2 Aug, 2021
Tracey Leak is a long time lover of small business, from the Gold Coast, Australia, who for the last 16 years has been the trusted business coach to small business owners around the world to help them achieve a more profitable business with less stress.
Using practical strategies – that work – Tracey empowers small business owners to gain the skills and confidence to grow their business. As a best-selling author, in-demand speaker and franchising expert, Tracey believes that keeping things simple is the key to success – in business and life!
On this podcast episode, I share a conversation with Tracey Leak who is a business coach specialising in working with Franchises. What I love about Tracey is that she simplifies business. Where many coaches can overcomplicate business, Tracey focusses more on the person behind the business, because the business is run by a real person with a real family and they have fears, feelings hopes and dreams.
During this episode we discuss some of the nitty gritty of simplifying business. How you can simplify building your team, simplify your training, best practices, elements of good training as well as so much more.
During this episode:
- Tracey’s background
- Tracey’s team training background
- When did she started training her team
- Recommendation on Face to Face or zoom or online training
- Pros and cons of team training virtually or face to face
- Elements of good team training
- Benefits of team training to clients and the team (case studies)
Want more systems tools and resources?
Connect with Tracey Leak
Website: Tracey Leak
Podcast: Business Simplified
Facebook: @traceyleakcoach
Instagram: @traceyleak75
Supporting Franchisees Course for Franchise Field Managers/Business Coaches
5 Jul, 2021
At the core of every business is the processes that you use. You perform these every single day, but have you ever taken the time to actually map them out and document them? Representing your workflow in this way offers a number of benefits for your business. One key benefit is that onboarding and training new employees becomes so much easier.
Representing Your Business Processes Visually
The best way to document your business processes is to do it visually. It’s much easier for a new staff member to understand the workflow from a diagram representation than a piece of text content. Business processes are basically mapped out in flow charts or variations of flow chart. A flow chart shows each step of a process in a square or other shape connected by lines or arrows. They illustrate how the task moves from start to finish.
Beyond the Flow Chart
Flow charts offer the most basic visual representation, but there are a few variations on this type of diagram that are useful for business processes.
- The Swimlane Diagram. A Swimlane diagram shows a process from start to finish but divides it into “lanes.” These are columns for different stakeholders, facilities, departments, or resources. It shows more clearly who is responsible for which part of a task.
- Value Stream Map. A value stream map is a more complicated diagram where the work doesn’t just flow one way but in all directions. It’s useful for complex tasks that require multiple departments and stages, or that might be modular.
Videos
Having a mix of videos amongst your documented processes can clearly explain the workflow when using certain software. This can also speed up some of the smaller steps and extra information that needs to be included in each process.
Seek Feedback
Don’t document your business processes all alone. Seek the advice and feedback of other colleagues, especially if they’re the ones that are usually in charge of the process. You’ll also want feedback after documentation to make sure it’s clear and easy to understand.
Start with the Big Picture
When teaching new team members a process, you have to start by giving them the big picture view of the task. Explain where this task fits into your overall business and what specific goal it’s meant to achieve. At the beginning of the process, give them the resources and tools they need and what other preparations there are, if any. For your documentation, you may start with a brief summary that explains this.
Create an Archive of Resources
Create a manual of all your business processes and make it available to team members. Encourage them to refer to these protocols as they learn. It will take some time before the job becomes second nature to them.
Why You Should Document Your Business Processes
Documenting your business processes helps you to train new team members. But it can also help in other ways. By investigating each process closely, you can look at ways to streamline and improve, making your business more efficient. You can also look for ways to standardise, delegate, outsource, or automate, saving you more time and making life easier for everyone in your organisation.
Do you want to learn more about streamlining your business processes?
