Make your business work for you

Part 19 of a 24-part weekly series One of our favourite authors is Michael E. Gerber who is touted as the number one small business guru. He is renowned for offering practical advice to SMEs on how to build businesses that work. At Genesis, we use some of

AS A follow up to our article last week on business rescue, today we talk about how you can structure your business to make it work and attain set goals. To build a business that works, and one that will do so long after you are gone, requires the following key components: ◆ The business should be able to consistently deliver value to all stakeholders ie clients, employees, shareholders, regulatory authorities, etc; and ◆ The business should be system oriented as opposed to people oriented. How to consistently deliver value. The raison d’être or “reason for being”, for any business is to deliver value mainly to clients but also to other stakeholders like suppliers and employees.

The first step is to define your value proposition, and most people get lost at this stage. The value you bring to your clients is not so much in the product your clients purchase from you, but rather, in the user experience of clients.

So whilst clients can get suits from various different clothing shops, your value proposition if you run a clothing store could be the reasonable price of your suits or the way you relate to clients.

It is every entrepreneur’s first challenge to define the aspect(s) of their offering that will influence clients’ decisions to choose your shop as opposed to others.

The needs and expectations of stakeholders, other than customers, should be taken account of in defining the organisation’s value proposition. A common misconception is that a business need only deliver value to the paying client.

Building systems-dependent business processes

The second step is to ensure that all your business processes are systems-dependent, rather than person-dependent.

Internal systems and processes should be so efficient (and easy to use), that they can be operated by people with minimum job requirements at each level of skill.

This protects the business from the “superstar employee” syndrome that businesses often find themselves in, whereby an employee is deemed so key to the organisation that the business or parts of it, cannot function in their absence. This over-reliance can be avoided by building systems-dependent business processes.

Maintaining order in the workplace

The third step is to model your business as a place of impeccable order. This tells your clients and partners that you know what you are doing.

Order brings consistency, which most clients crave in a world of chaos. Maintaining order in the workplace includes good planning and comprehensive documentation of internal business process, and training of employees on the effective use of standard operating procedure manuals.

In fact, the second and third steps above are only possible if they are documented in what might be considered as a business version “bible” or blueprint prescribing how work is done, and how value is created and delivered.

A major business function is to ensure that the business continuously delivers a predictable service to its clients. Predictable service is delivered through outcomes and the user experience.

Nyaradzo Funeral Services (a Zimbabwean company), has mastered the art of consistent delivery over the years and clients have rewarded them by giving them more business over and over again.

As some commentators have said, — “Maendero anoita vanhu kuNyaradzo unotoshaya kuti ndivo vega vanoviga vanhu here? Woona kuti kwete… Asi kuti service yavo inoita kuti muteuro ureruke!!!!”

. . . where do we come in?

Genesis Global Finance, through its Internal Systems Development product helps you model your business to ensure you consistently deliver value and exceed client expectations. We will develop and document key business processes that will make your business system-dependent.

This article was compiled by Carlton Simbarashe Takawira a resource mobilisation consultant at GENESIS GLOBAL FINANCE.

The contents herein are for information purposes only, and GGF does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from the use of materials or opinions contained in this article.

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