It’s a common problem for entrepreneurs, particularly the solopreneurs. The problems usually stem from having to wear all the hats of running a business to the detriment of either a) spending too much time on operations and not strategizing, or b) spending too much time strategizing and not enough time spend generating business. So, there are three main things you can do to streamline:
- Set financial goals. Even if you’re not a numbers genius, it’s important to have a good understanding of what’s coming in, what’s going out and how you intend to increase your profit margin to prevent blind panic. Next, establish how much money your business needs to generate (remember, be realistic). Then devise a 12 month plan to see that goal realised.
- Sales strategy. Having clear financial goals helps you drive sales strategy. Understand your sales offering, target market, competitors, strengths and growth areas so you can make an informed decision on what needs to change and how.
- Create an operations manual. Franchises are statistically more successful than independent businesses because everything is systematised and there is a thick operations manual to refer to for every possible scenario. Make sure that you and each person on your team has their own ops manual. From here you can increase accountability by having staff aware of their responsibilities and performance, and should one of them leave, they don’t take all that knowledge with them in their heads.