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Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
The c l i c k b a i t is TRUE. Hear me out...
The "ticket" to the promise made in the title, once you have an actual business in place, is...
But don't worry, because CONTROLS can help you turn whatever it is you have into a business, if it's not already.
I could do a whole thread on REPEATABLE PROCESSES too, but I've harped on that elsewhere. And I believe that if you set out to develop CONTROLS, you'll tend to define processes anyway... how can you control something you can't define?
A brief interlude... you may refill your coffee...
In November 2015, I set out to make my business as consistent and repeatable as possible. And to make it independent of me, as much as possible.
I was already diligent about documenting workflows and making checklists, when they were called for, but I started taking it to a new level. I hired a full time software developer, even though I am a not-terrible programmer myself. We started automating what we could, designing and building systems, and making tools for humans to use whenever outright automation didn't make sense.
I began firing myself from jobs. Bots, employees, and contractors got these jobs. Funny enough I found that eventually, the employees and contractors were better at most jobs than I was.
And I thought I was good! Turns out I deserved to be fired :<
Admittedly, I have kept a few things for myself. I update certain technical information, usually once per year. I develop new products, if or when I have an idea for one; or if the market specifically asks for one. I pull the occasional win-win deal out of thin air and make it happen. Also, my wife still keeps the (mostly automated) books.
The business can run on its own for long spans. We can be anywhere in the world, awake or asleep. With trivial effort (assigning a person and process to bookkeeping and yearly updates and a few minor things), I could make the same claim whether we were alive or dead.
Telling you this actually makes me incredibly nervous, but I have to overcome that. It is too important not to share.
I am a real "coffee achiever," and the appearance of idleness bothers me. However, freeing up your time does not necessarily make you idle. It doesn't stop you from producing value. On the contrary, it gives you the ability to deliver ever more value.
Not only do you have time; you also have a business system that you control. I mean, really control, because it doesn't control your time. And that means you have a business lab from which you can run experiments, borrow underutilized resources, or whatever you need to do.
We return to the feature presentation...
So what are controls?
They are the means by which you measure and evaluate things. You didn't really do the job if you can't see that you did the job...
Controls mean you can trust the output of your business.
Controls also mean you can discover problems early.
For a long time, I've used checklists. They're probably the easiest form of control to implement. Want to know if a job was done, and no steps skipped? Require a checklist. Better yet, have it print out automatically with an order, or email automatically with a reminder. And not a stupid checklist, a useful one. When an order prints out, there's a checklist on a sticker for packing the bubble-mailer. When the reminder comes in to update the weekly or monthly "thing," there's a checklist with all the steps. When the surgeon sews up the guy's torso, a nurse is standing by with a checklist to make sure no forceps are left inside... Like other controls, checklists reduce the cognitive load of a job. They don't increase it.
My checklists usually grow out of some job that needs to be done on a routine basis, and is prone to error or missed steps. Any one person only has a few things that actually require a checklist... otherwise we would try to automate away tasks that are prone to error.
As time has gone on, I've developed more controls and more types of controls. These are not the same as enterprise-y, big company fake work permission documents. In case anyone has experienced those. The developer spends his time developing. The salesman spends his time selling. The admin spends her time admin-ing. The teachers spend their time teaching. Controls are for reinforcing those behaviors, ensuring they get done right, and providing feedback. If you try to design "controls" and they end up getting in the way, you've over-engineered them. If you bought Microsoft Visio, stop now and get a sketch pad and plain text editor.
Controls I currently use:
The net result: if you're committed to implementing controls in your business, there's not much that can take you by surprise. At least, internally. You'll be on your way to the "passive ownership exit," and the business supporting itself (as opposed to your labor supporting it). Granted, you do need to sell enough goods for the business to breathe. But that gets easier, not harder, as you make things in the business more repeatable, consistent, incentivize-able.
I'm curious. What controls are you all using in your businesses? Do you think you could benefit from better controls? Better defined processes? More ability to delegate?
Or do you feel you're not at a place yet where you can implement this? MAybe controls are impossible in your industry because "everything is custom?" Want to argue the point? Inquiring minds want to know.
I kept this abstract to keep the length down, but I'm happy to field questions, or to learn from ops-masters more seasoned than myself. Thanks for reading!
The "ticket" to the promise made in the title, once you have an actual business in place, is...
CONTROLS
But don't worry, because CONTROLS can help you turn whatever it is you have into a business, if it's not already.
