In 2006, the Victorian Government implemented a program called Business Continuity. The program addressed the devastating impact of a decade-long drought on hundreds of small businesses in local communities.
Companies were subjected to a SWOT analysis, reviewed against their strategy and financial position, and given a plan to generate cash flow.
A year later, the unique challenges facing these businesses became apparent. Most alarmingly, the small business owners themselves were operating as if they were a business, not a business.
Many chose to work below minimum wage and prepay suppliers, landlords and banks rather than themselves. Most of them worked unusually long hours, were mentally exhausted, and were mentally ‘finished’. However, this is as common today as it was then in small businesses, in all Australian and New Zealand suburbs, regions and cities.
Small business owners are often in a vicious cycle of cash flow, having too much debt to exit the business, but making only enough money to pay their bills.
They work long hours at full capacity and in dangerous conditions.Employer must allocate time to work upon not only their business of to make it sustainable.
Are Key Persons at Risk?
Building a scalable business means keeping individual elements of the business from being dependent on one person, especially the business owner.
The greater the risk to key people in your business, the more likely something will go wrong and affect your business viability and business continuity.
This risk can involve anyone with a mission-critical role.
If they leave the business, this has catastrophic consequences and represents what engineers call a single point of failure.
Consultants like to ask, “What would happen to a business if a key person in the business was hit by a bus?” Interestingly, most entrepreneurs and managers are willing to bet that this will never happen. They keep thinking that’s how small businesses run, but that’s not true.
Seeing your business like it’s a big company now, in terms of “making yourself a surplus,” is key to long-term success.
“See you in six months”
The concept of systems thinking was first introduced in a book by Michael Garber. Electronic myths revisited, why most small businesses fail and what to do about it.
Gerber says that several small and medium-sized businesses have been able to create repeatable and scalable operational processes and procedures that enable entrepreneurs to grow their businesses or do what they really love to do within their businesses. Introduce the reader to a company case study.
This process has been life-changing for millions of business owners and has inspired thousands around the world.
Gerber’s test of whether he owns a small business or a job at a small business run by a business system involves answering the phone, ringing the job bell, and saying, “Hi, It’s me, look at me,” he famously said. you half a year later 』
To do this, you need to develop capabilities away from key people in your organization and incorporate processes and policies into your business systems. Small businesses now have access to the best computing and software systems available today.
Document and organize everything
The arduous tasks of document creation and cataloging are often unfamiliar to small business owners and historically undervalued compared to technical and highly operational tasks.
But if we can’t take the time to capture the differences in a system that documents how we do things in this space, we can’t maintain or replicate our competitive advantage. It is unlikely that you will be able to
Only by doing business and gaining a competitive advantage in business systems can you easily access critical information, produce consistent results, and build business capability. Tips for documenting and recording business systems. This will help you identify the processes that have the greatest impact on how your business operates and are most dependent on small business owners. Allocate a period of time to focus on these big rocks and create a system that builds your capabilities one by one.
Building systems on top of each other (stacking) creates a library of intellectual property that employees can use to understand key tasks.
Over time, this builds the foundational functionality that frees you from much of your mundane work and allows you to pick up the phone one day and say, “Hi, it’s me… see you in six months.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
- Chris GreenIBusiness strategist, author, mentor and facilitator with over 20 years of experience helping local businesses.