Our client managed a few sales representatives and customer service representatives virtually. The gaps we identified in his business included - communication gaps between customers, sales representatives, customer service representatives, and himself resulting in frustrated customers and team members. We developed a sales presentation process to ensure each representative explained the same services, clearer contracts were developed which allowed sales representatives to make customized arrangements with customers and clearly communicated customer expectations to customer service representatives, and we identified, implemented, and trained all users on an online CRM system allowing appropriate team members to see customer's status at all times which resulted in clear communications to the customers.
Lisa Meloche, Virtual Chief Operations Officer supports businesses with their daily operations to increase sales, decrease costs, and increase overall profitability.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Unleash The Teenage Entrepreneur In You
Every few months my teenage daughter asks me to color her hair new colors. Yes, colors as in multiple different colors like black, teal, and hot pink. As I'm coloring her hair this time dark red brown with a bold red "peek-a-boo" stripe on one side, I'm reminded of the courage I had when I was a teenager. My parents' interior bathroom door frame shows evidence of the days that I also would color my hair multiple colors. I'd use Sun-In, spray paint my hair various bold colors or the multi-glitter spray, and once I even cut all my hair short on one side and left the other side long. I'd wear pink eye shadow with a bold blue stripe at the crease and teal eyeliner giving me the nickname rainbow eyes. I adorned myself in painted sweatshirts and melted plastic jewelry I hand-made.
At the age of eleven, I had a paper route and I networked with the other paper delivery kids to know who was going to give up their route and was able to build up to three routes by time I was thirteen. At fourteen, I set a goal to have my own car by sixteen. I talked my friend's brother into getting an interview for me at the Little Caesar's on the corner. I learned all aspects of the operations to become their youngest shift manager by the age of sixteen. As a teenager, I was fearless, clear on my goals and obviously willing to do things that looked pretty silly.
I realized this isn't much different than the experience of an entrepreneur. We launch our businesses and try on different products and/or services to find the right niche. We put ourselves out there promoting ourselves and our businesses looking for the right image that works. We quickly realize we need to learn all aspects of business to be successful. Once again, we are finding ourselves.
Are we unleashing the teenage entrepreneur within ourselves or are we holding back afraid of what others will think? Are we true to our dream whether it's to work solo or to build a team into a large organization? I know firsthand working through our fear of failure is tough and this past year I've pushed myself the hardest and made the biggest mistakes I've made, but that little bit of failure has reduced my fear because I've been forced to face it and I'm still here to tell about it. (I will share more in my next post.)
So in preparation of 2011, I'm putting some teal and glitter in my hair and sharing it with the world! Are you with me?
Lisa Meloche, founder of Organized Operations, helps entrepreneurs develop and document systems in their business to allow for delegation and duplication building their dream business.
At the age of eleven, I had a paper route and I networked with the other paper delivery kids to know who was going to give up their route and was able to build up to three routes by time I was thirteen. At fourteen, I set a goal to have my own car by sixteen. I talked my friend's brother into getting an interview for me at the Little Caesar's on the corner. I learned all aspects of the operations to become their youngest shift manager by the age of sixteen. As a teenager, I was fearless, clear on my goals and obviously willing to do things that looked pretty silly.
I realized this isn't much different than the experience of an entrepreneur. We launch our businesses and try on different products and/or services to find the right niche. We put ourselves out there promoting ourselves and our businesses looking for the right image that works. We quickly realize we need to learn all aspects of business to be successful. Once again, we are finding ourselves.
Are we unleashing the teenage entrepreneur within ourselves or are we holding back afraid of what others will think? Are we true to our dream whether it's to work solo or to build a team into a large organization? I know firsthand working through our fear of failure is tough and this past year I've pushed myself the hardest and made the biggest mistakes I've made, but that little bit of failure has reduced my fear because I've been forced to face it and I'm still here to tell about it. (I will share more in my next post.)
So in preparation of 2011, I'm putting some teal and glitter in my hair and sharing it with the world! Are you with me?
Lisa Meloche, founder of Organized Operations, helps entrepreneurs develop and document systems in their business to allow for delegation and duplication building their dream business.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Are You Up To The Challenge To Grow Your Business?
I was greatly inspired by a two paragraph article I read several months ago in dBusiness Magazine. It was an attorney sharing his tremendous growth in his company. He stated his father-in-law challenged him to hire an assistant for $40K per year so he could grow his business. The attorney admitted that he was barely making that per year himself and how could he possibly do this? But he took on the challenge. He hired a very competent legal assistant and delegated everything but sales and marketing - within one year he was operating a million dollar business.
I have implemented hiring employees into my wellness company and have had as many as six employees at a time. It can be rough at times and demanding, but it is clear how much quicker your business can grow by delegating and duplicating. With clearly documented systems and processes, I was able to create specific responsibilities and expected results of each person in the company. Are you ready to delegate and duplicate?
