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Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now

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Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now

What Could You Do with an Extra 5 Hours?

Business Operations

Documented business operations are vital for your business to function. If you don't have documented processes, then your business operations might as well not exist. If you are the only one that knows what to do and when in your business, that's a huge problem.

Think about your Business Operations from an outsider's point of view.

Would it be easy for someone to step in and tackle tasks and systems easily?

On the flip side, what would you do if you can gain an hour a day starting tomorrow? Imagine gaining five hours per week.

For instance, are you able to take a Friday off without worrying about what's getting done? Or would you feel stressed out?

You can do that when you put these four steps in place to de-stress your business in confidence right now.

 

Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now

1. Proper Project Management

If you’re still managing your team with email and Skype messages, stop it. Things get lost, messages are forgotten (or never received) and balls are dropped. Not to mention all the time you spend sifting through your endless list of emails for that one piece of information you need.

Sign up for Asana, Trello, or Slack today, and start putting all your projects there instead. You’ll have one place to look for tasks that are still outstanding, and be able to tell at a glance what needs your immediate attention.

You and your team will love it!

#2 Proper Documentation

Do you find yourself reinventing the wheel every time you have to record a podcast or upload a video to your blog?

Take a few minutes and document the steps, then next time you have to do it, or better yet, when you hand it off to a VA, you’ll be able to quickly work out what needs to happen.

There will be fewer mistakes, and the work will get done faster. Your team will love it!

 

Need Help with Your Business Operations? We Can Help!

Yes, Tell Me How to Join!

#3 Create a Business Organization Chart

If you have multiple people on your team, this is critical.

Rather than everyone coming to you for questions—or worse, asking the wrong person and getting the wrong answer—take the time to create an organization chart. Add it to your operations manual and make sure your team knows where it is and what it’s for.

Now, rather than your Skype chat blowing up with questions all day long, you’ll have time for the more important tasks.

#4 Use Time Blocking

Get out your calendar and start making appointments with yourself. Decide when you’ll check email and when you’ll work on client projects, then stick to the schedule.

These self-imposed deadlines will not only force you to get the work done, but they’ll help keep you focused. This structuring of your time means no more wasting time on Facebook, since you’ll be working on your business.

All of these systems can be set up in an afternoon—at least initially. But the time they save you when you use them consistently is phenomenal. An hour a day is just the beginning, but you have to take action.

You have to put in the work first before you can earn the rewards, but the benefits are sweet. In the end, you’ll wonder how you ever managed before you did these four things to improve your business.

 

Every month in the MyNAMS Insiders Club, we focus on a foundational topic all businesses need to create sustainable, long-term income. January is our Business Operations Challenge. If you need to focus on building your business on a solid foundation, join us now for just $1. You'll get access to all of our workshops, challenges, courses, templates, workbooks, monthly PLR, plus our weekly mastermind! It's the best deal for growing your online business.

Need Help With Your Business Operations? Join Us - We Can Help!

This month, the MyNAMS Insider's Club Challenge will focus on Business Operations.

You don't want to miss it - every business needs this.

If you're not in the Insider's Club, you can check it out for only $1!

Come join us and be a part of a supportive community with access to tools, training, and weekly Mastermind calls. Plus the monthly challenges that focus on one topic that your online business needs!

Yes, I want to join the monthly challenge about Business Operations!
DavidAndCharlsaAtTheBeach.jpg

David Perdew is the CEO and founder of NAMS - the Novice to Advanced Marketing System. He’s a journalist, consultant, and serial entrepreneur who has built one of the most successful and fastest-growing business training systems online today called the MyNAMS Insiders Club.

The Novice to Advanced Marketing System is a step-by-step system focusing on Team, Training and Tools to help novice to advanced business people build a Simple, Scalable and Sustainable business.

He took a year off in 2003 to personally build a 2200 square foot log cabin in north Alabama where he and his wife and two dogs and a cat live on 95 acres of forest with four streams and 60-foot waterfall.

The NAMS team includes his daughter, Jen, who is an email marketing and automation specialist. Jen runs the day to day business and is one of the primary trainers in our MyNAMS Insiders Club. 

