Operations 101: Keeping Your Small Business Running Smoothly

When running a small business, you wear many hats. You’re the marketer, the salesperson, and the customer service representative. Down the road, you can hire people to handle these tasks, but you will always be more involved than an outside contractor or employee. At the very beginning, there’s no such thing as delegating tasks, it’s all up to you! This is what it means to be an entrepreneur – it’s not about starting a business, but managing it well. This is why you should learn how to manage your operations.

What is operations?

Operations is one of the most important aspects of a small business but it is also one of the hardest to get right. It’s your job to make sure things run smoothly and efficiently, but you can create systems that make things easier for you.

Tips for managing operations for your small business:

What are your overall goals when it comes to maintaining operations?

For example, my first priority is to send out products as soon as possible. The second most important task in my small business is making sure I take care of any customer questions or complaints. After that, I can focus on advertising my products and services, and then making new products to keep things updated.

There are a few different ways you can organize tasks.

Order tasks by priority

Doing the most important task immediately. For me, that would mean sending out my products first thing every day. Then I would sit down and reply to questions or concerns.

Doing the hardest part first

Responding to customers takes the longest and is the most difficult for me, as I come up with personable and relatable responses to each question or concern, so I could choose to do that first to get the hardest part out of the way.

Getting easy tasks out of the way

I also have little things I need to do, like making sure my workspace is clean and organized, and making my to-do list for the day. I could do a bunch of simple tasks right off the bat to get in the right headspace and make sure I’m prepared for the day.

I’m not a morning person, so I choose to get the easy tasks out of the way first, to get in the right headspace and prepare for the day. This decision will depend on your own schedule and needs. Everyone has different methods and different reasons why, but make sure you are clear on your hierarchy of importance and which order you will complete tasks in.

Use checklists, calendars, reminders, spreadsheets, emails, and other tools to stay organized.

Find good scheduling and to-do list tools that work for you. This could be good, old-fashioned paper and pen if you want. I have many printable planner sheets that have space to schedule out tasks for the week along with a general to-do list. There are also many apps you can use, from Todoist or Microsoft To Do to Trello or Notion (my personal favorite).

I like to plan out a week ahead and separate my tasks into projects because my projects often take multiple days to complete. I also like to have everything in one place, which is why I use Notion. 

I have a page for my general to-do list, a calendar view, and a page that orders tasks by priority.

I made my own template with some cute emojis and fun colors. Click here if you want to use it! Just click “duplicate” in the top right corner and you can use it as a template.

You can also use Notion to create spreadsheets, which is great for tracking data. I have a spreadsheet to track my Instagram ads so I can see which ones do better than others.

Set goals and break them down into tasks. Breaking down tasks helps make sure you don’t miss any tasks and makes them seem more manageable. 

Automate processes wherever possible.

As a human being, you are likely going to make mistakes! You’ll forget to send an email or forget a package when you go to the post office. It just happens. Creating automations can help minimize errors and save you time.

I recently created an automation using Zapier and it was so easy. I use Calendly to schedule appointments with my clients and Mailchimp to send emails. I used Zapier to connect the two so when someone signs up for a zoom call using my Calendly, Mailchimp will automatically send an email to the client.

CLICK HERE to watch a video walkthrough of how I created this automation!

There are tons of programs out there that automate everything from making payments to scheduling appointments. 

In conclusion.

Remember, your business can only run as long as you can handle everything properly. So find tools and systems that work for you and your business.

Operations is usually the hardest part and often neglected. But without it, your company will fail. This can seem overwhelming, but by gaining a better understanding of what you are trying to achieve, and creating systems that support those goals, you will be on the right track.

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