There comes a time in every business when hiring a team is the next logical step.
Not only does this allow you to move day-to-day tasks off your plate, but it can actually help you grow your business — all while focusing on the tasks you actually ENJOY! Ah! Can you just imagine it?
This post may contain affiliate links. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
However, before you take the leap into outsourcing or hiring a team, it’s important to make sure your ducks are in a row. By this, I mean having a business process in place.
While this may not seem like a huge priority, NOT having a business process in place when you hire a team can mean:
- Inconsistency in your branding and/or content
- Decreased productivity among your contractors or employees
- Lost time and money due to lower efficiency
- Inconsistent or subpar customer service
To avoid these issues, keep reading.
5-Steps to Analyze and Create a Business Process
I will show you how to analyze and create a business process that will keep your business running smoothly — before and after you hire a team.
Not sure if you need this information? Well, this is for you if:
- You're just getting started with creating your business processes
- You have some processes in place but aren't sure if they are actually working for you
No matter what, you're going to build a helpful business process or you're going to improve the ones you already have. So keep reading.
1. Define Your Organizational Goals
Before you even start drafting your business process, I’d recommend defining your business’ organizational goals.
Organizational goals can be defined as “strategic objectives that a company's management establishes to outline expected outcomes and guide employees' efforts”.
In other words, they are the main purpose of all those tasks and processes you and your team will be working on.
Think of organizational goals as the broader, overarching goals for your business. For instance, the organizational goal of an SEO company might be “to help our clients improve their search rankings and earn more money through Search”.
Keeping this goal in mind will help you figure out the goal of your process — which leads us to #2.
2. Define the Goal of Your Process
Once you’ve defined your organizational goal, you can start working on your specific goal for the business process you want to create.
A few examples could be:
- “To attract qualified leads through our content marketing strategy”
- “To grow our social media following and to convert these leads to email subscribers”
- “To increase customer retention through developing and implementing an onboarding process”
You’ll notice that in each example, the goal of each process is very specific, and is tied to a core business goal — for instance, attracting, converting, or retaining customers or clients.
3. Map Out the Specific Steps of Your Process
Now you’re really getting into the nitty-gritty of the process.
It’s time to define each step of your process, from start to finish. Be sure to include specific deadlines for each task, where relevant.
Some questions to help you map out the process are as follows:
- What triggers or starts the process? (e.g., a customer email, an email opt-in, etc.)
- What happens after the process is triggered? Be sure to note down any materials involved, business systems needed, metrics that need to be tracked, etc.
- Where does the process end? (e.g., Once someone books a discovery call? Or purchases a product?)
- List all the tasks needed in between the process being triggered and the process being completed.
And don't overcomplicate things. You can start simply by documenting your process in a Word document or a Google Doc.
However, if you are a highly visual person who likes to see the flow a free business process tool like Heflo can help!
4. Decide Who is Responsible for Each Step
This is SUPER important!
For each step of the process, you noted down in #3, decide exactly who is responsible for each task. The more specific you are, the better.
For instance, the process of writing a blog post might involve the following steps:
- Do keyword research: Samantha completes research and submits to Donald on the 1st of each month.
- Write a blog post: Donald writes weekly blog posts and then emails Jessica on the 7th of each month for final approval.
- Publish final blog post: Jessica reviews blog posts on the 15th of each month and schedules posts for publication.
Don’t be afraid to be really specific, as this removes the ambiguity that could lead to gaps in your process. And speaking of gaps —
5. Identify Gaps
Finally, it’s time to test and analyze your process. Implement your process for several weeks — or months, depending on your business cycle — and then meet with your team to identify anywhere the “ball is getting dropped” along the way. Then brainstorm solutions.
Some questions to ask at this point include:
- Are we meeting the specific goal for this process? (e.g., increased opt-ins, discovery calls, etc.)
- Have we had any customer complaints about this process?
- Are we experiencing any bottlenecks along the way?
Once you’ve noted down any gaps in your process, fix them! Then repeat the whole process periodically to identify new gaps or issues.
Keep Your Process for Team Building and Outsourcing Easy
The above is an example of an extremely simple business process. However, most of the time, this is all you’ll need.
Leonardo di Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
So keep it super simple. The more complicated your process is, the harder it will be to follow. And the less likely your team will be to actually follow it.
Once you’ve worked your way through the process, make sure to write it all down and make sure your new team members have (and follow) it! This will ensure consistency and increase productivity. Ultimately you will save time, money, and frustration!
Which business process are you going to create this week? Let me know in the comments below!
UPDATED on September 5, 2022
