How Can I Prepare a Standard Operating System for My Company?

Why Building a Successful Construction Business Requires Having a Plan Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed how building your business is critical to the success of your business and the importance of keeping your business in balance. After more than forty years of construction experience, I tend to view most things from a “building perspective". Today we’re going to compare once again building a business and a construction project. One of the most important parts of the plan for building a good building has nothing to do with physical construction. It has to do with processes and systems. I have written about how building and operating a business can be like standing in the shadow of an overwhelming mountain and not knowing how to get past it. When you find yourself facing a mountainous obstacle it helps to have a plan. One of those mountains when running a construction company is being pulled in too many different directions. Trying to operate all the different pieces of a business can be a big mountain. Having a clear plan and being organized can help you manage your mountain. In your business, you have a specific way of getting things done. But things are constantly changing, employees come and go, customers come and go, and if your company is going to stay in business you need to keep delivering high-quality construction projects regardless of the obstacles. This chaos just makes the mountain bigger. So how can you maintain steady consistency with your company’s end results? In an online article Workflow Automation shares how having standard operating procedures (SOPs) can help your business eliminate confusion around processes that are performed daily. This will allow your employees to be more productive and minimize mistakes! These procedures help you break down even the most complex processes so even a novice can manage these tasks from start to finish. So, what exactly is a standard operating procedure? A standard operating procedure is a set of detailed step-by-step instructions that describe how to carry out any given process. Companies that are serious about process management use SOPs to manage their day-to-day activities. Having Standard Operating Procedures allow you to: Achieve consistent results. With standard operating procedures, you complete your processes in the same way and achieve the right results every time. Reduce costs and increase productivity. When everyone does the same task in different ways, eventually your organization will run into inefficiencies that cost you time and money. With SOPs you can streamline the process and increase productivity. Create a consistently higher level of standards. SOPs are very useful when it comes to getting everyone on the same page and provides a standard way of getting things done. Organizational paperwork is critical to having a business that operates smoothly and successfully. Having an organizational plan can answer a lot of questions before they’re ever asked. This whole operational procedures thing sounds like a great idea, but also sounds like a lot of paperwork. And the problem is…most construction people don’t like paperwork. In a future post we will dig deeper into what is included in an operating procedure and how to prepare and implement one in your business. Having an operational procedure is an important part of the Blueprint for Building a Better Business and is one of the tools that we plan to include in the Business Building Toolbox. Portions of this are from a previous post on 10/27/18

How Can I Prepare a Standard Operating System for My Company?

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