Business Operations
Instead of Guessing, Maybe We Should Just Ask! The key to serving your clients – and making stacks of cash – is to know a bit about them so you can serve them well and often. How do most marketers operate today? They build a list, write an email, and blast it out to the […]
Click Here To Read More
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Click Here To Read More
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Click Here To Read More
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Click Here To Read More
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5 Passive Income Business Ideas These 5 passive income business ideas are the tip of the iceberg of the ways you can add passive income to a business. As you read through these ideas, begin thinking of how you can incorporate them into your business. It’s important to keep in mind that you select the […]
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How to Make Passive Income Online When You Have a Full Time Job
Creating Passive Income Streams While You Have a Full-Time Job Creating passive income streams while you have a full-time job can be done as long as you are organized and have a plan. Therefore, learning to balance work and other activities is essential. As a result, it can be challenging to put in a full […]
Click Here To Read More

Business Operations: 7 Ways Streamline Your Business by Outsourcing

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Instead of Guessing, Maybe We Should Just Ask!

Timeforquestions

The key to serving your clients - and making stacks of cash - is to know a bit about them so you can serve them well and often.

How do most marketers operate today?

They build a list, write an email, and blast it out to the whole list hoping that someone on the list wants what they’re offering. Of course, there’s so many problems with that approach, it’s laughable.

But I’ve been guilty of it too.

As your list grows, staying in touch with everyone to find out who they are and what they need is nearly impossible. But with simple surveys, and a simple analytics tool available to everyone, you can uncover amazing information.

Today’s blog post is about that process.

Let’s start with the survey

After discussing the campaign with Jen, we honed in on our goal with the survey until it made the most sense. We came up with three goals:

  1. Find out what niche(s) most of our community is working to provide the right kind of training.
  2. Understand the kind of marketing tools/techniques that people were using to sell their products and provide training on those and the tools they wanted to know more about.
  3. Offer a $100 coupon to apply against our product catalog to entice more people to take the survey and to make sales as they see other things in the cart they want.

Jen started with 2 questions because we wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

Question 1: What is your primary niche?

Question 2: What are your primary marketing tools (to make sales)?

But because we wanted to know a little more, we dug a little deeper.

Question 1a: What is your secondary niche?

Question 2a: What are the 2 marketing tools (to make sales) you'd like to learn more about to implement in your business?

The survey looked like this:

survey1
survey2
survey3
survey4
survey5
survey6

Then we began analyzing the results

The key was to make it easy and painless with no personal details. And to make sure the coupon was being delivered automatically so they could redeem it immediately.

When completed, it was a simple, multiple-choice survey that automatically fed the answers into a Google Sheet - a free tool everyone has access to.

survey10

As of this writing, we had 311 responses.

And we’re learning things we hadn’t expected to learn - as you always do if you monitor your investigative processes from inside and outside the process.

So far, we have enough numbers to give us good trends.

Some of them confirm what we thought; others did not.

For example, the top five marketing tools/techniques were:

  1. Email marketing
  2. Social media
  3. Blogging
  4. Affiliate marketing
  5. Video marketing

I think the surprise to all of us was the interest in Blogging as a selling tool.

survey7

Next, we looked at the primary niche

When you’re creating promotional partnerships, the question most often asked is: “Who is your community and what do they like?”

That’s a tough question to answer if you have a large community. So, again, we have to ask.

survey8

These percentages did confirm one guess. When asked that question, I always answered that about 20% of our community is interested in the “Make Money Online” niche. And the rest were in other business niches. That was true, but I wasn’t sure at all what businesses the other 80% were trying to build. 

  • Self Improvement was huge with 13%
  • Health and Medical was 8% and if you added in Diet and Fitness, we would be over 11%
  • Local Marketing Agency was nearly 8%. That shocked me.
  • And Finance / Investing was almost 6%. Another shock.

So, what does that tell me?

Business building tools and training fundamentals in the “Make Money Online” niche will apply to nearly everyone in our community. But we can also niche down and offer self-improvement or health to a smaller segment and be really well targeted.

What did the secondary niche tell us?

This question helped us identify future trends.

