NEWSFLASH ...
Having Business Procedures in Place Is a Simple Trick to Make Your Home Based Business
Sizzle!
In January each year many make personal commitments to themselves to improve their health, well being and financial position. However, most of these resolutions go ‘out the window’ as everyone settles back to the grindstone. Many of these commitments could come to fulfilment if there was a simple plan to make them occur. With a home based business, the trick is to break the tasks up into bite sized and achievable portions within a specified time frame; in other words, build business procedures!
For example, if you plan to clean your filing system up, rather than face the daunting task in one day (which would probably take one week anyway) plan to put aside an hour every day until the task is completed.
There is no question that home based businesses could progress faster and easier if they had business procedures, so that they worked smarter, not harder. And it is not that difficult to build business procedures – it is as simple as writing down everything you do, when you do it, how you do it and even why you do it. When you do this for each task – simply give the steps numbers or check boxes (yes – they can become checklists too) and file them in a manual and in one folder on your computer.
Get Your Manual of Templates
Everything from answering the phone (do you have a phone log? Is it completed after every call?) to mailing a letter (do you have a mailing log? Can you check what was sent when – in case of a customer complaint?) needs to have a business procedure. If home based business got used to doing it for the simple tasks, it would not seem so difficult when they have to do it for more complex tasks.
Many micro and home based businesses will not employ as they feel it takes so much of their time to train someone, that they might as well do it themselves. The answer is to have business procedures in place so that anyone new to the task can follow the manual and generally know what to do.
Tracey Matthies, former owner/operator of a Motel in Morewell (and winner of the Micro Business of the Year) suffered an unexpected illness, and was struggling to complete the work. Her housekeeper was on holidays, and she was in trouble. However, she managed to get staff who had never before worked in a Motel. She handed over the business procedures manual and the new staff member worked through the rooms, checking work against the manual description. It worked!
Micro and Home Based Businesses usually try to increase their profitability by increasing sales. Yet when sales increase, resources are often stretched to breaking point. Many businesses ‘go under’ because they are so busy. The Micro operators can simply self-destruct as they struggle 12-15 hours a day to keep up to the demand of a successful business.
These Business Procedures
Templates
It is possible to reduce costs and increase profitability if you are a micro or home based business – but only if you work smarter. Develop business procedures to ensure that you do not self destruct!
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Never has it been so important for home based business to
plan for success, for growth, indeed for survival. By having
The slogan ‘work smarter, not harder’ is lost on these
independent yet often innovative home based businesses, as they don’t understand how to work smarter.
They know they have a good product or service but they don’t necessarily know how to develop business
procedures to help them work smarter.
