Establishing Operations (pt. 2)

First, in Establishing Operations Part 1, we discussed identifying the functional areas for your business, documenting the core activities that you need to perform in each functional area, and listing the tasks that fall within those core activities. Each of these steps is designed to provide you a basic understanding of how you run your business.

Next , let’s look at how we figure out whether what we are doing is what we need to be doing. For the next month, use your list of core activities and tasks to guide your work. Is the work you are doing on your core activities and tasks lists? As you engage in those activities, how do you do the work? Document how you perform the tasks. How long does it take? What technology do you use? What steps do you take? Do you need to engage other people to complete the task?

Then, revisit your task list. determine what steps you need to add to your task list and those you need to remove because you don’t actually use them to complete the task.

Finally, repeat these steps for each of the core activities in your identified functional areas. It may take you weeks or months. The goal isn’t speed. The goal is to have a clearly defined and documented picture of your business operations, one that you can revisit and refine over time.

Here’s to more business birthdays!