Why Processes Are Important

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Recently, Comprehensive Consulting Solutions for Small Businesses helped several consulting clients with business processes including creation or revision, implementation, and measurement. There is a huge opportunity for small businesses to get more organized, improve productivity, and/or increase efficiency by creating or revising processes.

To start, let’s define process.

According to Techopedia, it is “a business process refers to a wide range of structured, often chained, activities or tasks conducted by people or equipment to produce a specific service or product for a particular user or consumer.”

According to Wikipedia, “A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment which in a specific sequence produce a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a particular customer or customers.”

There are a variety of categories for processes such as running the business, sales, retention, recruiting, staffing, and more. Within each category there are processes for how the business should complete and measure a specific task.

A process should define the how, when, what, and where of completing it. Here are a few examples of general processes that your small business may utilize:

• • Recruiting New Talent – steps for finding qualified candidates for open positions
• • New Sale Checklist – steps to complete when making a sale
• • Payroll – steps for running and issuing payroll
• • Employee Onboarding – steps for onboarding employee
• • Customer Onboarding – steps for onboarding a customer
• • Social Media – steps for managing social media

Comprehensive Consulting Solutions for Small Businesses has noticed through its business consulting and coaching services that many business owners store all of the processes in their heads. We need to get those out on paper – not just include the process, but how we are going to measure it too! A process is great, but if it is not measured – how do you know if it works? Measurement also helps identify any opportunities that need improvement.

Many small businesses have more processes than they think – processes can be verbal, but should be formalized in a writing. We are currently working with a client that said “I don’t have many processes,” but after further discussions it was uncovered that she had a process for almost every task in her company and could recite the steps for each at any time.

She knew what needed to be done and how it needed to be organized from her experience doing it herself. These days, her company has grown too large for her to complete all things related to running her business, so it is time to get all of those processes out of her head. Her staff aren’t in her head and can’t recite those processes like her – so we are working on creating written processes for all of the processes that she didn’t have! Ha!

Written processes make things easier – if an employee is sick or leaves, the next person can pick up where the last one left off. Instead of trying to gather info and put together a structure on the back end – having a process manual and written business processes will help with expected and unexpected changes or transitions.

Let’s be proactive, rather than reactive! Just saying! Ha!

We understand that building processes can be time consuming and overwhelming – that’s where we come in!

A Small Business Consultant can help you create written processes for specific areas or even help your business develop a process manual that includes everything from scripting to checklists and workflows for every process within the company! Contact us at (479) 439-8844 to schedule a free consultation with a Small Business Consultant!

Comprehensive Consulting Solutions for Small Businesses is located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but we consult and coach clients in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), the state of Arkansas, and states across the country. We help small businesses with their small business puzzle including business planning, revenue growth, close rate, sales, marketing, retention, recruiting, processes, and more.