BUSINESS PLANNING BASICS
Tomas Keenan, author of Unf*ck Your Business, presented a class at KnowledgeFest Orlando. James P. Smith also recommended the book to all those who attended his workshop session.
At LIS Audio, standard operating procedures cover every aspect of the sale all the way to the end result, thereby preventing any potential miscommunication.
Until he wrote down each procedure for A.C.T. Audio, James P. Smith said everything was in his head, which meant employees didn’t know what was expected of them.
#2: Maintain a Standard Operating Procedure Justice Berry and Cameron Powell— owners at LIS Audio in Spring Hill, Kan.—both have backgrounds working at big-box stores. Berry said he feels they handle standard operating procedures in a similar way to larger businesses. “We are big on having a procedure to cover us,” he said, “and we don’t want any miscommunication with our clients at the end of our process.” Every job begins with a check-in sheet, and ends with a check-out. The shop also obtains signatures from clients before they begin working on a vehicle. “We also get a signature from them in order to put their vehicles on our website and social media pages,” Berry added. “We want to keep the same high standard across the board.” Smith said when he took over ownership of his business, he knew what he wanted from his employees, but the processes were only in his head—they weren’t written down. “Everything I expected of them was in my head, and I never took the time to write it down,” he said. “I started realizing it was really a mess because no one knew what was expected of them.” While he added that a business owner can relay a verbal message, it doesn’t always stick. “I had to stop, back up and rebuild the foundation and create standard operating procedures. I took what was in my head and put it on paper, and gave that paper as an employee handbook to my employees.” This, he said, holds employees accountable, and the procedures are reviewed during staff meetings. “Once that was done, I was able to trust my employees more because they knew what was expected of them, and it was in writing,” he added. “Creating standard operating procedures is very important. Once you have them, you’ll stop putting out so many fires. When I first started doing this, I didn’t like it at first, but the more I got into it, the better it got. Now my employees know exactly what to do.” #3: Do It, Document It, Delegate It In his presentation at KnowledgeFest, Smith noted that if a technician is trying
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