As people mature in their businesses, the niches become more focused. Often, the secondary niche is the passion niche and business people evolve into that.

survey9

The surprising trends here were:

  • Make Money Online dropped by half from the primary.
  • Self-Improvement rose to the top with the same percentage numbers holding steady as a major focus of a lot of people.
  • None with more than 10% told us that a ton of people haven’t thought about it, or they are completely focused on the primary niche.
  • The big surprise was that Ecommerce doubled from 3 to 6%. So, there’s substantial interest in growing that.

What can we learn from this information?

Now, we have a much better understanding of our audience and should be able to target them much better with tools and techniques that help more.

This information forms a basis for our decisions on:

  • Training product creation
  • Affiliate offers
  • Webinar presentations
  • Email language
  • Target market segmentation
  • And better Message to Market Match

I hope you found this helpful. Let me know in the comments if you’ve done anything like this in your business or if you think it would help you create better segmentation and better customer experience going forward.

**** In the time it took to write this post, our survey responses increased by 1/3. Lesson? Make sure you create your survey with a specific time frame in mind to accept results and don't jump to conclusions. Luckily for us, our percentages stayed the same so we can continue forward with our initial hypothesis.

Related Posts

Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now

Finding a Virtual Assistant

Things to Outsource: Customer Service

5 Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes

Using Surveys To Serve Your Customers

Percy Miller

NO ONE else is doing things online like you guys are doing it...You guys are building and teaching what I want to learn how to do with my online efforts...Today I saw the future!"

Shelley Merchant

I have wandered around blindly for over 4 years wondering why things weren't working...the things y'all teach are not being taught elsewhere. Instead, the advice is vague and leaves you feeling stupid because you're not figuring it out.

I cannot say enough good things...the only problem is that there's so much good stuff that I don't want to sleep b/c I want to learn it all.

 
I'm beginning to feel like a plan is forming and that I might actually make things work.

Frank Sousa

With so much JUNK being peddled online it's good to see guys like you out there teaching what's real.

DavidAndCharlsaAtTheBeach.jpg

David Perdew is the CEO and founder of NAMS - the Novice to Advanced Marketing System. He’s a journalist, consultant, and serial entrepreneur who has built one of the most successful and fastest-growing business training systems online today called the MyNAMS Insiders Club.

The Novice to Advanced Marketing System is a step-by-step system focusing on Team, Training and Tools to help novice to advanced business people build a Simple, Scalable and Sustainable business.

He took a year off in 2003 to personally build a 2200 square foot log cabin in north Alabama where he and his wife and two dogs and a cat live on 95 acres of forest with four streams and 60-foot waterfall.

The NAMS team includes his daughter, Jen, who is an email marketing and automation specialist. Jen runs the day to day business and is one of the primary trainers in our MyNAMS Insiders Club. 

Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes
Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now What Could You Do with an Extra 5 Hours? Documented business operations are vital for your business to function. If you don’t have documented processes, then your business operations might as well not exist. If you are the only one that knows what to do […]
Click Here To Read More
Types of Email Marketing
5 Types of Email Marketing   There are many types of email marketing. Today, we’ll explore five of them. Engagement is the key to success. But how do you engage the people on your ist? Through excellent communication. As an email marketer, you have the responsibility to your list to communicate with them consistently. This […]
Click Here To Read More
Email Marketing
8 Benefits of Email Marketing   Contrary to what you may have heard, email marketing is not dead. Far from it. However, it’s not something you ‘do’ sometimes. Your audience wants to hear from you, so be consistent in your communication with your list. Before you think email marketing is too much work, or not […]
Click Here To Read More
Convert Traffic to Profit
How to Convert Traffic to Profits To convert traffic to profit, you need to begin with a little research and a strategy. When applied, you will grow a mailing list of the right people – the people who will buy from you over and over again. An important point to note is that driving traffic […]
Click Here To Read More
Passive Income Business Ideas
5 Passive Income Business Ideas These 5 passive income business ideas are the tip of the iceberg of the ways you can add passive income to a business. As you read through these ideas, begin thinking of how you can incorporate them into your business. It’s important to keep in mind that you select the […]
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How to Make Passive Income Online When You Have a Full Time Job
Creating Passive Income Streams While You Have a Full-Time Job Creating passive income streams while you have a full-time job can be done as long as you are organized and have a plan. Therefore, learning to balance work and other activities is essential. As a result, it can be challenging to put in a full […]
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Finding a Virtual Assistant

By Leave a Comment

Finding a Virtual Assistant

Finding a Virtual Assistant tasks to outsource to a VA

Finding a Virtual Assistant to fit your needs begins with YOU - take the time to outline and describe what those needs are.

