Design your business

Let’s face it, writing policies and procedures can be boring!

It doesn’t have to be, instead why not think about how you would like things to be as opposed to how they are. Spend some time “Designing your business”. If you were to start over again how would you like things done, what critical aspects of the business would you need to get down pat!

Ask yourself

what would send me broke if I didn’t manage it well?

It’s a sort of negative question but it certainly gets to the crux of it. The answers you come up with will help narrow your focus to the most important aspects of your business.

Let me give you an example.

We are going to use TKO Business Modeller to help Fred and owner of a small cafe design his business

Step 1 . Decide what is critical to the success of his business

First of all we need to know what’s critical to the success of Freds Café and with Fred experience he is the best person to answer that. He says that apart from the usual critical factors in running a business eg. Managing staff, Managing cash flow, Compliance issues etc

• Good menu selection and quality food
• Producing Great coffee
• Friendly staff and timely service

Are the most important areas of his business.

Step 2. Structure it

The next step in this design process is building some structure around these critical areas. Structure is provided in TKO by way of departments (in TKO they are called key business areas).

You will note that TKO already provides the structure for the other critical areas of Fred’s business so in this case we only need to create departments relative to those 3 critical areas mentioned above. First of all we will create a major department and then for ease of classification we’ll create some sub departments as well.

• Café operations (main department)
  • Food preparation (sub depts.)
  • Coffee making
  • Customer service

OK, our new department is done, this department (and sub dept’s)  are responsible managing these critical areas of Fred’s business and they become part of the framework that Fred’s business is built upon.

Step 3. Measure it

The next step in this design process is deciding on what key indicators and standards should be applied to our new department.  Remember the old saying “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” In other words how will Fred know that this critical department and sub departments called “Café operations” is fulfilling his expectations.

To do that we will list his expectations (we will call them key performance indicators and standards). For example under : Food preparation we might have

• Simple menu selection, no more than 10 choices
• Orders prepared in a timely manner, customers wait no longer than 15 mins for meals

Coffee making

• To ensure highest quality a standard coffee making procedure is in place, and  used every time

Customer service

• Customers are always acknowledged and welcome immediately upon arrival

Simple but effective, Fred knows what he wants and can also let his staff know how they and the business as a whole will be measured.

Step 4. Make people accountable

Now all we need to do is provide accountability for managing this and then build the various policies and procedures of how to do go about this. First we will create roles that will be responsible for managing this “Café operations” department. We create these 4 roles

• Chef
  • Maitre ‘d ()
  • Waiters
  • Coffee barista

Notice we are not using individual names, the reason being is that individuals will come and go throughout the lifetime of a business (including the owner) therefore all we need to do is create roles and then assign people to those roles.

Step 5. Building and sharing the know-how

Next we will add some procedures relevant to those departments and sub departments Food preparation

• Our menu
• Our 3 step process to fulfil orders
• Using and cleaning appliances
• Health and safety policy

Coffee making

• Our 3 step method for making coffee

Customer service

• How to greet customers
• When customers complain

Step 6. Assign people to the roles

Final step, assign people , kpis and standards to the roles created.

Step 7. Ensure staff are aware of their responsibilities

Provide induction manuals so all staff are aware of their responsibilities We have just done a new video about using TKO to design your business.

Taking time to structure how your business should operate can be one of the most satisfying things you can do, it can bring a renewed sense of clarity to you and your business