In the fast-paced world of small business ownership, it’s easy to overlook the importance of your processes and documenting procedures. However, doing so can greatly improve operational efficiency, reduce potential risks, and promote business growth.
The Value of Documentation
When processes and workflows are not documented, a team can often be misaligned and waste valuable time searching for answers. This can lead to frustration, decreased productivity, and misunderstandings.
To avoid these, it’s important to create clear and concise documentation for all of your business processes. This documentation should include the following:
- A description of the process
- A step-by-step description of the process
- The responsible parties and materials needed for each step
- Any relevant deadlines, milestones, or timelines to keep in mind
For example, you could create a how-to guide on how to draft and publish social media posts. This will help to ensure that everyone on your team understands how it’s done. By clearly defining a process like this, your team can duplicate it in a brand-consistent way no matter who’s posting.
A Sweet Rose Client Example
A client of ours was struggling to maintain a consistent social media presence. There was no streamlined process in place; the team shared content sporadically when it came to mind.
To post more consistently on social media, we helped them establish a workflow by creating a physical how-to document. We discussed creating a central location for sharing content ideas, providing everyone on the team with access to photos and videos, and implementing a review process for posts to be approved. The results from this exercise helped them identify areas where they could improve their efficiency and develop a process that worked for them.
We are happy to note that our client now posts on multiple social media channels 2-3 times a week. The trend has been consistent for the past year, and we believe it has something to do with the exercise we helped them with. By getting deliberate with their strategy and documenting their workflow, they were able to refine their posting process and effectively align their team’s efforts.
Employee Turnover Challenges
Another benefit of documenting your processes is that it can help you prepare for employee turnover. When a key employee leaves your company, having clear documentation in place will make it easier for their replacement to get up to speed quickly. This is especially true for small businesses that may have a team of 2-3 members operating the backend of their business.
For example, you could create a centralized resource where important information lives. This could include:
- Passwords
- Lists of websites employees need access to
- Lists of accounts that have to be shared manually
A document like this could ensure a seamless transition whenever an employee leaves your company. New team members will be able to quickly get up to speed and reduce the amount of training time involved when onboarding.
A Sweet Rose Client Example
One of our clients experienced a challenge like this during the transition of their Marketing Director. As they introduced the new employee to their team, it became apparent that the individual lacked access to necessary analytics and advertising platforms. Sites like Google Analytics and Google Ads in particular require someone else to grant new users permission.
Unfortunately, the new employee had to endure a waiting period before gaining access. This confusion could have been prevented if they had implemented a process for smoothly transitioning outgoing employees while overlapping with the onboarding of new team members.
Risk Management Issues
As we increasingly rely on technology in our businesses, it’s important to be aware of the potential risks associated with AI and large language models (LLMs). LLMs can still output biased information so it could benefit a small business to make it clear to new employees what they can and can’t use them for. Additionally, if your employees are using online LLMs instead of local ones, you run the risk of data privacy breaches.
To mitigate these risks, it’s important to develop internal guidelines for utilizing AI and LLMs. These guidelines should include the following:
- Data privacy strategies
- Appropriate use cases for AI and LLMs
- A contingency plan in case of a data breach
By developing these guidelines, you can help to ensure that your business is prepared to navigate any potential AI-related pitfalls.
Getting Started
Whether you’re ready to get started by creating a how-to guide or a small business contingency plan, there are several different resources available for getting started. These exercises may require some time upfront, but they can benefit you a lot in the long run:
- You and your employees can be more on the same page which could lead to increased productivity
- You can be better prepared for turnover and training new employees
- You can have higher quality content if you intentionally make it known that LLMs are part of the content creation process and not the entire thing
- Your processes will be laid out in full so you can easily assess your next move if something drastic happens
If you’re ready to improve your small business’s marketing and overall operations, contact Sweet Rose Studios today. We can help you assess where the gaps are in your current process and refine your strategy so you can easily streamline new content, communicate better with your team internally, and be prepared when you start integrating AI into your business.
