“In order to achieve measurement, tools are needed and the most important of these is the process chart. Once a process chart has been drawn up, common sense is all that is needed to improve efficiency and better the process being examined. The process chart then, is the lifeblood of work simplification. It is an irreplaceable tool. It is a guide and stimulant. It takes time to properly utilize but there is absolutely no doubt that it works.”

If you guessed 1990, you are about 58 years off. Allan H Mogensen included that insight in his excellent book, Common Sense Applied to Motion and Time Study, published by McGraw-Hill in 1932.

*Thanks to http://www.processchart.com for this information!

1. When it comes to taking action, work and personal life collide, and that’s ok.  So often people feel organized in one area of their life and yet another one slides.  Today, with information readily available wherever you are, the reality is that some personal things need to be done during work time and some work activities need to be done at home.  Don’t not do something critical or important because you are at one place or the other.  If it needs to be done on the 25th, it needs to be done on the 25th.  Just make sure you are giving the appropriate amount of time to each part of your life.
2. Good design is great for productivity.  The simple premise here is that if you like the system, you will be more likely to use it.  Don’t accept a one-size fits all approach to organization.  If you like the fancy decorated folders better, you will be happier and you will get more accomplished!
3. Darwinian productivity: the “nag” and natural selection.  Chalk one up to all of the moms out there; this certainly works with my kids!  The key here is prioritization.  The fact is that we have so much to do it is difficult as priorities continually change.  Those who “nag” about what they need tend to get things faster.  In fact, the book thinks that the “nag” should be an official part of the project management system.
4. Appreciation is the greatest non-financial reward for achievement.  We all know this.  Yet as humans we tend to focus on what should be changed instead of what we are doing right.  It’s amazing what a little appreciation does to help increase productivity.  When we appreciate what others do, momentum builds and they continue to do it more.  Try adding 2 or 3 comments of appreciation at your work today and see what happens.
5. Start/Stop/Continue.  This was my favorite part of the book.  With all of the complex performance management systems out there, doesn’t it really just come down to this?  What should you start doing?  For example, start believing that you have the ability.  What should you stop doing?  For example, stop micromanaging.  What should you continue doing?  For example, continue your great attitude and work ethic.  If managers communicated in this way once a month rather than annually filled out complex improvement forms, wouldn’t we be able to help each other stay on track before we got too far off the track?  I think so.  I think it can be completed more often than once a month and can be used not only by managers with direct reports but the other way around as well.

If you are a creative or entrepreneurial person and have always struggled with organization and productivity, you might want to pick up a copy of this book.  If not, I hope some of these ideas have sparked some thought.  If you have others, please feel free to drop me a line or share them on the VisionBridge blog.  I’d love to hear them.

Think about this as a metaphor for us as employees and business owners/executives.  From the outside, if you looked at what was going on in your company, you might say, “there is no way I would work there,” or, “I would get in there and shape them up immediately.”  Yet, as we read this, we realize that many of us work in our organizations and don’t do anything to improve things…or wait until it’s too late.

What things do you see in your business that can be improved?  Can you look at it with an outside view and see it differently?  What are you planning on doing about it?

1. Feasibility – There are various options for company growth: franchising, licensing or internal company growth. Some concepts work well for some businesses and not so well for others. If you’d like to franchise you need to think through the feasibility first. A few examples of things that you need are proven success, profitability, business models that show franchisee profitability, and repeatability, the ability to take your concept and drop it into new locations and make it successful. As you can see, it takes more than a good idea.
2. Strategic planning – Once you’ve decided that the concept is feasible for franchising, now what do you do? Key to successful franchise growth is strategic planning. You need to think through your vision for the company in terms of geographic locations, organizational structure, and strategies for continued innovation. How can you communicate your vision, sell the brand, and continue to offer value to your franchisees? Determine your vision and then back up and determine steps on a monthly/quarterly timeline on how it can be done.  If you need help in this area, let us know.
3. Documentation – Once you have your strategic plan in place it is time to get down to the nitty gritty of your business. One of the first things a potential franchisee asks is to see your operations manual. They are looking for assurance that you have systems, that they are well documented, and that they are repeatable in their location. Using proven professionals to walk you through this process allows you to see your business from an outside or customer’s prospective. Outside consultants walk through your processes with a fresh perspective and streamline and improve things you are already doing well. Your business is then documented into a manual that is used as a training program for franchisees and potential employees. The development of this manual then assists in the development of your legal material, the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).

