Why is it Important?
If every day of running your business is spent firefighting, you will not be able to achieve very much. A successful medical practice must be able to run on autopilot for most routine activities, leaving the managers free to work on managing relations with clients, looking out for new business opportunities, and expanding the product portfolio.
Smooth business operations mean that your workflow and inventory management are well-coordinated, your employees are well trained and equipped to produce your goods without having to be monitored continuously, and the quality of your products and services is so good that customer complaints are minimized.
If you are able to get your business to such a stable state of operations, you will be able to predict your activities and plan for them in time. There will be no last-minute running around and panic. You will be able to plan for future events and anticipate your business needs. In short, smooth business operations mean that the business is under control and progressing well.
Quotes from Successful People
- “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” — Bill Gates
- “While successful leaders address all four areas, the best leaders always start with why followed very closely by who. Then, and only then, do they work on the design of what and how.” — Mike Myatt
- “Commitment without understanding is a liability.” — Oliver Wight
- “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” — Peter F. Drucker
- “Process improvement programs are like teaching people how to fish. Strategy maps and scorecards teach people where to fish.” — Robert S. Kaplan
10 Great Tips
- Develop a system for your practice. The system must include working procedures in different divisions of your business.
- Create an operation manual so that your employees know about their job descriptions, your business standards, and other important matters.
- Improve your business manual regularly. Involve employees in adding new techniques and materials to improve your working procedures.
- Have regular meetings with your staff to see how to make the business operation smoother. Always encourage your employees to share their opinions.
- Train your employees and delegate tasks so that they do not need to rely on you in all matters.
- Review top businesses in your industry and see how they manage their operations.
- You should have both internal and external effective business operations. How is your relationship with your suppliers, vendors, and collaborators? How can you make more effective and efficient working relationships and business procedures with them?
- Define important elements of your business operation, such as customer order processing time, answering phone time, employee punctuality, quality of your products and services, and customer satisfaction.
- Review important operation elements every three months to see how your business operation is performing.
- Do not try to fix and improve all issues at the same time. Start from the main one and go to the others.
Tools and Resources
- iDoneThis – https://home.idonethis.com/– Ensure your teams work smoothly by using a good reporting tool that allows team members to share the work they have done and keep everyone in sync. iDoneThis is great at this.
- Harvest – https://www.getharvest.com/– Keep track of time. Harvest keeps your projects running smoothly by keeping track of your teams, their time use, and what they have achieved. Harvest collects data about how your teams work and creates insightful reports.
- Glip – https://glip.com/– Keep your business running smoothly with Glip—manage tasks, share files and calendars, record your chat sessions, and empower your teams to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine.
- Trello – https://trello.com– Eliminate chaos and uncertainty from your projects by using Trello. This productivity tool allows you to assign tasks to individuals or teams, assign deadlines, and track progress so that your projects run smoothly, and any deviations are corrected early.
- PandaDoc – https://www.pandadoc.com/– PandaDoc document management solution cuts out the paperwork from your documents and lets you go truly digital. Create, dispatch, and track documents; add digital signatures, and monitor responses from an easy-to-use interface.
