OK, you need a map. Seriously, what goes where, who does what and how will things move around your office? Are you a solo-preneur? The same process is applicable as Tom and Jamie have seen colossal messes from just one desk or one cubicle. In business, a successful one, you need to have information, cash and physical things flow fluidly from one point to another. Manufacturers see this physical in their everyday work – services businesses not so much – which is why operations gets to screwed up many of the time. Even one person can find themselves in silos of business functions that are not tied to one another. Missed payments, forgotten invoices and lost customer contacts are symptoms of this problem.
Listen to why you have to map out not only your operations but your staff and management personnel at the same time. They all depend on one another and are the key to the integration of people into any automated systems. Do you have the right person doing the right job? Can you outsource that function? Should you? Should you hire full time, part time or on contract? Jamie and Tom ask and answer a lot of these types of questions. Learn how to teach an intern about your business and help it at the same time.
Having a map or workflow of these 3 areas ahead of time will enable you to measure reality against that plan. You will always be surprised how things work in reality no matter how well you planned things on paper! No map? Good luck finding your way out of this mess.