I could do a whole thread on REPEATABLE PROCESSES too, but I've harped on that elsewhere. And I believe that if you set out to develop CONTROLS, you'll tend to define processes anyway... how can you control something you can't define?
A brief interlude... you may refill your coffee...
In November 2015, I set out to make my business as consistent and repeatable as possible. And to make it independent of me, as much as possible.
I was already diligent about documenting workflows and making checklists, when they were called for, but I started taking it to a new level. I hired a full time software developer, even though I am a not-terrible programmer myself. We started automating what we could, designing and building systems, and making tools for humans to use whenever outright automation didn't make sense.
I began firing myself from jobs. Bots, employees, and contractors got these jobs. Funny enough I found that eventually, the employees and contractors were better at most jobs than I was.
And I thought I was good! Turns out I deserved to be fired :<
Admittedly, I have kept a few things for myself. I update certain technical information, usually once per year. I develop new products, if or when I have an idea for one; or if the market specifically asks for one. I pull the occasional win-win deal out of thin air and make it happen. Also, my wife still keeps the (mostly automated) books.
The business can run on its own for long spans. We can be anywhere in the world, awake or asleep. With trivial effort (assigning a person and process to bookkeeping and yearly updates and a few minor things), I could make the same claim whether we were alive or dead.
Telling you this actually makes me incredibly nervous, but I have to overcome that. It is too important not to share.
I am a real "coffee achiever," and the appearance of idleness bothers me. However, freeing up your time does not necessarily make you idle. It doesn't stop you from producing value. On the contrary, it gives you the ability to deliver ever more value.
Not only do you have time; you also have a business system that you control. I mean, really control, because it doesn't control your time. And that means you have a business lab from which you can run experiments, borrow underutilized resources, or whatever you need to do.
We return to the feature presentation...
So what are controls?
They are the means by which you measure and evaluate things. You didn't really do the job if you can't see that you did the job...
Controls mean you can trust the output of your business.
Controls also mean you can discover problems early.
For a long time, I've used checklists. They're probably the easiest form of control to implement. Want to know if a job was done, and no steps skipped? Require a checklist. Better yet, have it print out automatically with an order, or email automatically with a reminder. And not a stupid checklist, a useful one. When an order prints out, there's a checklist on a sticker for packing the bubble-mailer. When the reminder comes in to update the weekly or monthly "thing," there's a checklist with all the steps. When the surgeon sews up the guy's torso, a nurse is standing by with a checklist to make sure no forceps are left inside... Like other controls, checklists reduce the cognitive load of a job. They don't increase it.
My checklists usually grow out of some job that needs to be done on a routine basis, and is prone to error or missed steps. Any one person only has a few things that actually require a checklist... otherwise we would try to automate away tasks that are prone to error.
As time has gone on, I've developed more controls and more types of controls. These are not the same as enterprise-y, big company fake work permission documents. In case anyone has experienced those. The developer spends his time developing. The salesman spends his time selling. The admin spends her time admin-ing. The teachers spend their time teaching. Controls are for reinforcing those behaviors, ensuring they get done right, and providing feedback. If you try to design "controls" and they end up getting in the way, you've over-engineered them. If you bought Microsoft Visio, stop now and get a sketch pad and plain text editor.
Controls I currently use:
- Printed checklists
- Online "weekly report" form for incentivized activities
- Two sets of eyes and two notification methods on incoming orders (alerts by email and Slack channel so nothing can ever be missed).
- Automated calendaring and notifications for recurring tasks
- Automation for most orders and order deliverables
- Automated messages to customers triggered by events or timing
- Defined reports for ensuring accurate tax payment, etc.
- Separation of functions, e.g.: the person who checks the mail does not handle finances
- Audit path for changes to customer records in management system
The net result: if you're committed to implementing controls in your business, there's not much that can take you by surprise. At least, internally. You'll be on your way to the "passive ownership exit," and the business supporting itself (as opposed to your labor supporting it). Granted, you do need to sell enough goods for the business to breathe. But that gets easier, not harder, as you make things in the business more repeatable, consistent, incentivize-able.
I'm curious. What controls are you all using in your businesses? Do you think you could benefit from better controls? Better defined processes? More ability to delegate?
Or do you feel you're not at a place yet where you can implement this? MAybe controls are impossible in your industry because "everything is custom?" Want to argue the point? Inquiring minds want to know.
I kept this abstract to keep the length down, but I'm happy to field questions, or to learn from ops-masters more seasoned than myself. Thanks for reading!
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