YOU NEED PROCESSES IN YOUR BUSINESS

If your business isnt moving forward and growing, its dying. Its a fact of nature, things either grow or die. Your top competitor has more employees and revenue than you, but you only have two hands, and you dont want to single-handedly pump out more than 70 hours per week. The real issue here is not your passion, its your productivity. Unless you can match the productivity of your top competitors, you will never be able to reach their level. And whoever told you your competitors arent growing, is dead wrong. A few more years and youll lose your chance to catch up. But if your business can be more productive you can finally achieve serious growth.

So how do you increase manpower and productivity while keeping costs down?

SECRET TIP ALERT!!!!

CEO: Hey Jake, can you do our social media marketing? We need to start on it now.

Jake: Sure, but I dont know anything about it though. Cant we just hire an agency to do it for us?

CEO: No they are too expensive, they want $75 per hour. Just take a look at what Linda did last year, youll figure it out.

WRONG!!!!

Jake: Cant we just hire an agency to do it for us?

CEO: Sure lets hire them for $75 per hour, but now I want you to document the process they use to do the job, we will only hire them for a month at most. Then I want you to cross train a remote worker for only $8 per hour and give them that detailed process to follow. So basically we can have a $75 per hour job done at just $8 per hour. And Jeff, you manage that process to make sure we can replace that worker if he leaves.

DING DING DING! CORRECT!

Think of a process as a computer software, and a human worker as a physical computer.

A computer cant run without software and you cant tell a computer to write a new piece of software on its own. If you install a buggy software on the computer it will not complete your task. A software is actually a step-by-step process that is written in computer language for a computer to understand.

The same goes for human workers. When you hire a new worker, this is like getting a new computer. If you dont have a process written in English for the worker to simply understand and follow, then that worker will be just be sitting there at their desk with their screen saver on. This would be like not giving your computer the software it needs to perform the tasks you need done.

The difference between an executive, a manager, and a worker is this:

Executive is process creator

Manager is a process maintainer

Worker is a process follower

As an executive you are able to create processes but what execs usually fail to realize is that workers and managers cannot create their own processes. So without a process to follow you will be angered at their mistakes, but the real core issue is that the worker is there to follow a process, not create one.

Think about it this way. when you acquire a company with employees, the main assets you are actually acquiring are the processes the employees follow. Anybody can go and find smart individuals domestically or overseas, but no one can just easily go and write up a process that works for employees to follow.

Here is the same example but with computers. When you acquire a company with computers, the software that was written by the company onto those computers are the assets, not the computers themselves. You can go and buy as many computers as you need, but the custom made software that was developed by that company to run on those computers, is not something you can easily buy.

When two large companies merge, and you hear on the news that 50% of the staff is laid off, that is because some of those processes overlap, and when you eliminate the redundancy, you realize you can produce just as much output with 50% less staff because of your optimized processes.

LETS AGREE THAT YOU NEED PROCESSES TO GROW!

All your staff follow processes, but they will either follow their own processes or the ones you make them. Even if you agree with their processes, there is always room for improvement, plus, most of the time this process is undocumented and that means its likely only that individual Worker will do it THE SPECIFIC way IT IS DONE TODAY that is working. Recall to when you first started running your company, you were figuring it all out on your own and executing on it by yourself. Then when you got your first couple of Workers you probably gave them one-on-one training until you felt they were fit to take over those tasks.

Imagine if, instead, you document everything you do in a process template that describes a goal, states accountable positions, clarifies methods for reviewing work, set standards, and clearly lists steps with intuitive detail so that all your staff can easily follow it. Then you just give this paper to new Workers and send them on their way. Life would be much easier from the start and if that Worker leaves his position it would be even easier to fill. If this Worker positively modifies the process, the modification would be documented and maintained. It also works amazingly when you need a helper to fill in, just give them the same processes.

The thing is, writing processes is just as difficult as writing computer software. Workers arent experienced in writing software so you cant expect them to know how to write processes.

What would happen if you were to hire 20 customer service reps without each one having a strict process to follow. Say you want your customer service to introduce themselves in a specific way like, Hi, this is John speaking, How may I assist you today? This is an important step in the process and without it, Workers would answer however they want: Hey there, what can I do you for? or Hello? Whos this? or even Whats up yo its Johnny from the block, keepin it real, you wanna buy somethin?

You might get upset at the last guy and tell him he lacks common sense and business experience, and youre right, but this how he has always answered the phone at his last job. If you assume the workers know what you want, you will be disappointed to find out that they dont and most of the time they dont really care. You know the saying, If you want it done right you have to do it yourself. And yes, although this is true, you do also have a choice of creating a process, and then letting a worker do it right for you by following that process or getting fired. If you want consistency in your company there has to be a step-by-step process that every Worker will follow.

Have you ever walked into a doctor's office and was pleasantly welcomed and offered TEA or Coffee by a friendly secretary full of smiles and small talk? Then your next visit you meet a different receptionist who can barely look you in the eyes let alone smile and nod like she appreciated having a job? What about YOUR staff? Wouldnt it be nice if each of them were exemplary and not just an exceptional one?

OK OK I get it, I need processes!

Congrats! On getting a little more business experience and finally understanding that over the years you overwhelmed yourself with the daily grind and now you need to back up and start delegating processes.

Ill let you in on another little secret! You can hire a company that has experience with making processes as well as hiring and training your staff to execute those processes, and in addition maintaining those processes for you. Shhhhhhh. This is what our company does!

WOW! Did I just give you a bite of Knowledge or what?

We have a library of processes specifically designed for eCommerce businesses, ready to be customized for your particular business and carried out by a team of trusted and trained staff with a history of experience implementing our processes. And we are offering them to you at the same rates as if you were to hire inexperienced individuals from India!

HOW DID WE DO IT? We have over 16 years of ecommerce experience, thats how. In fact, we employ teams from as basic as one person to as grand as 30 members plus for our clients. We actually have several clients who are publically listed on the stock exchange that outsource most of their ecommerce department to us.

If we dont have a process that you need, we will create it for you! Also its important to remember that as your company grows, you will need to add processes, refine existing processes, and micromanage your processes so they dont become outdated, causing issues and disrupting business.

Weve had our ecommerce processes and plans to offer competitive remote staffing rates all along but our biggest challenge was finding smart, reliable people who would implement the processes. We tried India for many years and 99% of them just could not follow simple instructions. The Philippines showed promise but their country's infrastructure was disrupting any serious staffing plans with daily power and internet outages.

We finally found success in Eastern Europe where we were surprised by the countrys solid infrastructure, faster internet speeds than some parts of United States, and no power outages. They spoke fluent English with ecommerce experience, strong logical skills, and most importantly with the currency exchange they are 300% cheaper than the Philippines or India. This allowed us to compete with indian and filipino employment rates while still generating a profit. This is the origin of our remote staffing for ecommerce services and today we have hundreds of staff growing monthly that you can hire.

Lets finally take your company to the next level and grow your business together. Whether with just one or an entire department, let us fill in the gap in your complete ecommerce strategy.