Business Operations Let’s have a Conversation!

There are two situations where most entrepreneurs often find themselves stuck and unable to move forward. One, when they are starting a new business and the other when all’s going well and their business feels optimized. In both these situations, the things to focus on majorly revolve around Operations and Systems. 

So let’s look at 2 such issues that entrepreneurs face and how to solve them:

Let’s get some fundamental assumptions out of the way: If your operations are optimized, it means that you have a certain number of customers who are giving you a certain amount of business and using that business, you are optimized. Before I tell you how to scale, I want to make sure that you don’t make any critical mistakes. 

This is a really good situation to be in. The next step is scaling. It’s a straightforward answer- 

You need to scale by increasing your capacity. Only by increasing capacity will your business be increased as well. How do you do this? Increasing your capacity depends on the domain you’re in.

1. You can outsource, trade, and procure to increase your entire capacity
2. You can scale up by acquiring more customers.
3. Change your Marketing strategies to become more visible.
4. Geographical expansion and looking for customers in other parts of the country.
5. Explore a channel-building method: starting a branch of dealers and distributors to spread your business and build an extended sales pipeline for you.
6. Collaborate and explore joint ventures to distribute and manufacture more products. 
7. White-labeling is a new and great way of scaling up by supplying products to different brands.

When it comes to Operations, there are multiple roles and responsibilities. It is extremely important for a new business owner to consider which part of Operations he needs to strengthen. 

To start with, have a checklist of things you need totally in order to make sure your new business is a scalable and profitable one: 

1. Examine if you have the right Products & Services or not. Having enough knowledge about your products and services is critical for a business owner to make decisions pertaining to that specific domain. 
2. Check your Management skills in terms of Products, Operations, and Customer Management. Check if these functions can be streamlined by Outsourcing first because for a new business it is not necessary to immediately hire for all functions.
3. Hire: For the non-technical and non-domain-oriented roles, choose people with experience who can add value to your business and execute the roles that you feel you’re weak in! 
4. Have enough knowledge to manage hired or outsourced people. 
5. Get a co-founder involved if you need assistance and equal accountability in terms of domain knowledge and expertise. They can help you with the basic knowledge of how to guide and manage your team and also be equally responsible for the business and get the desired results. 

Read More: Top 5 Management Mistakes To Avoid As Leaders

Having said that, there are a lot of things you can put in place to start and scale your business. With the right kind of guidance, support, coaching, and mentoring, successful business mentoring programs you can find solutions that suit your business best. The trick is to never stop learning and implementing. 

When it comes to starting a new business or scaling up, even able entrepreneurs need the best business tips and tricks to smoothen the ride. Karan Hasija is one such professional business coach whose comprehensive strategies and successful business coaching programs help entrepreneurs make the best of opportunities. Sign up for courses that can help you solve your business issues and reach your business goals.