Your Business is a Freeway

Think about your business like a freeway.

Some sections have five lanes with long straightaways, where people don’t have to navigate obstacles or spend mental energy on defensive driving. They can simply put the pedal to the metal, stay in their lane, and go.

But if your business is like every other business that’s ever existed, you also have:

• On-ramps (how new business gets in the flow)

• Off-ramps (when a project ends)

• Mergers (handoffs between departments or disciplines)

• Lane closures (when you’re shorthanded or retooling)

• Checkpoints (where someone signs off)

If you have the same tendencies that I do, you probably have single-lane checkpoints to perform manual inspections, completely slowing the flow of traffic to a crawl.

Don’t let this happen to your business!

As the Chief Freeway Designer, it’s your job to make sure traffic is as smooth as can be, everywhere and all the time.

Begin by thinking about who is most valuable to the operation of your business. If that person had an extra hour a day, what would they do with it? How would that change the future of your business?

Then, it’s time to take a very close look at what everyone is doing every day. Take note of what tasks they perform, especially the repetitive and redundant tasks. Explore how you can remove those redundancies.

Optimization can be as simple or complex as you desire. You might be able to improve workflow, efficiency, and morale by simply rearranging your workspace. Better light, more elbow room, easier access, quicker to get from here to there – these are all optimizations.

Keep that flow going!

This is from Trail 4 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.