What Are Foundational Operations?
You’ve heard me talk about this a lot, so let’s break this down and go over what exactly are Foundational Operations. Now, one thing I want to start with, is that everyone, especially in the Operations and Project Management, LEAN, etc, world are going to have a slightly different definition of it. They are also probably going to have a slightly different idea of what exactly is included in what should be included in the “Foundational” context.
Here’s what I will tell you from my opinion.
What makes me such an expert?
I’ve been in several different industries for almost 20 years, from Fortune 500 companies to solopreneurs. I have always been someone who is extremely organized and is always trying to find the organization in the chaos of messes or processes. I worked with physical products in the Fashion industry for the first half of my career, and I still consult for them, I also work in the online space now. The beauty of this is I’ve been able to take the best of so many different “worlds” and come up with a unique vision of what I consider to be “Foundational” when it comes to setting up your Operations. In my view, after working with Fashion companies, Food Trucks, Coaches, Marketeers, Tech Startups, Online Educators, Brick and Mortar Stores, among others, about 70% of all operations follow the same basic formula….they just have a 30% variance for their specific industries and then their unique business’ “secret sauce”.
When I am teaching my framework for my Foundational Operations method and structure, it is critical that we always leave room for that 30% to allow every business to shine in their own way. That’s what makes each of our businesses unique and valuable on the Market.
You know the House analogy, right?
All of that being said, I’m sure you have heard that you need to build your business like a house, and that starts with the foundation. By setting a strong and sustainable foundation through the operations of your business, you will lay the groundwork to give yourself more time to focus on your next growth strategy and set up your team to support any rough “weather” that may come with it! You never want to be that one pig in the 3 Little Pigs story that built his house so fast so he could run out and play (aka scale his business so fast so he could have a good Instagram story!) and then the big bad wolf/ the economy, time, team or JUST LIFE blew the whole thing down!
This is the importance of setting up the foundations in your business. No matter what size your business is, or what size you want to grow your business to, you will always need that foundation. If you think of your business as a house, and we think of a solopreneur or a 1-2 person team as a Ranch house/single story home and a Scale-up or Corporation as a Mansion, and every other house and business size in between, THEY ALL HAVE FOUNDATIONS!
So what…?
The thing about this is, everyone wants to skip this step. Or tell me that they already have it in place. Why? Because it’s boring! It’s ok, this kind of thing doesn’t have to light everyone up! And to be honest, sometimes it’s boring to me, BUT, if you want to grow, scale, and do it with a team in a SUSTAINABLE way that isn’t burnt out, celebrates with you and sticks with you through the years as you continue to grow and scale, you need to take the time to set up those foundations.
What are the 4 main foundational operations that you need to have set up in your business?
1. Organization & Task Management
Define what tasks are recurring in your business and scheduling them to get the “remembering to do them” out of your head
Organize your Email and File Storage to be in sync, so when you think about “where do I put that one thing”, you know where to look for it
Set up a Project Management Tool (I use ClickUp) to get your Task List out of your head
2. Delegation & Automation
Map out the different processes in your business and look at the places where YOU are not physically needed (There are places where you will add the most value, revenue, etc. to your business and tasks that only you can do)
List the Tasks that are needed to run the Process and what type of person do you need to perform it, for example: a Virtual Assistant (VA), Graphic Designer, Copywriter, etc.
Identify places where a Tool or Technology can perform a task instead of a person to ensure the task runs consistently. **Pro Tip: Allow the Automation from a tool to kick-off the engagement with a Client or Customer, but then have an actual Human on your team follow up in the conversion so your Client is receiving a personalized response. Make sure to set the expectation on response times so they not expecting to hear from you or your team immediately!
3. Documentation & Team Training
Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for every task in your business that contains Videos, written Steps and Screenshots. Everyone has a different learning style. Don’t assume the one that works for you will also work for every member of your Team.
Develop an onboarding process and flow for how you want to onboard new Team Members onto your Team. I know we are busy and in a hurry, but having the context of knowing why you have your business, what makes it important to the market and why they are an important part of the Team, is just as important as them learning how to do their role.
Schedule quarterly check-ins with the team specifically to discuss if there have been changes to the process where the SOPs need updated, optimizations to the process that could be done, or places where they feel they are not confident or need more training.
4. Visualization of Your Metrics
Trust the Numbers: Your gut can be trusted on some things, but numbers don't lie when it comes to what is working and not working. The only way to know what is and isn’t working is to start collecting your metrics, and it is NEVER TOO SOON TO START. Some Tools will not let you collect your historical metrics past certain dates, so make sure you consistently collecting the numbers now, even if you are not looking at them regularly yet.
Make it Pretty by developing some graphs around the numbers. Although numbers are good to look at, it can be hard to see the story that they are telling you if you just look at a bunch of numbers in a spreadsheet. Make a graph with your brand colors in it, and become inspired by the numbers and the story it is telling you.
Let your Metrics be your guide in the big decisions in your business. I know this might sound crazy, but the numbers will tell you what your audience, customers and operations are telling you to do. When you are tracking your Sales, Marketing and Operations metrics, you will immediately find the areas where certain Marketing Strategies are and aren’t working, which emails are performing better than others, and which team members or processes are taking longer to perform than others (hint: costing you more!)
I’ve walked you through an overview of the basics here. Working together, we can dig into so much more and really build an Empire of Operations inside your business that can set you and your team soaring to new levels.
If you’re ready to get started with setting up your Foundational Operations or growing your business through organization and optimization, sign up to be part of my mailing list here so you can learn more about how you can do this in your business!
