How to build a process driven business

Processes… we all know it’s part of what we need to scale our businesses.

You hear people talk about Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) all the time.

I’m a huge believer in SOP’s and have been using them for a while… yet recently I’ve had some mindset shifts in how I think about processes.

In this article, I am going to share the mindset shifts and how I now think about building a process driven business.

Project Management vs Process Management

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Vinay Patankar, CEO of Process Street. Personally, I’ve fallen in love with Process Street lately (at least as much as you can love a piece of software). At Content Allies, we have rebuilt our entire operations on it and I have replaced an expensive North American based project manager with a piece of software… it’s pretty amazing and delivering an incredible ROI.

In the interview with Vinay, we dive into the difference between “Project Management” and “Process Management”. While these two words sound quite different, there are some major differences. Here’s how I understood the difference after the interview.

Project Management - The method of a team communicating when the end destination is unknown.

Process Management - The method of a team communicating with the end destination is known.

One simple word of difference, but it’s worlds apart in reality.

An example of project management:

A software development team is trying to build out a web application. They have a general framework that they go through every time they build out a web application. There are steps, phases, things that they do… but ultimately, they have no idea what the end product will look like until they get there.

Along the way, there will be many steps in the process that change the scope, features, functionality, etc.

Because the end product is unknown, it’s more of a “Project Management Challenge” to manage the build of a complex web application.

An example of process management:

Let’s counter that with a marketing agency that builds 4-5 page websites for restaurants. Every website has a Home Page, Menu Page, About Page, Catering Page, and Contact Page.

The end destination is very clearly known.

There are some inputs that they will gather along the way such as logos, specific copy, details, menu items, etc. But as a whole they know exactly what they are getting into at the start. This enables them to fit more into “Process Management” which enables significant operational efficiency gains.

Summary of Process vs Project Management:

Project management has lots of unknowns which requires high-level team members to guide the project along the way.

Process management is repeatable which means that low-level team members can execute the process if it is designed efficiently.

Why Process Management is so amazing

There are a few main leverage points to Process Management. I’ll hit those here.

Process Management is top-down design

When you are focused on building processes, you as the business owner design the system. You build it the way you want it to be built, and then others operate within it. This may sound odd and military-esque, but it’s damn efficient

In fact, one fo the contractors who recently joined Content Allies told me “When I came on board my immediate thoughts were ‘Wow, these people have their shit together.’”

So while it may seem odd to have top-down design, your team will actually love it because it sets them up to succeed.

Process Management costs less than project management (which means greater margins)

Project managers aren’t cheap, especially good ones who are able to handle complex projects and communicate with clients.

Yet in comparison, Process Management software is very inexpensive. Instead of having a human try to manage all of the projects and moving pieces, you have a piece of software that does it (and often better than a human could). As I mentioned before, we use Process Street.

Before using this Process Street, I had a quite expensive North American project manager running Content Allies full time. This team member was constantly overwhelmed and the business was in chaos… In retrospect, we were trying to project manage a business that needed to be process driven.

Eventually I let this team member go and replaced them with Process Street. While there was about a 1 month period of chaos during the transition, we quickly settled into a “Wow, this works so much better.”

At the same time, Content Allies tripled in revenue so we had more work than ever, and I didn’t have a project manager to handle it anymore… because I had built very strong processes, every thing ran smoothly.

Of course there were some hiccups along the way, but we fixed the process, and the problem went away.

In short, I used to pay an expensive project manager. Now software does it for 3.5% of the cost of what I used to pay that team member.

Process Management removes team member dependency

Recently I was on a call with a friend who’s head of ops got extremely sick for almost a week and a half. His entire world crumbled while she was out… On the call he told me “This just made me realize how vulnerable my business actually is.”

When we dove deeper into this, it became clear that he had people managing these key roles in his business but they had just “kind of landed there”. There was no formal training. They had just kind of evolved into these positions as he grew.

He didn’t even really know what every person was doing, what their day to day tasks looked like, etc.

This sounds wild, but it’s pretty common. I’ve done the same thing myself quite often… It’s easy to just think “Oh that person is doing great” and stop paying attention… but that sets you up for a dependency disaster.

But with processes, everything is a bit different.

Because you are designing a system from the top down, you are looking for someone to fill a role within operating a process. And because you design the process, then you know how to swap someone in and out of it.

For example, in the early days at Content Allies I had a single podcast editor who edited everything. Eventually we started to sign a lot more podcast clients and the work was more than he could handle.

So what I did was pretty simple… I created a “Training Process” for new podcast editors. Then I hired 3 podcast editors and put them each through the training course.

Then I plugged them into Process Street and simply swapped out who was assigned to each client. In the span of two weeks we trained and ramped up 3 new podcast editors and fixed our problem.

