As a small business operations consultant, I have real world experience ready to share with you today that could be the difference between achieving your goals and suffering from burnout or worse, shuttering your business.
What Does A Small Business Operations Consultant Do?
Some confuse “operations” with “strategic planning.” Strategic planning concerns the steps taken to establish goals, actions needed, timelines, and the delegation of work. Operations, on the other hand, focus on the people that perform the work.
A small business operations consultant studies your company to identify your strengths and areas of need. They then help you to create and plan:
- Organizational charts and job descriptions to define roles and expectations as well as show where it would be more efficient to hire contractors or an outside agency.
- Policies and procedures with detailed documentation to protect and establish guidelines for employees and contractors as well as the company, to define best practices, and to control quality and costs.
- Asset management to identify preventive tasks that can extend the functional life of equipment or products as well as allow time for budgeting and research to find the most efficient and cost-effective replacement.
- Record keeping that is complete and accurate, so that you will have the documentation necessary if you need to get a loan or sell the business.
- Risk management to identify potential disasters such as floods, fire, tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes, or critical machine breakdowns before they happen and define emergency plans for employees and contractors that chaos and make everyone safer if the unthinkable occurs.
Why Do I Need A Consultant?
A small business operations consultant is helpful because it often takes an objective evaluation from outside the business to identify areas of need as well as strengths. You need someone who can understand where you are starting from, where you are trying to go, and the specific steps it will take to get there. I know those steps because I’ve taken them myself.
I’m MJ Ross, and I’ve been consulting on a long-term basis with several clients. I specialize in women-owned businesses and I’ve been trained in all 8 aspects of business by becoming a coach for small business transformation. SCORE requests for my mentoring happen regularly. With SCORE I help people start nonprofits and businesses, as well as those who need to take their business or nonprofit to the next level. Creating business plans is a key part of that volunteer work.
Contact me by message, call 918-261-8951, or schedule a consultation directly today and let’s make your operations more efficient and profitable.
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