I talk a lot about finding and eliminating bottlenecks primarily through automation, but how much is enough?
I’d recommend you start with a solid understanding of two metrics:
- How efficient is your process today?
- How much does it need to be improved to reach your growth goals?
This strategy provides you with a goal in mind so you can track progress against this target.
For example, let’s say that your firm offers bookkeeping and you’re required to ‘close the books’ for each client each month. You have plans to grow this side of your business.
Today, you can complete 50 client accounts in a standard business week (5 days) or you are averaging 10 closed books each business day.
Your goal is to grow your operational efficiency by 20% as in, you want to be able to close 60 sets of books in the same period of time. (20% more)
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Armed with this information, you’ll know when your process improvement efforts (automation) have provided the return that you need to support your firm’s growth through this phase.
The key here is to have a thorough understanding of the whole process, the current level of performance AND where you know it needs to be to support your next phase of growth.
Talk soon,
Sean