{"id":1280,"date":"2018-12-18T18:33:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T18:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2019-11-04T21:03:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T21:03:21","slug":"business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once you have your business plan this far:\u00a0 You know what you sell, you\u00a0 know who you sell it to and you have figured out how to market to them, it is time to work with your internal processes to find improvements, standardization, automation and streamlining.<\/p>\n

This should be more obvious, but I have recently had to learn it as well.\u00a0 Standardization is key to improving your processes.\u00a0 Whether it is accounting procedures, marketing campaigns, hiring an employee, how you communicate with customers\u2026.if you standardize your processes, you can improve the entire life of a process.\u00a0 Documentation of a process is the first step.\u00a0 Look at what you are doing and write every step down from beginning to end.\u00a0 Once you see it on paper and see how different people approach the same process, you can review every step and determine what is the best flow of all the different ways it can be or has been done.\u00a0 This will be when you standardize the process using the steps that make the most sense and will yield the best results.\u00a0 If you can design a process that will yield the best, most consistent results, then shouldn\u2019t that be the way everyone in your organization does it?<\/p>\n

We recently standardized how we on-board an employee and how we on-board a client.\u00a0 We all got together and talked about the many ways we approached each of those processes and it was a mess of different ways.\u00a0 So we tore them apart and created processes that made the most sense, got all the information we required, provided for the training or information the employee or client needed and in an order that made the most sense.\u00a0 We then created a \u201cworkflow\u201d so each step was outlined.\u00a0 From the development of the process that made the most sense, to the standardization of it, we were then able to automate it.\u00a0 That was where the magic started.\u00a0 Because we knew exactly what we wanted to happen every single time we added an employee or brought on a new client, we could automate many of the steps and the time savings were immediately obvious.<\/p>\n

Standardized, automated, and guaranteed consistent results\u00a0 will save time all along the way.\u00a0 Pretty great, right?\u00a0 So, what can you think about in order to improve your internal processes?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Take your accounting process and have every employee document what they do in detail. Review the process with your external accountant to see if it is sound and where it can be improved.\u00a0 Then standardize where you can and create standardized operating procedures that your current employees will use.\u00a0 The added benefit\u2026. you will have them ready for when you replace or add employees, making on-boarding a new employee easier.\n
      \n
    1. Use time management: Write vendor checks on Mondays only, reconcile accounts on Wednesdays.\u00a0 Take a process and assign a day to it so you do not move back and forth between working with vendor issues and then reconciling an account and then dealing with payroll, etc.\u00a0 Take weekly tasks and assign a day that you spend the time you need to get them done beginning to end.\u00a0 Transitioning from one task to another is a waste of time and you lose concentration and focus<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    2. Use Apps:\n
        \n
      1. Use a work flow management tool to keep track of everything that needs to be done and who it has been assigned to. There are many to look at depending on how robust you need it to be:\u00a0 Trello, Karbon, Asana, google the kind you need and find one or two that you can try out for free.\u00a0 Yes, it takes time to set up, standardize and customize to suit your needs, but it will be life changing once you are up and running.<\/li>\n
      2. Use a marketing tool to schedule and constantly feed the universe with your marketing. We talked about a few of them in the last installment of this.\u00a0 But again, there are several to choose from and some of them have additional features like CRM, website visit tracking or sales leads and tracking and so much more.<\/li>\n
      3. Use a time tracker that integrates with a payroll service so you can 1) track employee time simply for payroll purposes or 2) to see how much time they spend on various tasks and projects for use elsewhere. Automate payroll by using a time tracker that feeds into your payroll processing system and stop doing any manual payroll.\u00a0 The payroll apps and outside service providers provide a lot of value for the money and it will be one last thing taking up valuable time where the chance of problems that lead to penalties can be avoided.<\/li>\n
      4. Develop a training library with videos that your software and apps readily provide so when you need a refresher or you add a new employee, you have a library of training resources you can provide so they can train themselves on several of your tools. Record your own training videos.\u00a0 If you train one person on something, record it so the next person can watch the video first, requiring less time spent training.\u00a0 This should be part of an employee on-board process and can reduce the time it takes to get a new employee up and running substantially.\u00a0 Plus, videos are great for when an employee just wants to refresh themselves on the process.\u00a0 They don\u2019t need to ask the same question over and over, they can watch the training video.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        There are just so many tools out there to help that I could not possibly address them all.\u00a0 Ask your accountant what their clients are using.\u00a0 Ask other business owners, ask your neighbors, attend a conference and you will see there is a whole new world out there with apps and tools that take anything, literally anything that you do more than once and will automate it and make it even better.<\/p>\n

        The real purpose of this part of your business plan is to examine everything you do.\u00a0 Create a flow chart of processes, write them down so you can see it on paper and then improve them.\u00a0 Anything that has not been reviewed in a while has the potential to have gotten off track or more complicated than it needs to be.\u00a0 Review the most important functions first.\u00a0 See if the way you are doing it is the most effective and efficient it can be. Will it yield consistent and consistently awesome results every time?\u00a0 If not, then it can be improved.\u00a0 Invest in the time to review, document, standardize and automate, it will pay for itself over and over and over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Once you have your business plan this far:\u00a0 You know what you sell, you\u00a0 know who you sell it to and you have figured out how to market to them, it is time to work with your internal processes to find improvements, standardization, automation and streamlining. This should be more obvious, but I have recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4,6,7],"tags":[45,46,43,31,44,47],"yoast_head":"\nBusiness Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes? - O'Connor CPA Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes? - O'Connor CPA Firm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once you have your business plan this far:\u00a0 You know what you sell, you\u00a0 know who you sell it to and you have figured out how to market to them, it is time to work with your internal processes to find improvements, standardization, automation and streamlining. This should be more obvious, but I have recently […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"O'Connor CPA Firm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-18T18:33:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-04T21:03:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/\",\"name\":\"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes? - O'Connor CPA Firm\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-18T18:33:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-04T21:03:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/be926ce3c5e9e19cb67276085b6eb993\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"O'Connor CPA Firm\",\"description\":\"Denver CPA Firm and Business Advisor\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/be926ce3c5e9e19cb67276085b6eb993\",\"name\":\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b63b138f7a7158415b427996bd1a24?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b63b138f7a7158415b427996bd1a24?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/oconnorcpafirm.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/author\/triciaoc\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes? - O'Connor CPA Firm","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes? - O'Connor CPA Firm","og_description":"Once you have your business plan this far:\u00a0 You know what you sell, you\u00a0 know who you sell it to and you have figured out how to market to them, it is time to work with your internal processes to find improvements, standardization, automation and streamlining. This should be more obvious, but I have recently […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/","og_site_name":"O'Connor CPA Firm","article_published_time":"2018-12-18T18:33:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-04T21:03:21+00:00","author":"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/","name":"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes? - O'Connor CPA Firm","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-12-18T18:33:34+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-04T21:03:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/be926ce3c5e9e19cb67276085b6eb993"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/business-plan-in-6-weeks-part-5-how-can-you-improve-your-internal-processes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Business Plan in 6 weeks:\u00a0 Part 5\u00a0 How can You improve your internal processes?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/","name":"O'Connor CPA Firm","description":"Denver CPA Firm and Business Advisor","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/be926ce3c5e9e19cb67276085b6eb993","name":"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b63b138f7a7158415b427996bd1a24?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b63b138f7a7158415b427996bd1a24?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tricia O'Connor CPA MBA"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/oconnorcpafirm.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/author\/triciaoc\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1711,"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oconnorcpafirm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}