If you can't describe what you want, then how can you find the right person?

When should you outsource a task or tasks?

When you don't have time to do the task yourself.

When you don't know how to do the task.

When you don't want to do the task.

 

Basically, if you are not getting things done and you’re stuck in your business, then it’s time to outsource.

An experienced VA can handle a variety of administrative tasks. You may need someone specialized in specific software, shopping carts, auto-responders…..you get the idea. Pretty much anything a business needs.

Things to Outsource to a Virtual Assistant (VA)

Administrative Assistance

You can hire someone to help you with a variety of daily tasks, from research to content creation to data entry and more.

Data Entry

This task is an ideal thing to outsource, because it’s a low-value task (which frees up your time to focus on high-value tasks), and it requires very minimal skills to complete.

Graphic Design

This includes social media graphics, web graphics, video presentation graphics, product graphics, and other images for you business.

Customer Support

You can hire people to handle inquiries sent through your help desk. This may be a permanent position, or you may hire people temporarily during expected influxes (such as when you have a product launch).

Video Editing and Production

Unless you have the skills and experience for video production, this is a task that’s best left to someone who does.

Learn All About Outsourcing and Why You Need it!

Yes, Tell Me Where to Begin!

Content Creation

This may include blog posts, newsletter articles, social media posts, ebooks, video scripts, reports, and any content your business needs.

Social Media Management

Imagine having a professional create a social media strategy for your business.  You won't' have to stumble around trying to figure out how to fit social media in your marketing. Hire a pro and reap the benefits social media brings to your business.  Your VA can create and post content on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms.

Copywriting

A sales letter or ad can make or break your success, which is why it’s imperative to hire a professional copywriter to create these for you.

PowerPoint Presentations

If you do slide-share presentations for webinars, videos, or virtual conferences, make sure the presentations represent you well. Your reputation is on the line anytime you put yourself out there online. Don't let a sloppy, unprofessional webinar be your first and last impression to new viewers.

Lead Generation

This person can help you set up your lead pages, tweak them for better conversions, and drive traffic.

Installations and Set Up

An experienced VA that specializes in the systems you use in your business can help you with everything from installing a WordPress blog, to installing complex eCommerce systems.

Email Marketing

Hire a professional writer in your niche to help you develop effective autoresponder sequences, boost your open rates and sell more through email.

See the Benefits Outsourcing Administrative Tasks

Get More Done - faster!

You Don't Need to Learn Everything You Use in Your Business

You Can Focus on the Money Generation Side of the Business

Make More Money Faster

Finally, Reach Your Business Goals

Finding a Virtual Assistant

Don't wait until you've ripped your hair out before finding a Virtual Assistant! Now, more than ever, online businesses are growing faster and better because entrepreneurs have learned the secret of outsourcing.

Avoid the mistakes many entrepreneurs have made thinking they have to do everything themselves. The sooner you shift that mindset, the greater success you can reach. 

In the online world, there are plenty of VAs, freelancers, and people ready to take on your project. Do yourself a favor and take the time to find the best person that is right for your particular needs.

It begins with creating a specific, detailed project description to find the most qualified person for the job. Not sure where to start? Take a look at projects posted on freelancing sites to get an idea of the type of ads that yield the best results.

Next, evaluate and hire your ideal VA. Always check references, look at reviews they have received, and discuss what your expectations are when you meet.  Take the time to make sure you hire the best person for your needs. Then, provide them a sample project to execute. Did they meet your standards?

