4 Ways Process Documentation Can Give Your Business Room to Grow

Andrea Thogmartin
LIGHTS Regional Innovation Network

So, you’ve started your business, you’re in the thick of it, networking, getting your product or service out there and seeing your dream become a reality. Right now, you may have a pretty good handle on your short-term goals (working with manufacturers, ordering more inventory, posting on social media, and finding customers) and your long-term business growth. As your business grows the tasks and goals will become too much for you to handle on your own and you’ll need to spread the work and responsibilities to new members of the team.

Here are 4 ways process documentation can give your business room to grow:

• Save you time: The ROI for process documentation is exponential. The first (or next) time you perform a process, jot down what you did, why and the questions you asked yourself during the process. Keep in mind that you will not have a perfect process after the first time. What you will have is a framework to build on the next time you perform the process, instead of recreating the wheel each time. Each time you perform the process you’ll build on your documentation with new knowledge of your business, your customers, and the process itself.
• Establish consistency within your operations: Establishing processes creates consistency and a sense of dependability and focus within your business. Consistency builds trust with your employees and your customers, showing them that your operations aren’t slap-dash, but have been thoughtfully considered and align with your businesses overall goals.   
• Increased agility: Because you’ve already established your process and you are revising as you go, you’ll quickly learn what works and what doesn’t. You’ll be able to pivot with the needs of your business and customers.
• Increased scalability: With the consistency you have established, and because you and your employees aren’t constantly trying to figure out what they did last time, and how they did it, you will all be able to spend more time building your business, using brain power to improve operations, creating better products, and helping more customers. You’ll also be able to easily add members to your team who can quickly pick up on these established processes.

You’ll never regret making process documentation a priority in your business. In the beginning it may seem unnecessary, but as your business grows and expands you’ll be able to breathe a little easier knowing the tasks you’ve delegated are being performed in a way that is tried and tested.

About Us

The LIGHTS Regional Innovation Network catalyzes the creation of companies to create high-wage jobs and attract greater private investment in the coal-impacted and opioid-impacted regions of Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, uniquely matching the complex problems and opportunities facing our corporations, communities, and individuals to a network of strategically-placed Innovation Gateways. From this, new marketable products grow from these challenges through our work with locally partnered Innovation Gateways’ business incubators and makerspaces, across a tri-state 28-county area.