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What would happen if you left your business alone for three months? What situation would you return to? Would your partners and employees still be on track and following your directives? For most of us, the answer is no. Suppose you can't leave your business for a while; when will you have the time to strengthen and grow your business? For your business to run smoothly, even when you are not there, it is to build a process everyone follows.
Trust The Process
Trust the Process Course
You've started a business. In the early stage, it's just a free flow of your ideas, problems, and solutions. For most people, this is the fun part. As you solve more problems, you gain success. It has become clear that you must attract people to help you sustain and grow your business. As expected, you will begin to take on more orders, some with unique situations your team has yet to handle.
Nevertheless, your ingenuously has gotten you this far, so you rely on it. One day you realize your business has stalled for some time. Employees are making the same mistakes. Clients are losing faith in your ability to serve them. The problem-solving brilliance has gotten you this far, but now is the reason your business is in trouble. Running a successful business takes more than overcoming problems as they arise. There is nothing wrong with solving problems, but what if you could create procedures that prevent the problems?
Every successful business requires a process that everyone in the company follows. When Marcus Lemonis invests in the industry, he knows he only has limited time to focus on one business. Once he knows we have the right people and product, he focuses on instilling a process that will work even when he is not there. A formalized structure is usually tricky for a founder to follow because it feels like you need to take advantage of opportunities and requires a leap of faith. A good process will serve as a GPS for your business to help you reach your destination.
Marcus believes in this phrase because it increases your team's efficiency, creates clarity, and makes it easy to replicate when it is time to expand. A company must have a formal and effective process to avoid chaos. A process will allow everyone on the team to create consistency which would set realistic expectations. While there will still be curves in the road and things you can see coming, you and your team will be ready to handle them.
How would you know your process is working? You can improve your approach in form simple steps. Test your operation, fix flaws, scale your strategy, and be confident. Perform a practical or theoretical test on your process. What will happen if your business gets a 1,000% increase in orders in one day? What happens if one of your key employees is unavailable for a month? What would you have to your day-to-day operations if your biggest competitor opened up next door to you? Once you stress your process with new situations, look for the flaws that make your system unreliable. Fix significant deficiencies in the operation as quickly as they form. As your business grows, your process must scale ahead of the growth. There should be very few real surprises for your team. Finally, with the proper procedure, you must be confident to stick with it when new challenges present themselves.
Hopefully, you are reading this very early in your business. As any seasoned entrepreneur will tell you, it's better to have a plan before the inevitable crisis. However, if you have been in business for a while, there is always time to pivot. Defining, repairing, and strictly following procedures is the secret fuel to grow your business beyond even what you believe if anyone can help you with your process, it's Marcus Lemonis. I highly recommend you check out his educational platform.
What is the current process your business abides by? How can you improve the process and get your employees to Trust The Process? How could you create one today if you need a strategy? Marcus Lemonis builds million dollars businesses based 1/3 on developing a process that can run a profitable business while he works on whatever else he wants to. Think about that for a minute. How would it feel to be able to step away from your business and return to growth instead of chaos?
Works Cited
Trust The Process Course "Trust the Process" Business Learning: Marcus for Business - Ideas, Information, & Inspiration, Section One