The decency issue was fixed, and fixed systematically.

I’m now doing this for every role at the company so that we can always train up someone new for any role at a moments notice.

When the work is process driven, and you create a training process. You significantly reduce your team member redundancy.

Process Management enables you to scale, hire, & replace team members quickly

When you have a strong process management piece in place (and especially a software tool to run it), then it becomes super easy to swap out team members.

As I mentioned earlier, when I had to hire new podcast editors the handover was easy. I put them through training, and then I simply changed who each client was assigned to and the tasks were handed over in a moment.

If I have a writer who isn’t working out, I can swap them out.

If I have a new hire that I fail at, it’s ok because I documented all of the training and I can ramp up a new person quickly.

This seems odd to say that processes make team members “replaceable” but it’s true. That doesn’t mean you don’t want to retain your team members and build a great culture, you definitely still want to do that. But, from a pure tactical business perspective, it’s a very powerful thing to be able to quickly replace team members when needed, and scale up new team members at a moments notice.

Process Management will make you more attractive at acquisition

As my friend Ryan Tansom has a habit of saying… Your ability to sell your company is about making your cashflow sustainable, predictable, and transferable.

That last piece on “Transferable” is big…

Think about this for a moment. If you have a couple of project managers at your company who are keeping the show running, that looks extremely risky to a potential acquirers. What if they leave? Then the company could crumble or become a headache to manage.

On the flip side, imagine that your entire company is running on extremely tight SOP’s and software systems. Everyone is easily replaceable if they leave. That makes you look much more attractive to an acquirer.

Why most companies fail at SOP’s & Process Management

So you have no doubt heard about SOP’s & Process Management before. Yet so many entrepreneurs struggle with this evolution…

From what I have seen the answer to this comes in two forms.

Reason 1: They are trying to use SOP’s for Project Management style work

If you are trying to build SOP’s when your company is really in project management mode… then it is never going to work. Maybe you can build processes around some of your back office stuff like sending invoices, bookkeeping, etc.

But if at the core, you are an agency or consultant, and all of your work is custom each time, then processes aren’t going to work. In that case you need to learn how to get better at project management..

You want to build frameworks and systems for your team member to communicate through projects, but you don’t want to try to force a process because it’s just not going to fit. Each clients customization will force the process to break down.

Where Process Management works is when you have a business that is productized with clear packaging and offerings that are the same each time.

Reason 2: They document processes in Google Docs and everyone forgets about them…

We have been culprits of this ourselves at Lead Cookie. We started off with everything super process driven in Google Docs… and then things started to change. No one updates the process. Everyone just talks about the change.

At first it’s small changes, but then over time that documented process looks nothing like the actual work your team is doing. Soon mistakes start to creep up because you are just having people handing information from one person to another.

We experienced this decay at Lead Cookie and eventually had to go back and rework all of our training and processes from scratch. And when we did this we built them around process management tools instead of Google Docs.

Why you should evolve from Google Docs to a Process Management Software

Did I mention I love Process Street? Because I do. It’s freaking amazing if you have a process driven company.

As I mentioned, when you store processes on Google Docs, they quickly decay and die… but with a tool like Process Street, your training is built right into the process where people do the work.

There is no “Where is that document again with the process?”. Nope… it’s all right there directly in front of them when they are assigned each task.

If there is a change to the process, we simply update the information in Process Street and then record a quick video letting the team know what changes we made. This informs all existing team members about the change to the process, and any new team members will have the updated training right there in front of them.

Because each process is part of your task management system, you aren’t going to let these things decay… someone is literally assigned that task every time you run the process. So if something is old and out of date, you fix it. And it’s fast and easy to do so. ‘

There are alternatives to Process Street out there like like KissFlow and Flowster. But I will say that not every tool is exactly comparable. This approach has helped me build a top b2b content marketing agency. We also use the same approach to build a system which has helped us create a top B2b leadership podcast.

For example, we used to use Asana. It’s a great tool for “Project Management” but it’s terrible for “Process Management”. This is why not all of these tools are created equally. A quick search for “Alternatives” will give you a list of both process & project management tools.

TL;DR

Let’s wrap this up with a quick summary.

Project management is when you are navigating projects with unknown scopes and end points.

Process management is when you have a clear scope and end destination.

Trying to force an agency / consultancy into process management when you aren’t doing repeatable work is a recipe for disaster.

If your company is doing repeatable work, then process management has a lot of benefits which will make you more profitable, more efficient, and much more attractive to an acquirer.

If all your SOP’s live in Google Docs, they will decay and die. Get a Process Management software in place. It’s well worth the money as you scale.