4 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Written Processes

Many small business owners I talk to have their reasons why they're not creating business processes. They say they don't have time. They tell me that processes are boring. Or they assure me that as a solopreneur they don't need written processes - they have it all memorized. Maybe you've said one or more of these yourself.

I completely understand where they (and you) are coming from. I know firsthand what's involved in running a small business. I also know that without written processes your business isn't going to grow and scale like you want - as quickly as you want. To put it in stark terms, not having written processes will negatively affect your bottom line and impact its ability to succeed. 

I'm a naturally optimistic person, though, so I don't dwell on the negative. And I truly want to help you alleviate frustration and wasted time. Here are 4 ways written processes will help your business achieve growth and success while giving you back your time and money.

1. Complete each step the right way, in the right order, the first time

While you may be able to breeze through fairly simple tasks like creating and posting your blog post each month without looking at a process, you'll need written processes for more complex activities and projects. Even if you've convinced yourself that you'll remember every step, with everything else on your mind for your business, you probably won't.

If nothing else gets you to write down your processes, think of how frustrated you'll be if you spend 2 hours on an activity only to have to start over because you forgot a step or did it wrong. Or think about missing a deadline that costs you clients, your reputation, and future business. Having written processes can save you from those nightmare scenarios.

This really hit home for me the after coming on board as Director of Leadership for Femworking. I regularly train new leaders and create Meet-Up Groups for the meeting locations. Each of those projects have many moving parts and steps that need to be carefully coordinated and completed in the right order. The Google Docs I've created that show each step, along with screenshots and all of the necessary information, ensures everything goes smoothly the first time and saves me a ton of time.

2. Make improvements

There's something about writing down each step of a process that makes you really think about your business. This deeper look helps you improve how you're running your business, how you attract customers, what you provide, and how you deliver it. A good example would be writing processes for your lead generation efforts gets you thinking of a new channel to increase awareness like a webinar or case study.

Writing out your processes will also help you improve and streamline how you complete each activity. You'll see steps that can be eliminated and others that can be consolidated. One of my workshop attendees was sending two pieces of information to the same person at different stages of the process. She didn't really think about it until she wrote down her process and saw that she could combine two steps and send both pieces of information at the same time.

3. Have everything in one place

When you write down your process add links, screenshots, standard text to copy/paste, and any other information you'll need to complete the activity. You'll save so much time having the necessary information in one document right there with the relevant process step.

For each new Meet-Up Group I create when we launch Femworking locations I have to change the colors for the background and links. There is also standard phrasing for many fields: About Us, Welcome, and the questions we ask members when they join.

In my written process I have the hex colors and text for all of the Meet-Up fields in the order I need to fill them in for each section. I simply copy/paste and am done in seconds. If I had to type these in every time it would take way too long. Not to mention trying to remember the hex colors and wording! Even if I went back to a previous Meet-Up Group and copy/pasted from there it would still take more time because I'd have to go to each section to copy the text instead of having it in one place.

4. Easily train new team members

What happens to your business if you get sick or want to take vacation? Somebody will need to be able to step in and keep things running if you're not there. And if you're planning for growth you can't do it all by yourself forever. The time will come when you need to outsource to a Virtual Assistant or hire team members. You'll need to be ready when all of your hard work pays off.

Training others will be a snap when you have written processes that you can hand over. If you wait until others are working for you to write the processes you'll already be behind - and probably way too busy to train them properly.

Over to you

Do you have written processes for your small business? If not, what's keeping you from creating them?

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Through her Business Process Workshops, Lisa Shaughnessy helps small business owners maximize their limited time by getting their daily activities and tasks out of their heads and into written standardized processes. All workshops are held in two Northern Virginia locations. Each one covers a specific business process and participants leave with at least one completed process to use immediately in their business. More details available here: Simplified Workflows for Business Success!