If you want your business to be lean and mean make sure it’s pants don’t fall down.
You have probably heard the old saying that you should cut fat not muscle when you reduce costs but often cutting things can bring unintended consequences. When you set up simpler processes you need to consider reliability. What happens if your new streamlined process goes wrong for some reason? Maybe one of the things you stopped doing, that seemed excessive, was there propping up part of something else. It can be like a game of business Jenga. On the other hand, some organisations use belts and braces and don’t loose any weight.
How do you make sure your business is fit and reliable?
It might help in this case to think about your business like your house. You might have town water but when you need it, when there is a drought, you aren’t allowed to use it for anything more than a cup of tea. A lot of people put in water tanks or bores to keep the garden alive and the dog clean.
Lately there have been some technological solutions that will make your house much more reliable. When your electricity goes out your solar stops working, you have to use the BBQ to make a cup of tea. People are now using home batteries to keep the lights on while they work, it also keeps their solar working.
If your internet is unreliable think about using Tesla’s brand new Starlink satellite internet. It’s looking pretty promising.
This stuff costs money but it can work out cheaper in the long run as your community services get more expensive and unreliable. Adding solar and a battery can save you a ton of money. You get to keep cool on hot days and save the planet at the same time.
In your business you want to keep the lights on so you can stay working
You have to organise other people in your business, never an easy thing to do. These people can be salaried staff, contractors or B2B suppliers.
Think about the differences between the important work you, and your people, do, finding and helping clients, and the services you all need to keep doing that. You need light, shelter, coffee, internet (level 1A Maslow), a mobile signal, laptops, a bunch of different types of software, money in the bank, and a way of sending bills so you have money in the bank. Then you need a way of distributing the money in the bank, hopefully some of it to you. On top of all this there is a ton of compliance work to be done, to make sure you are a good corporate citizen.
It can make you exhausted just thinking about it but, instead, put down that pie and make your self a nice hot cup of tea.
It’s actually quite simple, you need a bunch of services, make a list of them, and then find the right people to do the right jobs. Like finding a good tradesman, ask your mates for names.
Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash