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Are
you a prisoner of your business?
True
Story: “Life's not much fun these days” said the
businessman to his accountant surveying his latest annual
figures.
The
accountant tried to sympathise as he focussed on the profit
figure, which exceeded £200,000. “I haven't got
time to do anything here and our social life is non-existent”.
His wife scowled across their half-decorated living room.
Makes
you weep doesn't it? But it is actually very typical even
if the profits for a small owner-managed business are exceptional.
The first few years are hard, much of the profit stays in
to help grow the working capital and then finally things start
to take off. And they all lived happily ever after….
Well
no they don't actually. They drive a much better car and their
wife shops in a better class of clothes shop but their stress
levels have gone through the roof. They can never find good
staff, customers are far more demanding these days and there
seems to be far more red tape and bureaucracy around than
there ever was when they started.
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But
there is a solution and it can be summed up in one word. Systems.
Of course you have them, every business does but half the
staff don't follow them and they don't have the common-sense
to deal with the unusual things that crop up. Back to the
true story: The accountant coughed and decided to discuss
the lack of documented systems in the business.
“You
really ought to start getting your systems and procedures
documented, you know. Not everything in one go, just start
with the things that go wrong.” “That is everything
then” replied the businessman.
So
where do you start? Well first you need to be able to stand
back from your business and identify the critical processes.
What are the systems that make things tick? More importantly,
what tasks are being done because “that's the way we've
always done it.”
It's
not easy and increasingly external advisers are being brought
in to take a fresh look at some of the problems. So, should
you bring in outsiders for your business or should you do
it yourself? The answer is probably both. You are almost certainly
too close to see things clearly but without your input the
solutions won't be relevant. One of the reasons you went in
to business was to have more freedom. It's time to make it
happen.
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