If you think your business is ready to franchise, let us know and we can help answer your questions and start you on the path to success!

One problem some of our clients have with thinking about process improvement is how overwhelming it is. They feel that they are busy enough and aren’t sure how to get started. Here are some tips:

1. Think Strategically. There is nothing worse than optimizing a process and then having the entire system be less than optimal. In order to understand the parts, you must understand the whole. Get your entire team involved, understand the business strategy and goals, and start thinking from a high level. After that you can drill down into the details. 
2. Use Process Mapping. Use a whiteboard or large post-it note pads so everyone can see and think about what starts the process. Then just keep asking the team, “and then what happens,” until you get to the end of the process. The biggest challenge here is making sure the team doesn’t go off on tangents. If you are leading, tell the team that you are not solving any problems to start. You must understand the process first before you look at ways to improve it. Process mapping allows you to do this by seeing the entire process visually. 
3. Install Metrics. You can feel like you are improving the heck out of a process and yet have no idea if it is actually a success or not. There are many ways to measure success. Even if you don’t have historical data, start measuring from the beginning of that process improvement to make sure it works as other factors in the organization change. Once you have measurements in place, make sure someone is accountable to track them and report back. If it’s not working, start back at number 1 and keep trying until you see improvement. The results will be worth it in the end!  Good luck!

1. Tell us about your company and what you do there.   B2B CFO is a national firm that provides CFO services to owners of growing businesses.  We help owners find cash to improve their business.  I am a Partner with B2B CFO, and provide CFO services to business owners in central Indiana.
2. What are your favorite things about your job?  Using my skills to help owners solve problems related to cash flow / profitability and to do things for owners that they would not be able to do on their own.  What motivates you to come to work every day?  Knowing that business owners are trusting me to help them run their businesses and that they are looking to me for answers to difficult problems.
3. What are your favorite things to do outside of work?  Watching and attending sporting events (football, basketball, baseball, golf),  reading mysteries & thrillers, taking care of my 2 grandchildren, traveling, and spending time with my wife.
4. How did you get introduced to VisionBridge?  Networking referral from Bruce Kidd
5. Why did you decide to work with them?  One of my clients is a multi-state roofing contractor who was working on establishing a franchising operation for repairing storm damaged residential roofs.  I knew that Nicole had experience helping franchisors establish operating manuals, so I thought VisionBridge would be perfect for this assignment.  A second opportunity for VisionBridge came up through a fast growing IT consulting firm.  This firm is likely to establish additional offices and is interested in documenting existing critical processes and procedures so that they can be duplicated in the future.   What was your pain and/or opportunity?  There is no existing pain, but the desire to duplicate existing processes and procedures in a new office in another city created an opportunity for VisionBridge.
6. What do you wish you would have known before working with VisionBridge?  VisionBridge provides a unique service in documenting and illustrating critical operating processes and procedures.  I never knew such a service existed.  Most companies I have worked with or for in the past either committed such critical processes to memory or prepared very shoddy documentation of these processes.
7. If you were to refer your favorite colleague to VisionBridge, what would you tell them about your experience?   VisionBridge is very knowledgeable and professional in their approach to processes and procedures.  They have a unique way of presenting their findings in a user friendly document that combines narrative with charts and flow diagrams.  The VisionBridge service provides great value for a reasonable price.
8. When your project is complete, what action will you take to keep your processes up-to-date and relevant?  We have been provided with a ‘soft copy’ of our process manual.  One individual has been tasked to keep the ‘official’ manual up to date.  We intend to modify and update the manual as needed going forward.
9. If you were magical and there were no limits, what one thing would you do with your business to improve it?  Add another 8 hours in the day to get more done.
10. If you were magical and there were no limits, what would you change about your life?  To always remember the important things in life, keeping priorities in balance, and to always look forward – never look back.

Our friends at reachmore are providing a back to school wardrobe for 65 less fortunate kids in Indianapolis (The Shepherd Community) on July 25th and they need to raise $12k to provide them each with a fresh new start to the year.  If you could help, I’d like to tell you a little bit more about the kids you are helping:

• They likely come from single parent households.
• Nearly all of them rely on school as their primary source of food during the week.
• 50% of the adults (parents) are illiterate.
• Only 33% graduate from high school.

