Respect the Process

While each day can be different, the fundamental elements of any business are the same—sales, marketing, operations, finance, people, etc. Establishing processes to deal with the common issues of a business seems like a waste of time to most entrepreneurs. Process is the fuel that energizes progress, yet many entrepreneurs view process as a dirty word reserved for General Electric and Six Sigma classes.

“The entrepreneur has to move, and move faster.” 

As entrepreneurs, we pride ourselves on our independence, creativity, risk taking and willingness to chart the unknown. Scheduling meetings, defining accountability and discussing process may feel like a step backwards or a step in the wrong direction. The entrepreneur’s perspective that process is meant for larger companies, and the wave of activity is just the nature of the entrepreneurial beast, can hamper your organization for years.

There are many consequences that result when entrepreneurs avoid putting process in place:

• Plugging Holes as They Come. When a fledgling business has no structure in place to manage common business issues and conflicts, the entrepreneur is left to plug the holes with whatever is on hand.
• Reinventing the Wheel. Even though an activity (e.g., sales call) has been done many times, when entrepreneurs and their teams lack operating process, each task or action is being executed as though it were the first time.
• Communicating Inefficiently. When entrepreneurs neglect to establish forums for regular company dialogue, or fail to schedule planning and progress meetings, communication ends up in a tangle of email replies, forwards, CCs and BCCs from multiple parties.

The process maximizes your scarcest resource—time.