Cut the Clutter and Streamline Your Business Processes

A few weeks ago I wrote an article on why your small business needs written processes. I hope you had a chance to read it and start taking action. But maybe you're not quite there yet.

Are you putting off writing down your business processes because you think they have to be long and complex documents? Do you have nightmarish visions of flowchart symbols and a tangle of arrows? Or maybe you already have a few written processes but they're so loaded with information they're impossible to follow.

I have just the solution for you to streamline business processes while making sure no information gets left out.

How to unclutter your written processes

The key is to only write the steps needed to accomplish the task in your process documents and don't add unnecessary details and "why" you're doing the activity.

Don't worry, those details, extra information, and "why" something needs to be done won't be lost. All of that information simply goes into a supporting reference document. Some examples are:

1. Policy docs explaining why things are done a certain way
2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
3. Employee handbooks
4. Checklists
5. Email templates

When you're creating your processes you may find that another type works best for your business needs. You'll then add a link to the checklist, handbook, etc in the corresponding section of your process document.

Here are snippets that I've pulled from two processes that I've created. The underlined text represents the linked document (apparently you can't change font colors in LinkedIn posts).

Step 1: Decide where to hold the event.

Step 2: Post the event in the Facebook Group.

Refer to the Leader Guidebook for policies on locations, types of activities, etc.

In the above example, the person has the steps they need to create an event. For details on what's expected of them before, during, and after the event they would refer to the Guidebook.

Step 1: After the image has loaded, scroll down to the product description window.

Step 2: Copy/paste text for Gumroad description field from this document: Gumroad Product Descriptions

In this second example, the step is to copy/paste the text. I don't need to clutter up the process doc with each product description so I created a separate document with each description and linked to it.

How to create supporting docs

If you're not sure how to create a supporting document, I want you to know that it's not as daunting as it may seem. Writing out your process steps will naturally reveal where you need a supporting document. If you're starting to over-explain a process step, or you feel like you should have more details about a section, those are good indicators that you need a separate place for that information.

Here's how to easily do this:

1. Keep all of the information in your process document until you get all of the steps written.
2. Go back to the places where there's extraneous (but relevant) information and cut/paste that into a new document. If you copy/paste instead remember to delete it from the process doc.
3. Copy the link for the supporting document and paste it into the appropriate section of your process steps. Add a sentence like "for more details see this handbook".

I use Google docs for my process and supporting docs so linking to them is easy. If you use a different platform or service, look into how you can share and link documents. You can also give the location of the document using the drive, folder and file names (ex: D:\Gumroad Processes\Gumroad Product Descriptions).

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Through her Business Process Workshops, Lisa Shaughnessy helps small business owners easily hand off tasks to others, open more time for clients (and increase revenue), and prevent costly mistakes. All workshops are held in two Northern Virginia locations. Each one covers a specific business process (Marketing, Sales, Onboarding Clients, etc) and participants leave with at least one completed process to use immediately in their business. More details available here: Simplified Workflows for Business Success!