris L. Davis of Automation Bridge, “You don’t purchase tech. You hire tech.” In fact, small business owners hire tech before they hire people. Technology is what allows small businesses to compete in the same area with larger companies with more capital, more reach, more offerings, and more people (learn more HERE). Start with the technology needed within and to connect the steps of the client journey, then look at each department of your business: financial, administration, and marketing.
- Structure around the team. It is hard to grow a small business and near impossible to scale it without people resources. Whatever tech can’t do, enter people to save the say. There are doers, thinkers, and decision-makers as the three types of people on your teams (see more about the types HERE). But for the people to be set up for success, be productive, and help to bring in the most money, they need good structure. In fact, anytime you are having problems with a team member, check the structure first: processes (their how-to do their job) and procedures (their when and where to do their job).
- Structure around clients. Structuring clients is all about creating processes around clarity. Create structures that clarify what the client receives, how they receive it, how often they receive it, and when they are done receiving it. Create structures that clarify how clients are to communicate during their offer, where files with be stored and how will they be organized. Create structures that correctly shape client expectations by clarifying your business days and hours, response time, and the impact of their actions or inactions. Create structures that clarify and solve client problems: client feedback system, refund policies, and cancellation/termination policies.
If you need help setting the structure for your business, we need to talk!! ShaCannon.info/talk