A strong foundation

You have a great idea. You believe your product or service will positively impact a number of people. You set up a few social media accounts (maybe grab a storefront) and start selling. You enjoy some early success, but then hit a wall. It becomes more difficult to scale. Finding new clients becomes increasingly challenging, and the backend, office work is chaotic and time consuming.

Ideally, you would hire some help, but what if you can’t quite afford that expense? How do you get to a point where you can scale and operate with efficiency? It’s time to pay some attention to how the business is structured. Even as a solo business owner, a business needs a structure. It needs clear, repeatable processes and the right tools to execute for the long run.

Where do you get started. Evaluate your current setup. How do you perform the base activities necessary for your business to operate. How do you pay your bills? How do you receive payment? How do you communicate with existing customers? How can potential customers contact you? How frequently do you review and respond to emails and other communications? If you are active on social media, when do you create content? How frequently do you create content? When do you post and engage across your social media channels?

For each base activity, list the steps you take to complete the activity and assign an estimated amount of time it takes you to complete that step. Once you’ve performed this exercise for all of the base activities, it’s time to make some decisions.

Create time blocks for these activities. Determine the frequency of these activities. Do you need to perform the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually? Is there an opportunity to inexpensively outsource the activity?

Once you have your base tasks identified, steps documented, and time assigned, you are on your way to creating a rhythm and structure to your work that will allow you time to focus on other aspects of building a solid foundation for your business.

Next time, we’ll discuss understanding your business’s compliance and legal needs.