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Operations Plans

Written by: Bill Boyer

Article Overview: Why should small companies have an operations plan?

Operations Plans

The Need for an Operations Plan

Small businesses need a written operations plan. A well-designed operations plan defines all the processes required for the business so that all affected employees will know what their tasks are, and will have a resource for addressing problems that arise. How often has a problem occurred, but no one could remember what corrective action was previously taken to deal with a similar situation? Or the person who usually makes that decision is not available? A well-written operations plan will address these recurring situations.

Writing an operations plan is very difficult. It requires hard work, sacrifice, and understanding your business extremely well. It needs to written so that everyone will understand the steps for their particular responsibilities. It must be very detailed, and address normal operating procedures as well as corrective actions for common problems. Please note that this is not a policy manual: it covers the day-to-day operational procedures.

While there is a great benefit in having the plan, the process of preparing it is also of much value. Here are some of the benefits to be gained from undertaking this difficult project:
ć Those individuals writing the plan will enhance their understanding of the business and its systems.
ć This initiative will force you to refine and tighten all your processes.
ć It will eliminate duplication of effort and identify inconsistencies in the process.
ć It will point out potential problem areas.
ć It can be used as a training manual for new employees.

The plan is never fully completed. It will need to be updated for changes in your processes, and refined as you gain additional experience with each process.

Real-life example

Kevin’s business was driving him mad. He was making money, but nothing ever seemed to work if he was not personally involved. He had two partners who were also very personally involved in the daily operations, which helped offset the fact that the company did not have an operations plan.

After a great deal of introspection, Kevin realized that his business was designed around people, not processes. People are not systems. People perform systems. Kevin began crafting and implementing an operations plan. He started with the hiring and training of technicians. He figured if he could bring in quality technicians, many of the issues would disappear. He was right. He then tackled the customer service and administrative processes. Again, his personal involvement became less important for the business to execute well.

During this time he bought out his two partners. One of these partners was the sales executive. Having an operational plan allowed him to concentrate on the sales activity with some short term outside consulting help. He was now operating the business himself whereas in the past it took all three of them.

After a short time the sales effort was under control and now Kevin had the time to focus on the big issues of the business: geographic expansion and profitability. Eventually, Kevin’s business became wildly successful. Kevin’s business runs exceptionally well without his daily involvement. It also is exceptionally profitable.





Solution

An operations plan is very difficult to tackle alone. There are no canned programs to create an operations plan. No one else’s plan will work for your business. You have to start from scratch.

A couple of options to help you get started are:
ć create an outline of each process that needs to be developed and delegate that to an individual in that functional area,
ć find a planning buddy in your business or another business owner who needs to write a plan, or
ć hire a consultant to work with you.

In order to ensure optimum collaboration among functional areas (as well as optimal operating efficiency in the finished plan), it will be important for each business area to “vet” their plan with the other areas to whom, or from whom, work or information flows. Then everyone affected by the plan for their specific area must test the plan.

No matter which method you adopt, you must establish an accountability system with some other person (your planning buddy, the other business owner, or an outside consultant/coach) to ensure that you complete the project. While there are many benefits to engaging in the process, the real payoff lies in the completion and implementation of the operations plan that will improve efficiencies and allow you to have to the time to concentrate on growing your business.

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Article Tags: coaching, consulting, leadership, management, operations, planning, Planning, small businesses



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