The Revolution of Standard Procedures for Small Businesses
Standard Procedures used to be firmly planted in the realm of corporations.
They were (and often still are) thick manuscripts of dense checklists and instructional material. Point 1.1 referring to point 5.6.2.9 and on and on.
New recruits would find a huge tome of instructions land on their desk.
Due to the common “must-sound-clever” culture of corpos, these SOPs would be impenetrable slabs of jargon, written by high-ups who don’t understand the earthy nuances of the work they’re writing for. Staff who are supposed to be carrying out these procedures often say, “We don’t do that here. We do this.”
The Power of Procedures: Multiplying Yourself
I’ve come across a few excellent resources for learning about procedures. The bottom line is they can help give you back your time, empower your employees (oddly), and effectively multiply yourself.
Here are four of the best…
The TropicalMBA: If it makes you money, you shouldn’t be doing it (podcast)
http://www.tropicalmba.com/sop-save-our-profits/
This might have been the first time I heard about procedures.
Dan & Ian used the term “SOP” or “standard operating procedure”, similar to what they say in the army, apparently.
The rationale behind this fascinating title is that if someone’s giving you money for something, then it’s already well-defined enough to be procedurised.
If someone’s giving you money for something, both sides understand what’s going on — there is an understanding.
If you continue to do that work by yourself, your business will stagnate.
As the entrepreneur in the business, it’s your responsibility to systematise. Here’s how Ian put it:
“As an entrepreneur, you should do what only the entrepreneur can do in your business. That’s figure out where the value is to be had and seek after it and try to mine that value.”
Work the System by Sam Carpenter
This episode above was inspired by this book and the difference it made in Dan and Ian’s business. In Work the System, Sam Carpenter recounts a rather harrowing tale of the pit that his highly complex call-centre business drove him into.
With the looming threat of an impossible-to-meet payroll, and all the internal crises finally coming to a head, he had a moment of clarity.
In his mind, he saw his business from an “outside and slightly elevated” point of view. With sudden clarity, he saw all the little systems that interacted and produced the activities of the organisation. The road to fixing his train wreck was finally in front of him.
He set to work getting all those systems down on paper.
At the time of writing the book, he claims he only spends 1 hour a week on that business, which is usually a pleasant check-in with his next-in-line.
The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
I actually haven’t read this book, but everybody who’s interested in this subject raves about it. It’s on my list.
I believe the main point it drives home is to think of your business as if it were a franchise. Imagine if you needed to create a package of checklists and guidelines that you could hand over to someone else to then replicate your business, near-identically, in another city. What would go into that package?
Standard Procedure by Tony Brown
This is a new book and quite easy to read, while including all the essential aspects of inspiring case studies and practical guidance for how to get stuck into writing down your business’s DNA.
The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
This book is credited for bringing the term “lifestyle design” into the public consciousness. It is written to be a mindset-shifting work, a little more than a how-to. The critical take-home when it comes to removing yourself as a bottle-neck to decisions is to give your newly-empowered employees a limit to their empowerment. Tell your VA, for example, that she’s free to issue refunds or give a bonus to a frustrated customer to keep them sweet — to do whatever she deems fit — up to a certain dollar value.
Therefore, no small-fry decisions ever touch your desk. You only get pulled out of your enviable life on a Thailand beach (jk) if a real problem occurs.
Procedures That Work
With the new technology flooding the world today, procedures are becoming more interesting to consume (with rich media), and easier to share and for employees to submit edits without the top-dog’s prior consent, and without danger of breaking everything.
Small business (I hope) are getting savvy to this shift.
I won’t reveal any details, but someone I know quite well is running his/herself into the ground, all by filling his/her time to bursting with tiny little tasks that could easily be delegated to anyone with a basic education.
There’s no reason not to get the DNA of your company in a place where you can see it, edit it, and optimise it.
Procedures work better now, thanks to new technology.
Technology – Making Procedures Sexy
Check these out. I could do a HUGE post on each one, and maybe I will…
