Running a small business is like being chased by a pack of wild animals. Every one step you fail to take, they gain two steps on you. If you stop, you will be devoured. You must constantly be ahead of the pack and make every effort to increase your distance.
How, you ask? Here are two small business management tips and best practices...
Stretch your Resources Small businesses are notorious for never having enough resources. If you don’t have enough of something, it behooves you to use what you do have wisely and appropriately. The best way to do so is to have well-defined processes. Take the guessing game away from your resources. Once proven, processes can be repeated over and over flawlessly.
In every process, you are asking your team to get to a destination. Imagine that instead of them looking around to find their way, you create a railroad track for them. Once aboard, they can go as fast as they can to get to the results without thinking of which way to turn at each cross-section. As you add new team members, they will also follow the track.
It may seem counter intuitive at first, since defining and debugging processes is somewhat time-consuming. However, if a process is to be done over a mere two or three times, you will save enough to make the original investment worthwhile. As a side benefit, you not only save now, but also facilitate smooth growth in your company, something that many small businesses struggle with.
Make fewer mistakes Sounds easier said than done? Well, it is easier than you think. At InfoStreet, we have a saying that “Only 10% of our employees are human, for the rest we employ technology”. When you define processes and if you automate them, they get done accurately, on-budget and on-time, every time.
Look at your company and see what can be automated. The conventional wisdom that most things cannot be automated is wrong. If you interviewed 100 people twenty years ago, 99 of them would say, you may be able to automate some things, but you can’t automate sales. Well, E-commerce proved them wrong. Same goes for supply chain, workflow, ….
Send an email to your team. Ask them what actions they repeat over and over in a given month. You would be surprised as to the gems you will uncover. Take those responses, sort them by priority and automate one by one.
By automating, you will make less mistakes, your team would be happier not having to deal with repetitive grunt work and all will win.
About Siamak Farah Siamak Farah is the founder and CEO of InfoStreet, a leading provider of Small Business Software as a Service (SaaS). Active in its day-to-day management, Siamak has assembled and leads a seasoned team of industry professionals at InfoStreet. Widely regarded as a SaaS pioneer, as early as 1994, InfoStreet began shaping a vision, a team and a technology which is now transforming the way business gets done.
As president of one small publicly listed software development firm and the chief operating officer of another, Siamak has extensive small business management knowledge. This, combined with years of experience as a software developer, places him in the unique position of having hands-on knowledge of technical, marketing and management issues, the very combination required for a successful Software as a Service provider.
Prior to founding InfoStreet in 1994, Siamak worked at NeXT Computer, side-by-side with industry visionaries. During his six years at NeXT, his responsibilities grew from technical sales and marketing to district sales management. Before joining NeXT, Siamak was the Chief Operating Officer of Microstat Development Corporation. During that time, he was responsible for the day-to-day operation of this publicly listed R&D firm. Siamak began his career at Vertigo Systems International. During his time at Vertigo, he was instrumental in its growth from a startup with just six people to a full-fledged business employing over 70 individuals.
The positions held by Siamak span the gamut of those required in the operation and management of a software development company. Siamak set out to experience these roles by deliberate design. At the age of 22, he already had a vision to create a software development firm. Leaving nothing to chance, Siamak systematically chose positions that would provide him with experience in all facets of a software business: development, customer service and training, executive management and finance, and sales and marketing.
Having been in the industry for more than 25 years Siamak has striven to include a cutting edge technological vision in his work. As evidence, Siamak has been and continues to be active in the envisioning and creation of forefront technology. 3D-animation, Internet technology, and object-oriented programming, and Software as a Service are just a few leading edge technologies to which Siamak has actively contributed.
A member of the Society of Industry Leaders, Siamak is a frequent speaker at conferences that focus on the Internet and SaaS such as ISPCON, INBOX: The Messaging Industry Event, the Layered Technologies Pact conference, SoftLetter’s SaaS Univeristy and more.
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Stretch your Resources