Summary

You have learned what tasks you can outsource to a VA and the benefits you gain by hiring a VA to supercharge your business. A good VA or contractor can take your business to the next level faster than you can alone.

Outsourcing is a great thing!  The key is to know your expectations and share those with your VA. Communication is vital, especially in the beginning. But, it’s worth it!

The Insider's Club Outsourcing Challenge may be exactly what you need to dig into outsourcing.  Join us in the challenge. You will so glad you did!

What are your fears about outsourcing? Please share below in the comment section! We'd love to know!

If you found this article helpful, please share it -thank you!

Need Help With Learning About Outsourcing? Join Us - We Can Help!

This month, the MyNAMS Insider's Club Challenge will focus on outsourcing.

You don't want to miss it - every business needs this.

If you're not in the Insider's Club, you can check it out for only $1!

Come join us and be a part of a supportive community with access to tools, training, and weekly Mastermind calls. Plus the monthly challenges that focus on one topic that your online business needs!

Yes, I want to join the monthly challenge about Outsourcing!
DavidAndCharlsaAtTheBeach.jpg

David Perdew is the CEO and founder of NAMS - the Novice to Advanced Marketing System. He’s a journalist, consultant, and serial entrepreneur who has built one of the most successful and fastest-growing business training systems online today called the MyNAMS Insiders Club.

The Novice to Advanced Marketing System is a step-by-step system focusing on Team, Training and Tools to help novice to advanced business people build a Simple, Scalable and Sustainable business.

He took a year off in 2003 to personally build a 2200 square foot log cabin in north Alabama where he and his wife and two dogs and a cat live on 95 acres of forest with four streams and 60-foot waterfall.

The NAMS team includes his daughter, Jen, who is an email marketing and automation specialist. Jen runs the day to day business and is one of the primary trainers in our MyNAMS Insiders Club. 

Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes
Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now What Could You Do with an Extra 5 Hours? Documented business operations are vital for your business to function. If you don’t have documented processes, then your business operations might as well not exist. If you are the only one that knows what to do […]
Click Here To Read More
Business Operations
Instead of Guessing, Maybe We Should Just Ask! The key to serving your clients – and making stacks of cash – is to know a bit about them so you can serve them well and often. How do most marketers operate today? They build a list, write an email, and blast it out to the […]
Click Here To Read More
Types of Email Marketing
5 Types of Email Marketing   There are many types of email marketing. Today, we’ll explore five of them. Engagement is the key to success. But how do you engage the people on your ist? Through excellent communication. As an email marketer, you have the responsibility to your list to communicate with them consistently. This […]
Click Here To Read More
Email Marketing
8 Benefits of Email Marketing   Contrary to what you may have heard, email marketing is not dead. Far from it. However, it’s not something you ‘do’ sometimes. Your audience wants to hear from you, so be consistent in your communication with your list. Before you think email marketing is too much work, or not […]
Click Here To Read More
Convert Traffic to Profit
How to Convert Traffic to Profits To convert traffic to profit, you need to begin with a little research and a strategy. When applied, you will grow a mailing list of the right people – the people who will buy from you over and over again. An important point to note is that driving traffic […]
Click Here To Read More
Passive Income Business Ideas
5 Passive Income Business Ideas These 5 passive income business ideas are the tip of the iceberg of the ways you can add passive income to a business. As you read through these ideas, begin thinking of how you can incorporate them into your business. It’s important to keep in mind that you select the […]
Click Here To Read More

Things to Outsource: Customer Service

By Leave a Comment

Things to Outsource: Customer Service

Things to Outsource Customer Service

Things to outsource is an endless list of possibilities.

Outsourcing is the key to the success of many online entrepreneurs. It’s a cost-effective means of taking advantage of the skill-set of a wide range of experts without the need to hire them full-time. Thus, it not only saves time since you don’t have to learn how to perform various tasks you need in your business but it also allows you to grow your business.

What is Outsourcing?

The concept of outsourcing is simple. It refers to a business (you) contracting the services of a professional. It’s the same idea as hiring a contractor to fix your roof. You need your roof fixed and you don’t have the skills or the time to do it so you hire the services of a professional to perform the task for you.

