2 years ago, in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, I was on my laptop doing all the little tasks that go into running an e-commerce business. Answering customer emails, copywriting, managing shipments, talking to suppliers, managing advertising, etc.
I still remember the thatched-straw roof I was sitting under when it hit me “I need to write these business processes down!” That day, I opened a new Word document and labeled it “01 Amazon Business”, and the first draft was 10 pages long.
2 years later, these processes have expanded to 50 pages, and I keep writing more and more.
Today, I love my business processes, even though they’re still just big text-based documents. I refer to them when I forget what to do, and freelancers use them to avoid making mistakes. When working with others, they save me time, because they are my replacement so that I don’t need to actually re-say the words every time.
When you’re building business processes, here are my most important thoughts.
1. Begin Writing Notes As Soon As It Looks Like You Might Do This More Often
Don’t wait until you’ve been repeatedly doing something for 3 months before you start writing the business process. Open a new Google Doc right away, and start recording little reminders. It doesn’t need to be a ‘process’ yet.
“When you log in, check the top left corner. If there is a red flag, click on it to see the problem.”
“When you change a product’s price, change the ‘Sales Price’, not the “ Item Price.”
“Log in at least once per week. Click on the inventory tab to check stock levels.”
These reminders are quick to write and they are helpful. Eventually, they will turn into a process. Starting with the goal to ‘write every detail of the process’ feels like a massive task and it’s unfeasible. Processes evolve over time. They do not need to be an overnight revelation.
2. Update The Documents Every Time Something Goes Wrong
As you use the process documents, or as the people you work with use them, update them as soon as something goes wrong.
If you realize the process is flawed, edit the document.
If someone does a process wrong, change the document to clarify what to do. If someone doesn’t follow the process, add IMPORTANT to that section.
Again, the processes evolve over time, and this will be a positive evolution if you continually encode new solutions to every problem, like your body gaining resistance to a virus after infection, or like an embryo developing it’s different features.
3. Have Employees/Freelancers Leave Notes
Even if something goes wrong, you don’t want other people editing your core business documents. You do want their feedback though, so give them permissions to ‘Comment’ (possible in GDocs) with their improvement ideas.
“This section isn’t clear.”
“Isn’t this the long way of doing this?”
“I don’t know where that button is.”
4. Stress The Importance Reading Of The Process Documents Every Time
For most simple jobs, mistakes can be avoided by carefully reading through the documents. Problems arise when people get too confident and stop referring to the documents. They don’t realize the meticulous planning you have put into every line, the solution to all the 1,000 problems that you’ve added, the small notes that you, the business owner, added because you know they are important.
So, they stop following the processes. Then, they mess things up from time to time. This is not a criticism of your employees or freelancers. It is an unfortunate truth when you are bringing new people into a growing company that it is impossible for their experience to match yours.
So, make sure it is very clear that they follow the process documents every time.
One freelancer refused to read the process documents, even when his mistakes cost the company a lot of money. His last message to me was…
“Just know that if I feel confident in what I created I don’t really take a look at it anymore. Hence being overlooked. It’s not always this happens but I apologize nonetheless.”
It didn’t matter that he apologized, the damage was done. He had to leave.
Failing to follow the processes costs real money. I’ve had entire shipments ‘disappear’ (I don’t know where!) because the shipping processes weren’t followed. That hurts. Tell people to follow the processes, especially when they feel confident that they don’t need to read them.
5. Make It Clear That The Documents Are “Confidential And Proprietary”
Unfortunately, some unhappy employee or freelancer who feels you fired him unfairly will likely steal your documents, publish them online, start their own business with them, share them with a competitor, or at least make a copy onto their own computer out of spite.
Even though this will happen, you need to trust the people you work with, so make sure the ‘Header’ section of every page of your documents is labeled “Confidential and Proprietary”.
The Big Reason You Won’t Build Processes Soon Enough…
It takes too much time. It feels like a huge burden. Rather than just doing a task quickly, you’re supposed to go through it slowly, writing down everything you do, taking screenshots, and maybe even shooting a video.
When you could otherwise get the job done in 2 minutes, you don’t want to take 2 hours.
This is why I think you should start by keeping it simple. Don’t begin by writing a huge process. Just start writing notes and reminders that you can refer to, and that you can share with others.
The document will naturally grow. You will fill in the processes over time.
Start Taking The ‘Notes’ That Become Processes Now. (Even If You Don’t Work With Employees Or Freelancers)
Once you write down your processes, the business finally becomes it’s own entity. It still needs people to run it but it is independent of any one person outside of itself.
If a freelancer in India disappears and stops responding on Skype, you can replace him or her quickly.
If someone needs to be fired, you can make the decision without fearing the hours required to train someone new.
If you leave on vacation or have an emergency, people know what to do.
If you sell the company, the new owner can take over more easily. You will likely sell for a higher price.
Even if you are the only person in your company, business processes give you peace of mind that you are doing things at least as good as you did them last time. You can relax knowing that not all the information is stuck inside your head.
If you expect your company to grow at all, or if you expect anyone to ever work in your company other than you, then these process documents are virtually guaranteed to save you time. Most of the things that you, the owner, are doing now, will have to be done by someone else if you’re going to grow even 2X your current size.
Once you start building business processes, it becomes addictive. Why? You realize how as soon as you write a process, you instantly rely on it to do your best work and avoid your mistakes.
You can write processes for yourself, like the ‘How To Write Sales Copy For An Amazon Listing’ process I’ve used myself for almost 2 years now, and you can write processes for others, like my ‘How To Ship Products Into FBA’ process. Often, processes start out as documents for you, and then you hand them off to others as the company grows.
After you take the time to write down your business processes, you will quickly see how much time you are saving.
Once your new-freelancer-onboarding process has been simplified from hours of calls and Skype messages to a simple message… “Read This LINK”… you will never go back.
