Posted in General Business by Rick on the October 2nd, 2006

I speak to my clients on a regular basis about the importance of having specific processes to guide the activities of their business. Processes keep you from having to spend time making decisions about things that come up routinely. It also insures that when something goes wrong, your company is in a position to identify and correct it quickly and that the right choices are being made with or without you being there.

Your business cannot have enough processes. I don’t mean to say that you should create processes for the sake of creating processes, but if it is something you must deal with either routinely or otherwise in your business, a process, or procedure for addressing it is imperative.

The creation of procedures is an ongoing activity. It is unlikely that you will be able to identify all required procedures at one sitting, so you should plan on this being a lifestyle and a commitment that you make to the business.

My lawn service recently failed to mow my back yard after mowing my front yard because the crew did not have my gate combination. I have been a customer for years with the same lock, but the lawn service came real close to losing a long term customer simply because the crew did not have a procedure in place to address this minor problem.

Sometimes a concept like this can be made clearer by exaggerating it. Take a look at NASA for example. They have millions of processes in place that are examined by thousands of people constantly when they are ready to launch a space shuttle. If they miss a procedure someone dies. Your business may not have as grave a result for not having a procedure in place or failing to follow it, but proportional results will occur on a smaller scale. You lose customers.

Create a book of procedures. Add to it until everything you do is documented. A lack of procedures may not kill your customers, but it has been known to kill a lot of companies. Don’t let it be yours.

To Your Success,

Rick's Signature