The focus of this article will be why you should outsource customer service. This is an area of your business that tends to stay on the backburner when you think about outsourcing. Customer service is a vital area of your business and should be treated as such.

You want happy customers, right? A happy customer is likely to be a repeat customer.

The Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Service

Happy Clients

As mentioned above, you want to keep your clients and customers happy. If they aren’t able to access a program they just bought, they won’t be happy!

Saves You Time

Having a layer between you and your client with a help desk is a good thing. You won’t have to manage the daily questions or problems, ultimately saving you time. Plus, they get their questions answered in a timely manner.

Elevates Your Status

There’s a shift in perception when a client or customer realizes you have a team supporting the business. They feel confident that you must really know what you’re doing if you have support people in place. (By the way, if your team is you and your VA, that’s okay. Your VA can handle a variety of tasks, including a customer service desk.)

Learn All About Outsourcing and Why You Need it!

Yes, Tell Me Where to Begin!

Shows Your Clients that You Care

Having a customer service desk will signal to the client or customer that they matter to you. After all, the customer service desk is all about them. It ensures that if they run into a problem, you’ve got them covered.

Tightens Your Sales/Onboarding Process for Success

Developing your support desk begins with knowing the potential problems a client or customer may encounter when doing business with you.  Knowing ahead of time gives you a wealth of information about the client’s journey through the sales process.  Ideally, you want to avoid the problem before it is their problem.

Pay attention to the different questions and issues your clients have had in the past in the onboarding process. Identify how you can design your program or product to eliminate that issue from happening. However, you can’t predict everything. That’s where troubleshooting assistance comes in and this is where your support desk comes in.

The Top 5 Reasons to Outsource Customer Service

So, there you have it!

Happy Clients

Saves You Valuable Time

Elevates Your Status

Shows Your Clients You Care

Tightens Your Sales Onboarding Process for Success

When it comes to things to outsource, selecting the areas in your business that make you money should be on your criteria list. Customer service is one of them. After reading this article, you should understand why customer service matters for the growth and longevity of your business.

Do you think an FAQ page substitutes the need for customer service?

If you said, "Yes," you are wrong!

FAQ pages are useful on the front-end or as general instructions in the onboarding process. FAQs are a good start, but not the only solution.

Think about it. Have you experienced purchasing something, only to have a problem or question that isn't found on the website or onboarding process?

Wouldn't it be nice if a support desk could have helped you out before getting frustrated? Automated FAQs are a great feature to have, however they don't always offer all of the solutions for problems.

 

If you have found this article helpful, let us know, and please share it 🙂

We would love to hear about your experience with outsourcing a customer service desk. Share the experience with outsourcing below in the comments ~ thanks!

Need Help With Learning About Outsourcing? Join Us - We Can Help!

This month, the MyNAMS Insider's Club Challenge will focus on Outsourcing.

You don't want to miss it - every business needs this.

If you're not in the Insider's Club, you can check it out for only $1!

Come join us and be a part of a supportive community with access to tools, training, and weekly Mastermind calls. Plus the monthly challenges that focus on one topic that your online business needs!

Yes, I want to join the monthly challenge about Outsourcing!
DavidAndCharlsaAtTheBeach.jpg

David Perdew is the CEO and founder of NAMS - the Novice to Advanced Marketing System. He’s a journalist, consultant, and serial entrepreneur who has built one of the most successful and fastest-growing business training systems online today called the MyNAMS Insiders Club.

The Novice to Advanced Marketing System is a step-by-step system focusing on Team, Training and Tools to help novice to advanced business people build a Simple, Scalable and Sustainable business.

He took a year off in 2003 to personally build a 2200 square foot log cabin in north Alabama where he and his wife and two dogs and a cat live on 95 acres of forest with four streams and 60-foot waterfall.

The NAMS team includes his daughter, Jen, who is an email marketing and automation specialist. Jen runs the day to day business and is one of the primary trainers in our MyNAMS Insiders Club. 

Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes
Business Operations: 4 Steps for De-Stressing Your Business Right Now What Could You Do with an Extra 5 Hours? Documented business operations are vital for your business to function. If you don’t have documented processes, then your business operations might as well not exist. If you are the only one that knows what to do […]
Click Here To Read More
Business Operations
Instead of Guessing, Maybe We Should Just Ask! The key to serving your clients – and making stacks of cash – is to know a bit about them so you can serve them well and often. How do most marketers operate today? They build a list, write an email, and blast it out to the […]
Click Here To Read More
Types of Email Marketing
5 Types of Email Marketing   There are many types of email marketing. Today, we’ll explore five of them. Engagement is the key to success. But how do you engage the people on your ist? Through excellent communication. As an email marketer, you have the responsibility to your list to communicate with them consistently. This […]
Click Here To Read More
Email Marketing
8 Benefits of Email Marketing   Contrary to what you may have heard, email marketing is not dead. Far from it. However, it’s not something you ‘do’ sometimes. Your audience wants to hear from you, so be consistent in your communication with your list. Before you think email marketing is too much work, or not […]
Click Here To Read More
Convert Traffic to Profit
How to Convert Traffic to Profits To convert traffic to profit, you need to begin with a little research and a strategy. When applied, you will grow a mailing list of the right people – the people who will buy from you over and over again. An important point to note is that driving traffic […]
Click Here To Read More
Passive Income Business Ideas
5 Passive Income Business Ideas These 5 passive income business ideas are the tip of the iceberg of the ways you can add passive income to a business. As you read through these ideas, begin thinking of how you can incorporate them into your business. It’s important to keep in mind that you select the […]
Click Here To Read More

5 Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes

By Leave a Comment

5 Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes

Small Business Process Improvement

The benefits of streamlining business processes provide consistency, efficiency, and peace of mind in your business. This is true for any size business, whether new or established.

 

In our previous article, Small Business Process Improvement: 5 Areas to Streamline, we shared 5 areas you should document immediately if you haven't documented those processes yet.

 

This article will focus on the benefits of having an SOP (Standard Operating Procedures). You may have heard terms like “Standing Operating Procedures (SOP)”  or “Master Business Manual (MBM)" without giving it much thought about the meaning or importance of having one.

 

Simply put, they are detailed, step-by-step instructions about how to complete a specific task from start to finish. While most of the instructions are written, you can add screenshots, a how-to video clip, templates, checklists, and any other form of content designed to execute a task or project.

 

Let's look at the 3 examples below to see how beneficial it is to streamline your business processes:

 

  1. For instance, you decide to add a new product to your existing offerings. By having a step-by-step documented process for creating new products, you can maintain the quality, flow, and consistency your customers expect from you.

  2. What happens if a customer has questions or experiences a problem? Your customer service desk can ask them a series of questions to resolve the problem within minutes. This happens because you have streamlined that process so they can follow and handle customer service issues.

  3. Imagine that you just hired a new contractor. Training them is easier because you can give them a checklist and a process to follow from your SOP.  Plus, it will cut down on their learning curve while giving the new contractor confidence in their ability to meet your expectations. Win-win for everyone!

 

These are excellent examples of real business situations where having a documented process can mean the difference between chaos and efficiency. Therefore, standardizing all of the areas in your business should be a no-brainer.

Hopefully, this article will inspire you to document and streamline business processes if you don't have them already.

 

Why Your Business Should be Streamlining Business Processes

As stated before, standard operating procedures are documented step-by-step instructions on how to complete a task from start to finish. They are vital for your business to maintain efficiency and consistency. 

 

In fact, if you are the only person doing everything in your business, you must put all of your processes in place immediately. 

 

What would happen if something happens to you? 

 

As part of your emergency plan, someone needs to be able to step in and manage the business on your behalf. That means having an up-to-date SOP in place. Many solopreneurs never give it much thought, but they should.

 

If you've worked with a VA and she leaves, do you have her duties documented? If not, ask her to use your SOP template to document everything she does for you.

Benefits of Streamlining Business Processes

5 Benefits of Steamlining Business Processes

1. Maintain Quality Standards

Your SOP is your quality control. When it comes to production, marketing, sales, and customer service, your goal is to maintain consistent quality throughout your business.

