4 Reasons Why You Should Record Your Business’s Processes

Recording systems your business uses in its operations are integral to business growth. All businesses have systems that allow them to deliver services or products. These systems involve processes staff members must follow to achieve a desired outcome. These processes may be as simple as documenting how your administrative assistant should answer calls and capture messages to more complex procedures, such as successfully onboarding a client. 

Unfortunately, many business owners do not prioritize recording, analyzing, or measuring these systems, which could lead to costly inefficiencies and stifle company growth. Since the systems a company uses feed directly into the efficacy and efficiency of its operations, business leaders must strive to manage the systems they have in place and continue to improve them. Detailed below are some benefits of building and continuously revisiting your business processes.

You can start capturing your business processes at any point to support your growth goals.

Many business owners hold off on documenting their company’s systems because they want to perfect the systems they have in place first. However, if you elect to do that, chances are you will never record this vital information since processes are works in progress that require constant revisions as you gain more experience and insight into what systems work best for your team and clients. With that in mind, you can start documenting your systems at any moment. 

Start by outlining simple processes, then work your way up to more complicated systems that may require more in-depth documentation, such as standard operating procedures (SOPs). If you’re running an emerging company and do not have definitive systems set up yet, one suggestion is to work linearly by detailing the first step you would take to deliver a service and go from there. If you run a more established business that may be operating in an established vertical, you should document the processes your team already follows. 

Your systems will improve over time.

Once you’ve captured the procedures, your team will follow or already do look to for guidance, it’s crucial that you review and update your processes as you gain more insight into what steps allow your team to deliver services to clients effectively and efficiently. Revisiting this documentation will also help build a company culture around recording processes, leading to sustained efficiency and continuous improvement. To help create and maintain this company culture, try to provide your team with the tools and resources they need to capture new systems accordingly, such as SOP templates.

Even service-based businesses benefit from documenting their systems.

Since service-based companies deal with clients, they must be able to tailor the services they deliver to better suit the client’s needs. A more customized approach is necessary for this type of work, which leads many people to assume that documenting systems and following them is too rigid of an approach. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, service-based businesses thrive when they establish controls around their services and record their processes by developing more flexible guiding documents, such as frameworks rather than SOPs.

For example, if you’re a design company that makes product labels, you may make original artwork for each client, which takes a substantial amount of time and resources. This expensive approach could lead to difficulties with establishing and documenting a system for how you develop designs for your clients because every label requires an original design. The more appealing option would be to develop design guidelines that the team can use with each client. This option is more economical, leaves the client happy, and allows the team to take on more work because the design process is efficient. In this instance, providing some boundaries through process documentation delivers a better outcome. 

Documenting systems will help you onboard new staff members. 

Business owners can sometimes have a hard time letting go of the day-to-day responsibilities associated with delivering valuable services to their client base. However, if you’re interested in growing your business, you must also grow your team. You must establish and document your processes to ensure your business can scale accordingly. Doing so will help you onboard new team members and ensure your team continues to deliver quality service efficiently and consistently.

Establishing and documenting systems will help your business run effectively and efficiently, bolstering your bottom line. You will also be able to grow your team faster because you have the materials you need to onboard new staff members quickly and ensure they will succeed in their positions. With that in mind, consider recording your systems to grow your company. For more insights, check out The Virtual CPA Success Show for Creative Agencies: Balancing Creativity and Consistency in Business Systems with Josh Fonger.

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