The Shepherd Community is changing these statistics – Nearly 100 percent of high school seniors who have participated in Shepherd’s educational programs graduate high school and go on to either higher education programs, job training or the military

Join us in helping the Shepherd  Community to bring a little bit of hope and happiness into their world!!

 Click here to help out.

 Thank you so much for your consideration!

Throughout working together, we started to get to know each other on a more personal basis, we had coffee, lunch, and attended parties together.  The more I got to know her, the more I wanted to get to know her better.  Right away, as we got closer, she received a cancer diagnosis.  At first the diagnosis was that it should be very curable unless it spread to her lungs.  Shortly thereafter it spread to her lungs…and then to her brain. 

Strangely enough through this progressive bad news, she continued to stay positive.  She knew she had a slim chance of living, but she was bound to beat it or at least get as far as she could.  At one point she said to me, “I would just like to get 5 more years.”

What struck me about my friend was that as I was complaining about balancing my working life with my mom life, upset about this thing or that, she was fighting for her life.  And she tackled it like everything else she did…head on.  She maintained her sense of humor and her connection to her family and friends.  In essence, I watched her love grow it seemed, moving relationships faster knowing in the back of her mind that she was almost out of time.  She didn’t disconnect or feel sorry for herself.  Instead, she continued to laugh, raise people’s spirits, and inspire all of us. 

Her life ended earlier this month.  Although it is still difficult for me to think about never seeing her again, she continues to inspire me daily.  When I am afraid about something, I think of her and find the strength.  When I think of something funny that she would also find funny, I imagine she were here with me laughing. 

Her strength, her laughter, and her unfailing confidence in people may be gone from this earth; but it is alive and well in me and in many, many, many others that she has touched.  Thank you, Stephenie Jocham, for changing me in a profound and positive way.  Your legacy lives on in all of us.

If your life is not fully engaged in social media and you are trying to find out the use for your business, consider my top three reasons for using it:

1. It increases brand awareness.
2. It helps you monitor what your customers and/or competitors are saying about you and allows you to respond.
3. It increases web traffic.

In addition to that, I have found anyone I’ve hired through asking on social media and consistently am entertained in my brief spurts between meetings.  So there definitely is use and business application for it, but how can we begin to incorporate it?

Consider the following:

1. What is the purpose of your program?  Is it to connect with customers, is it to bring in business, is it to increase brand awareness?  Figure out your primary and secondary strategies first.
2. Who will manage it?  You?  An employee?  The system may look very different based on who has more time, more knowledge, and what you want your online personality to be.

Knowing these things, I suggest developing a system for your social networking and then tracking its success according to your goals.  For example, my system is below:

For a small business like VisionBridge, this works.  It keeps us consistently out there in the social media world, helps us learn and builds us as knowledge leaders in our field, and increases traffic to our site which ultimately leads to more business.  For a larger business, the system would need to include more interaction and communication such as scanning Google Alerts, offering promotions, and commenting on and responding to blogs.

There is a lot out there, but you can simplify and systematize it to make it the right fit for your business.  Want to learn more?  Get involved here: http://www.indysm.org/site/ or here:  http://twittermktg.eventbrite.com/.

Last week I attended TechPoint, a local technology group in Indianapolis, and she was the keynote speaker.  One of the areas that she discussed was how she was able to systematically grow the business.  With what we do at VisionBridge and knowing the success of Angie’s list, I was very interested in her answer.  To my surprise it was a simple one.  

Here are a few things they did:

• They built the company market by market and tested and refined each model. 
• They didn’t get caught up in the hype of the Year 2000 and stayed true to their mission. 
• The primary thing they did was to always “get ahead of it by figuring out where you want to be.”

None of these things are very sexy or exciting, and they are often what we tell our clients.  Systematic growth that is sustainable is very simply, doing the right things and adjusting the not-so-right ones.  It is also continuing to not get caught up in the latest excitement and taking big chances.  It is taking calculated risks and continuing to always think about the business from the outside; working “on” the business instead of always “in” it.

At VisionBridge, we work with our clients to help them create the sustainable growth they desire.  Building models with systems that work that can be repeated in different locations is key.  What are you doing with your business?  How much time are you spending working “in” it instead of “on” it?  How can we help?