You and your team are more efficient and confident. As a result, tasks and projects can be delegated with confidence.

#2 Troubleshooting

Let’s face it. There will be times when something goes wrong or a customer needs special assistance. By having your business's daily operations documented, a team member can step up to evaluate and solve problems.

Keep in mind that if a problem arises that isn't covered in your procedures, make note to create a process built around that issue in case it happens again.

#3 No Guesswork Necessary

When your processes and procedures are documented, it prevents making poor decisions. Problems are handled properly and efficiently.

Team members will know your expectations and can easily deliver!

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#4 Reduced Learning Curve and Errors

Thinking about hiring a VA or other team member? With your SOP, it is easier to train them. As they learn your business, there is a lower risk of errors. As a result, they will feel confident in their role because you have detailed everything their job requires of them.

#5 Financial Perks

Managing finances, handling the bookkeeping, and filing taxes will be easier to maintain.

Another financial perk is that when everyone is working efficiently with minimal errors, means they are saving you time and money. That's always a good thing!

 

Workflow Efficiency

SOPs can’t cover everything, although you should strive to. Your VA or team should have a firm understanding of your company vision, mission, and goals. Make sure that your VA and team have access to the sections of your SOP they need to perform their job effectively.

 

I cannot express this enough! In order to experience workflow efficiency, you must streamline every process in your business with step-by-step documentation.

 

As your business grows, your needs will change. For example, that free autoresponder you used when you first started your business may not be able to handle your growing business today.

When you upgrade that out-dated autoresponder, you need to create a new process for your new autoresponder. That holds true for everything you use in your business.

 

SOPs are never finished. It’s a work in progress because conditions are always changing. If you change any policies or procedures, marketing strategies, promotion cycles - well, you get the idea. Updates are critical to maintaining standards. At a minimum, review your SOP twice a year.

 

Maintain Quality Standards

When reviewing, revising, or adding processes, remind everyone involved of the goal with the SOP. When one area of your business undergoes several revisions, it can become confusing and, as a result, lead to errors or inconsistencies.  Clarify and confirm that the documentation achieves its stated purpose.

 

In conclusion, don’t be intimidated by creating your documented processes. It’s something that MUST be done. But, the good news? There are plenty of templates and examples you can find to create your SOP, so you don't have to build something from scratch!

 

Are you interested in learning how to set your business up for success and achieve higher profits? Creating your SOP is the beginning of setting your business up for success. Regardless of your business's size or how long you’ve been in business, focusing on your business operations is vital for growth and success.

 

Every month in the MyNAMS Insiders Club, we focus on a foundational topic all businesses need to create sustainable, long-term income. February is our Business Operations Challenge. If you need you to focus on building your business on a solid foundation, join us now for just $1. You'll get access to all of our workshops, challenges, courses, templates, workbooks, monthly PLR, plus our weekly mastermind! It's the best deal for growing your online business.

Need Help With Your Business Operations? Join Us - We Can Help!

This month, the MyNAMS Insider's Club Challenge will focus on Business Operations.

You don't want to miss it - every business needs this.

If you're not in the Insider's Club, you can check it out for only $1!

Come join us and be a part of a supportive community with access to tools, training, and weekly Mastermind calls. Plus the monthly challenges that focus on one topic that your online business needs!

Yes, I want to join the monthly challenge about Business Operations!
DavidAndCharlsaAtTheBeach.jpg

David Perdew is the CEO and founder of NAMS - the Novice to Advanced Marketing System. He’s a journalist, consultant, and serial entrepreneur who has built one of the most successful and fastest-growing business training systems online today called the MyNAMS Insiders Club.

The Novice to Advanced Marketing System is a step-by-step system focusing on Team, Training and Tools to help novice to advanced business people build a Simple, Scalable and Sustainable business.

He took a year off in 2003 to personally build a 2200 square foot log cabin in north Alabama where he and his wife and two dogs and a cat live on 95 acres of forest with four streams and 60-foot waterfall.

The NAMS team includes his daughter, Jen, who is an email marketing and automation specialist. Jen runs the day to day business and is one of the primary trainers in our MyNAMS Insiders Club. 

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