Business System Improvement

One thing that almost every small business benefits from is putting into action the systems and processes that help everyone in the business perform at their best… or even like a star!

Now, if you’ve been able to just hire people who are naturally great, then you probably don’t need to read the rest of this. But if, like me, you’re struggling to find talent, than you have a look at this 3 step system. It just might dramatically increase employee performance inside your business. And because it’s a system, even your stars will perform better.

Over the years I’ve proven that you can get profound results in your business if you work on it (rather than just in it) starting with only one hour per week. The key is that one hour is designed to be effective and you’re committed to improving your business and it’s systems incrementally.

Let’s quickly review a core “Kaizen” philosophy.

Bad is better than nothing.
Good is better than bad.
Perfect is the enemy of good.

So the system setup point here is that you must get started. A small movement forward will bring positive changes, that you can easily build more positive movement on. To the system…

Step 1
This system starts with your commitment to working on your business, each week. Commitment is a powerful force in itself. It sends a message both to yourself and your environment that you “mean business”… you’re going to do this. Commitment in this case is simple – schedule a time.

Step 2
Next pick an aspect of your business to work on. For example – how to pump up your marketing; or how to free your own time, so you do more of what you are excellent at; or how you get appointments.

I suggest that you start with brainstorming in one of 3 areas: one; How do I take more time off? Two; How do I free myself up to do more of what I am best at? Three; What is the structure of my company at my desired next stage of growth?

Step 3
Next, at the scheduled time each week, think or brainstorm about how to make that area just a bit better. My experience is that by tackling the first areas I’ve identified, you will gain significant momentum and personal energy for your business. Applied to other areas, by the time you reach ten sessions or 10 weeks, you can easily have a major improvement in that area.

Small improvements might not seem like much in themselves. When you dig into all the pieces of an area of your business, and then multiply improvements happening across many aspects of your business, you start to see dramatic changes. Faster than you think.

For instance, if you looked at your sales process… you can address targeting your best accounts, getting appointments, presentations, objection handling, closes, strategic objectives you want to achieve from every call, etc. When you break down an area like getting appointments, you can look at areas like amount of action, number of telephone calls, who’s targeted, positioning what’s said, what research or tool do the sales team have/need, etc.

Safety Tip

If you are brainstorming about a specific area, have the staff involved in that area participate with you. Get them involved and leverage their expertise. They will have more ownership of the better ideas generated and will take action on “their ideas.”

In summary, start working on your business – this week. Commit and schedule the time, pick the area of your business to start with and spend the time thinking and brainstorming. Your business will grow, and you’ll soon have more staff operating at their best. 

“97% percent of all business failure is due to the system – not the person.”

W. Edwards Deming.

Source: business process improvement

The Business-Growth.com blog is a growing, free information source for small business. The articles are about strategies for growing your business predictably and being able to take more time off - at the same time!

This article is written by Michael Walsh and is provided by Kaizen Consulting Services Inc.

This is where you can get the most effective business growth strategies… strategies that have been proven over many years of producing large scale growth for a diverse range of companies; both in market, size and geographic area.