You will always need to improve your company. Without improvements, you can’t expect the continuous growth of your small business.
Your job as an entrepreneur is to always improve your business processes. Why? You will need to improve your processes because in such a way you will bring additional improvements in your products and services. So, improvements are something that will be presented in your overall offer.
For example, let’s say that you have implemented improvements in your production process that lead to a better quality of your products and services. This improvement will remove the needs for additional processing. In such a way you will not offer only better quality, but also you will decrease your delivery time. That means more quality products will quickly come into the hands of your customers.
Here, I would like to share one easy process in 12 steps that you can implement in your company in order to ensure that you will always improve your business processes.
1. Install performance measurement system
The first step is to install a performance measurement system for all important business processes in your company. If you don’t have a performance measurement system for your most important business processes, you will need to start with this step.
What are the most important processes in your company? What will be measured? How it will be measured? How you will use the collected data? These questions you will need to answer in this step.
2. Be sure that you have documented and mapped these business processes
When you know the most important business processes, then you can check are they mapped and documented properly. It is much easier to manage and improve processes when you have them properly documented.
3. Be sure to regularly use performance measurement system for these processes installed in the first step
In order to implement this step, start developing and documenting your performance measurement procedures. These procedures will contain steps for implementation, responsibilities and will answer when they will be implemented.
4. Regularly compare the output of the processes with desired results
Improvements will require to find and know the gaps between actual results and desired results. These gaps will become reasons and areas for improvements.
5. Regularly increase the goals for the outputs of your business processes
You need to continually increase the goal limits of your process. We are talking about improvements, and achieving one goal doesn’t mean that you will need to stop with improvements. For example, let’s say that the time of processing something is currently 30 minutes. You set up goals to decrease this time to 20 minutes. When you succeed with the achievement of this goal, you will need to set up an additional goal as 15 minutes.
6. Regularly experiment with your business processes
Experimenting with processes means changing input parameters and current process steps. These experiments can bring you possible improvements to the outputs.
7. Record all results from performance measurement system and experiments
Recording all results that come from measuring and experimenting will bring you useful database to help you decide what will need to be improved.
8. Develop the list of possible improvements
When you have a database, it will be easy for you to develop the list with possible improvements.
9. Delegate responsibilities for planning and implementation of improvements
This step is also important in this process, simply because without clear responsibility the improvements cannot be implemented. All your staff members will think that others are responsible for the implementation.
10. Help your staff members to implement improvements
If you want improvements to be implemented and become standard for the future, you will need to help your staff members to implement them in the best possible way.
11. Check the results from your efforts
Are improvements bring outputs that you want? In this step, you will need to check if the implementation process brings you the results you want to achieve with the improvements. Sometimes what you have planned will not bring the expected results. If this is the case, then you will need to repeat the process.
12. Start again from the eighth step in this process
The last step is to instill continuity with this process. This is a never-ending process.
