Make Your Business Run without You

with a

Business Management System

Are you working longer and taking home less than your staff? Are you working all hours of the day and night and still barely managing to keep your customers happy? Are you unable to delegate or outsource work to give you more time to work on your business? Does your business have Growing Pains?

In the article, Become a Business Brain Surgeon you can learn how Business Systems, also known as Operations Manuals or Procedure Manuals allow you to Work Smarter, Not Harder. However, it is not enough to have Business Systems, you also require Reporting Systems. How these work is illustrated in the article How many Gauges Do You Watch in the Cockpit of Your Business?

When you build a Business Management System, the following benefits result for your business. You will:

• Increase the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Your Business
• Reduces your Business Risk and Error with staff using the proven best procedures for their roles
• Simplify the training of staff and reduce the time for them to become productive and profitable
• Be able to employ staff with lower skill levels
• Make your business less dependent on individual staff members
• Reduce staff turnover as they have a better understanding of their role and your expectations
• Manage the Performance of your staff
• Enable you to leverage your knowledge, time and money
• Increase the Value of Your Business
• Be able to expand or franchise your business
• Turn Your Business into a Saleable Asset

Ultimately, Business Systems Make Your Business Run Without You and will allow you to achieve the Work/Life Balance you are seeking.

What does a Business Management System Look Like?

The starting point for any Business Management System is the Business Mission and Goals, typically described in a Business Plan. This plan would also describe the Key Business Areas and Key Result Areas of the business.

Each Key Business Area will have a library of Business Systems, consisting of Procedures, Templates, Checklists and Scripts which describe the way each of the Tasks for that business area are to be undertaken.

For each Business System, there should be a Standard which describes the Performance Standard for this task. For example, How many sales per month or the Acceptable Error Rate.

While the systems at this stage describe how things should be done, they don't describe who should do it! The Business System should also describe the Roles in the business. This is different to the people actually employed, as some Roles may be vacant, or people may have more than one role, with the expectation that others will be brought in to assist as the business grows. These Roles are associated with the Tasks from which a Position Description can be created.

Finally, people can be allocated to Roles, and you can provide complete Task lists to each person, along with a description of how the Task is to be undertaken (Business Systems), and the standard to which the task is to be performed.

With such a business system, each staff member can be appraised with the Performance Measurement function of the Business Management System. That is a person's results can be objectively compared with the Performance Standard as provided for each task that is assigned to the individual.

The driver of your Business Management System, without which, it is just a bunch of manuals gathering dust, is the Reporting System, which is a crucial, but often neglected part of a Procedure or Operating Manual. The Reporting System measures Business Performance against plan and compliance with the Business Systems.

There can be multiple formats for the Business Management System, also often referred to as a Procedures Manual or an Operating Manual. Its simplest form is in a folder, but it can also be presented online in a browser window. The advantage of an Online Operations Manual, is your staff always has access to the latest version of the Operations Manual from the nearest internet connection. This is particularly useful if you have remote or traveling staff. An online manual can also contain hyperlinks to connect different systems with a click. It can also be searchable, and staff can just print the parts they need. The manual can also be designed so that the staff can only access those parts of the Procedures Manual that you want them to see, so for example, your temp receptionist cannot see your secret recipes.

How to Have Your Own Business Systems Operating Manual

Empower Business Solutions provides a consultancy service to assist small businesses develop their own Business Management Systems and Operating Procedures Manual. We work onsite with you and your team to build the Business Systems Manual for you. As part of this service we can:

• Develop an Operating Procedures Manual either in an offline or online format
• Provide Operating Procedures Manuals to reflect the duties of each staff member
• Provide an Operating Procedures Manual maintenance service, to keep your manuals updated throughout the year.
• Provide Performance Reporting Service against your Operating Business Systems Standards

This service is ideally suited for businesses with between 6-20 staff (or contractors).

How does this compare with off-the-shelf business systems template?
While these templates can be very low cost, and may be of use to a business just starting-up, they are of little use to a business that has been operating for a number of years with an established, preferred way of dealing with most things, even if it is not well documented. The templates are necessarily generic, and only become of value if you actually change the way you do business to follow the template. The existing systems in most established businesses are more sophisticated and superior to those in templates, which are unlikely to be adopted.

Empower Business Solutions creates operations procedures manuals based on your business organisation, not based on some generic, fictitious company.

To find out more about this service or to view a sample business system, please Click Here.

 When you have a Business Management System Operations Procedures Manual, you will:

• Increase Your Productivity
• Reduce Your Costs
• Reduce Staff Turnover
• Increase Your Profits and Value of Your Business
• Reduce Your Business' Dependence on You
• Create a Saleable Asset

Ultimately, you will Have a Business the Runs Without You.

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