Your business could be affected by any number of risks. Every business owner appreciates there?s risks such as single source suppliers, key customers, even Nature which can at any moment bring your business to its knees. However lurking beneath the surface is a risk so important, so critical that it often hides in the shadows and often goes unnoticed, undocumented and untreated. Should this particular risk ever come to fruition it would bring your whole business down instantly. This risk is so obvious that some businesses even contain this risk in their name. This risk is you!
Mitigating your biggest Risk.
You might believe you?re a fit and healthy person, you might also have plans of working in your business for years to come, however as you?re aware there are no ?certainties? in life. The very substance of risk management is identification, documentation and treatment for every known business risk, precisely how can you create a treatment plan for something as critical and as important as ?you??
What would happen if?
How would your business cope if your best employee left? Simple there?d be a amount of pain and you would rehire. What would happen if your best supplier suddenly collapsed? You would reference your risk plan and seek an alternative supplier. What would happen if lightening took out your data server? Easy you may revert to a back up, purchase new kit and move on.
However, could you take a holiday from your business? what would happen if you suddenly got sick? Who would replace you? Who would know where to start? Would your business continue?
Identifying what you do.
Make no mistake, understanding what you ?do? in your business is not an easy task. First, there is the argument that only you can do what you do. Second, there is the time it would take to understand and document each task. Third, there is a mystic that some people simply don?t want others to know what goes on in the inner core of their business. There is however, a great reward for going through this exercise.
Worth the effort.
While some competitive intellectual property should remain secret, the tasks you perform daily to keep the business running must be identified if you wish to mitigate your biggest risk. It takes time and effort to look at what you do in detail and document it. However, this exercise alone could save your business. How?
Process can set you free.
By finding and documenting what you do, you are developing a process. The power of this process is that a process is repeatable and with some effort process can be refined and improved. But that?s not the best bit! When you have a repeatable process you have an incredible new option open to you. Someone other than you can learn, and eventually do what you do. This of course means you don?t have to.
Why repeatable process is key.
There are two critically important things about business process freedom and control.
Freedom.
Business processes give you the personal freedom to consider holidays without worry, focus on other projects, as well as start other business. Those who understand this even work out ways to franchise their business, why have one business earning cash when you can have 2, or 3.
Control.
Process offers a business something incredibly powerful, control. A collection of activities when organised into a process can be measured and improved. The discipline of ?process improvement? is the reason big companies got that way.
Process creates a way to scale, a way to improve and a way to optimise. I think every business needs robust processes, or it?s at significant and serious risk.
You don?t need consultants from top tier enterprise firms to get started with process management. As a former KPMG manager, Hewlett Packard consultant and advisor the Australian Department of Defence I can show you how to identify a single point dependency and create effective business process. Click HERE to find out how more.
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