Start by brainstorming your processes. You'll need a pad of Post-it's and a flip chart. Write on the Post-It's each step in the process you are designing. Stick them up on the flip chart and reorganize the tasks until you have everything documented. Next, enter this flow into your computer to share with your team. In the attached video, I share how to document a process flow in Microsoft Word for your business. View this video and begin to document the different work process flows you have within your company. Some topics to get you started include order taking, social media updates, blog updates, sales, accounting, product or service delivery, etc.
Lisa Meloche provides support for entrepreneur's to document their business processes allowing them to create the dream business they envisioned. Support services range from education and coaching to complete operations design and documentation. http://bodyworkalternatives.com/Organized_Operations.html
I have implemented hiring employees into my wellness company and have had as many as six employees at a time. It can be rough at times and demanding, but it is clear how much quicker your business can grow by delegating and duplicating. With clearly documented systems and processes, I was able to create specific responsibilities and expected results of each person in the company. Are you ready to delegate and duplicate?
Start by brainstorming your processes. You'll need a pad of Post-it's and a flip chart. Write on the Post-It's each step in the process you are designing. Stick them up on the flip chart and reorganize the tasks until you have everything documented. Next, enter this flow into your computer to share with your team. In the attached video, I share how to document a process flow in Microsoft Word for your business. View this video and begin to document the different work process flows you have within your company. Some topics to get you started include order taking, social media updates, blog updates, sales, accounting, product or service delivery, etc.
Lisa Meloche provides support for entrepreneur's to document their business processes allowing them to create the dream business they envisioned. Support services range from education and coaching to complete operations design and documentation. http://bodyworkalternatives.com/Organized_Operations.html
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Systems Are Worth Millions
There are 5,000 franchise companies operating through 500,000 outlets and accounting for sales of 2-trillion dollars. The average franchise fee is $20,000-$30,000 with some of the larger franchise businesses requiring much more. Besides becoming a well-known name, what else does a franchise offer? Systems.
By purchasing a franchise the processes for the business to function is already designed to ensure maximum efficiency. These processes are documented allowing for easy training and implementation allowing the business to grow and duplicate.
As a small business owner, we often struggle to get through the day. We possibly repeat many of the same tasks without much thought on the way in which we do them or if it’s the most efficient way to get a job completed. We are masters at multi-tasking and individually perform tasks handled by many different departments marketing, information technology, accounting, human resources, service delivery, customer service, product development, etc. and yet we often don’t recognize the different functions we perform every day.
The beautiful part of developing an operations manual is it allows you to design your dream business and start to take the steps necessary to get there. Take a minute to think about it. If you were a full functioning business what departments would you have? How many employees would you have in these departments? What roles and responsibilities would these employees have? How would you train these employees to perform tasks, interact with customers, and deliver your product or service to the world? How large could you grow with efficient systems in place? How easy would it be to start adding employees to your company even if only for a few hours per week to get started?
Are you able to start to see your business forming? You can begin to create systems in your business and allow for growth by following these steps:
•Document all the tasks you perform
•Group these tasks into department functions
•Write work instructions of the most efficient way to perform these tasks
•Start to identify roles and responsibilities for your first employee or independent contractor
•Write a job description and performance expectations
•Conduct training on the tasks you are delegating
Before you know it, you will have a living breathing operations manual for all functions of your business allowing you to duplicate your business tasks and grow to a million dollar business. For a free webinar outlining the steps to create an operations manual, visit http://bodyworkalternatives.com/Organized_Operations.html
Lisa Meloche
By purchasing a franchise the processes for the business to function is already designed to ensure maximum efficiency. These processes are documented allowing for easy training and implementation allowing the business to grow and duplicate.
As a small business owner, we often struggle to get through the day. We possibly repeat many of the same tasks without much thought on the way in which we do them or if it’s the most efficient way to get a job completed. We are masters at multi-tasking and individually perform tasks handled by many different departments marketing, information technology, accounting, human resources, service delivery, customer service, product development, etc. and yet we often don’t recognize the different functions we perform every day.
The beautiful part of developing an operations manual is it allows you to design your dream business and start to take the steps necessary to get there. Take a minute to think about it. If you were a full functioning business what departments would you have? How many employees would you have in these departments? What roles and responsibilities would these employees have? How would you train these employees to perform tasks, interact with customers, and deliver your product or service to the world? How large could you grow with efficient systems in place? How easy would it be to start adding employees to your company even if only for a few hours per week to get started?
Are you able to start to see your business forming? You can begin to create systems in your business and allow for growth by following these steps:
•Document all the tasks you perform
•Group these tasks into department functions
•Write work instructions of the most efficient way to perform these tasks
•Start to identify roles and responsibilities for your first employee or independent contractor
•Write a job description and performance expectations
•Conduct training on the tasks you are delegating
Before you know it, you will have a living breathing operations manual for all functions of your business allowing you to duplicate your business tasks and grow to a million dollar business. For a free webinar outlining the steps to create an operations manual, visit http://bodyworkalternatives.com/Organized_Operations.html
Lisa Meloche
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