Have you ever been doing something and stopped and thought, “I might be the only person who knows how to do this task”? Moments like that happen all the time in businesses, and they can be a bit scary. They can cause you to start considering how that task would get done if you weren’t there to do it.
On the other hand, moments like these are also an opportunity to develop and set down business processes that you may not have documented before. And that’s a good thing for a whole host of reasons. It’s a good thing not just for our digital marketing company but for your business and any other company out there.
Benefits of making the most of opportunities for business processes development
Why is it so important to take every opportunity to develop and update processes for your business? The short answer is that doing so can have many benefits that can make a business stronger. Some company-strengthening benefits of building and updating your processes can include:
- Ensuring that processes are actually documented and not simply stuck in one employee’s head.
- Increasing process transparency within your organization.
- Boosting your business’s ability to train new employees in company processes.
- Allowing for increased accountability at all levels of your company.
Our team discovered these benefits and others during our own process development journey. I also discuss some of them more in depth in the initial post in this series as well as my interviews with the heads of our web development, content creation and operations departments.
A final round of advice about business processes development from our team to yours
Our BURG+CO. Marketing team has learned a lot from working to document and update our company processes, and we’d like to pass some of that knowledge onto your team in the form of some advice. Here are a few pearls of wisdom from our team that we hope will help make other companies’ process development and updating journey smoother:
1.Make sure you have team buy-in at every level.
Business processes are necessary at every level of a business. From the entry-level content writer to the CEO, we each have processes that help us get our jobs done. That’s why it’s critically important to talk with your entire team and get them bought in to the project of developing, updating and documenting your business’s processes. Accomplishing top-to-bottom buy-in helps keep your team pulling in the right direction as you work on your processes. It can even help speed up the journey.
2. Create a comprehensive list of current processes at every level.
This should be one of the first steps your company takes in your quest to develop and update your processes. For one thing, it helps everyone see the processes that are being used in every department and at every level. This information can help ensure you aren’t duplicating processes or spending time coming up with a “new” process that someone else is already using.
Creating a comprehensive process list should also be one of the last steps in your journey. The new list will allow every person in the company to see all processes that have been updated or created. It also provides an excellent foundation for future process development and updates.
3. Remember that business process development and updating is continuous.
Just like the people in your company, the processes your business uses should constantly be evolving. That doesn’t mean that you must continually be focusing all your company’s efforts on developing and updating processes. That’s not possible. It does mean that you shouldn’t be discouraged by the fact that process development journeys are never truly complete.
It’s true that some businesses can create a position or subdepartment that is constantly reviewing and updating processes or creating new ones. But that’s not feasible for every business. At the very least, your business should make it a priority to review its processes regularly. Such a review could be quarterly, biannually or even annually depending on your business. Putting such a timeline in place acknowledges that processes need to be regularly reviewed and then updated or new ones created. It also helps keep process development from taking over all your team’s time indefinitely.
Want to attract new visitors to your website? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and landing new clients. However, it’s difficult to attract visitors to your site when you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, this is what we specialize in at BURG+CO.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
