How to Streamline Your Small Business towards Steady Growth
Girl, you know you want to visit Target on a Tuesday afternoon with every intention that you’re going to buy what’s on your list. Nothing more, nothing less. But in reality, you walk out with 12 throws from Hearth & Hand (shoutout to Joanna Gaines–you the real MVP), all the Dollar Spot goodness, and a venti mocha with almond milk and no whip. Totally forgetting the dish soap and the 2% you came for.
A.k.a. living the dream.
You also know you want to do your retail therapy run with a clear conscience without the worry that your biz is growing, growing, growing while you’re off filling up that red cart and searching for the best Circle deals.
You’re not holding your business baby’s hand AND it’s doing better than A-OKAY. It’s gliding closer and closer towards your vision and it is on fiyaaa 🔥 (but, ya know, the GOOD kind)
How you might ask, can you get to this point of steady growth without the worry, without the overly strenuous growing pains, without handholding of your trusty team? And stay there?
Well, dahhhling, I’m glad you asked.
They’re called SOPs (standard operating procedures) and I’m here for them. Through the good, the bad, and the errrr, ugly I’ve seen it all. I know firsthand that SOPs are THE way to a steady beating business heart.
But it’s not just a matter of “I have this system in place now because Nikki says so” but an actual follow-through. The ability to realllllyyy put the SOPs into play so they work towards continuous growth.
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Operations make your biz go round. Literally.
Managing a team? Communicating with clients? Navigating a project management system? Providing the bomb.com service that your biz is based on? All part of the game.
With the right operating procedures in place across EVERY.SINGLE.ASPECT., your business can run on autopilot (or pretty dang near it) while you sit back and sip your mocha. Or maybe you want to binge Greys, kill the bag of chips, and spill that mocha because what?! Derek is back?! Whatever your jam, SOPs can give it to ya.
Sound appealing? Let’s continue. . .
MANAGE YOUR TEAM
You’ve gone from a one-woman show to a team of two or three or more! What’s that smell? Oh–that’s just your growth plan SIZZLING and getting ready to EXPLODE!
But managing a team isn’t all glam and glitz. Missed communications lead to project re-dos, wasted time, and clients who are not getting what they deserve.
You only serve up the best of the best and to do this you need to create expectations for your team.
Want to stick to your growth plan AND avoid fumbles along the way? That can happen with the management of deadlines, tracking, and tasks through stringent SOPs.
Another upside? If you need to onboard a new hire, either because you just keep moving up in the world OR you need a replacement, you can do it seamlessly with the already there systems. Hello, productivity.
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ORGANIZE YOUR BIZ
SOPs are all about organization and having the right processes and procedures. Think of the power you have by “setting them and forgetting them” as you scale to the top, pain-free!
You’ve got systems, you’ve got sustainability. And the peace of mind that:
- your newest client has been onboarded with all of the pieces. PHEW!
- the next big launch is COMPLETELY ready to roll. WOOT WOOT!
- EVERYTHING in your biz is running the way that it should because the SOPs let it run itself. OHHHEMMMGEEE!!
FUTURE PLANNING
You’ve got #goals for the future and you’re dead set on what you want your growth to look like. Now you need the path–and procedures– that’ll get you there.
You WANT to be that biz owner who’s not working round the clock, fueled by good ole’ caffeine. You WANT to be that entrepreneur who’s checking off her to-do list with a skip and a dance while she’s inching closer and closer to her dreams. You WANT to be that superwoman team leader who gets to take her daughter to dance lessons on a Thursday morning or go to brunch with the girls mid-week.
And you totally can be. You just need those SOPs.
