Has your day been filled with productivity? – the kind that lights you up and makes you feel energised about your business and your future? Are you happy that your team know what they are doing and confident they can handle any issues that come along today?
Or is it the complete opposite? Another day spent stressing about the picky details, ensuring all the tasks get done, keeping the wheels turning? Fire-fighting even?
As my network expands, I’ve been hearing from more and more business owners who are stuck in this trap. Business is doing well but they are frustrated about the increasing amount of day-to-day work they need to do, not to mention the said fire-fighting that comes from an expanding number of team members and larger output of your product or service. Bigger business, bigger problems as they say.
Worst of all, they can’t see a way out. They are consumed by this situation; KNOW they need help but can’t afford the time to do anything about it.
If this is you, you might recognise it as a recipe for falling out of love with your business. I’ve seen it. It hurts.
So how can we turn things around?
I’ve written a fair few posts in the Latchgate blog about building teams, effective delegating and setting up SOP’s and systems – yes, yes, yes, all good advice to be had there (please head over and take a look!) But – what if these tips are already too overwhelming to implement? Adding already too many parts to the complicated jigsaw that is your business? If you’re in the thick of it it’s unlikely you have the time or the energy to take action.
I have coined a term for this exact moment your business. You my friend have reached your Operational Tipping Point®
My advice? Take a step back. Help is out there!
If the 5 points below ring true for you then engaging an operations consultant might be the next step for your business. Read on..!
- Your business is growing while your own free time is shrinking
I bet you started your business to create more freedom in your life, am I right? Freedom of time, money and choice. So, let me ask you this – as your business grows are you actually working more or less? If you are on the ‘working more’ side of things you certainly aren’t alone… I can’t count how many times I’ve talked to business owners who working more hours in their own business than they ever did in their ‘old job’.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way – as a business owner you have the freedom to be able to make changes in your business, including hiring the right help to get stuff off your plate. This is exactly what an operations consultant can help with – their focus is to help you make the right decisions to free up the business owner (you!) so that you can focus your time and energy on the things that only YOU can do in your business.
2. You are turning down opportunities because you are so busy!
This is an unfortunate by-product of point 1. Are you so busy that you can’t take advantage of the opportunities that are coming your way? Do you ever find yourself saying “I would love to do X and know it would be a great new service to offer my customers… but I simply don’t have the brain space for it right now.’’
Not only can an operations consultant enable you to explore these opportunities, they can also work on bringing these opportunities to life for you! An operations consultant can put structures in place to enable your team to manage the process of bringing new projects and offers to life from concept to launch.
3. You are still doing the things you were doing when you started the business.
Remember when you first started and had to wear all of the hats? Now that your business is growing, are you still doing the same things as you were in the start? Are you still updating your own website? Still spending hours on your social media? Still answering all your customer service emails? As your business grows your role will (and should!) change.
An operations consultant can guide you so you delegate the right tasks to the right team members.
4. You have a great team, but they always seem to be ‘bugging’ you!
This is actually a very common complaint from business owners – they have a great team of virtual assistants, freelancers and support staff, yet they are constantly frustrated by how much their team needs from them. They feel like someone is always tapping them on the shoulder with a question or request. The thing is, your team does need someone to manage them. They need someone who they can turn to with questions, to get what they need to complete their projects quickly and on time. An operations consultant will help you to build team structures with full autonomy to get the job done, freeing up you and your time as a result.
5. You are stuck at £x revenue and can’t seem t get past that point.
When you find yourself stuck at a certain point in revenue there is usually one thing getting in the way – surprise….it’s you! This is often referred to as the quarter million-pound speed-bump (can be more or less than that of course) and a big part of the solution usually requires you removing yourself from the day-to-day activities and management of your business.
Start to ask yourself as you go about your day – do I need to be the person to do X?
Chances are many things on your to-do list could be passed along to someone else on your team, whether that’s an OBM or a team of specialist freelancers or VA’s. And an operations consultant can help with that by showing you systems and processes for delegating key functions and responsibilities to the right team members all within the right team structure.
In short, once you have
- hit 6-figures in revenue
- a clear vision & goals for your next level of growth, and
- you are ready to step into being the CEO and have someone else run the business for you
…then you are ready to bring in an operations consultant.
If you would like to talk more about whether an operations consultant could be right thing for your business, please book in for a no obligation coffee chat so we can learn some more about each other.
I will talk you through the frameworks I use to help my clients achieve the strongest, most productive and resilient businesses. There’s no reason why you can’t have that too.
I look forward to hearing from you!
