As a services firm owner, you've built your business around your expertise. And while your clients trust you to deliver exceptional results, you find yourself drowning in back office activities. To maintain your clients trust and continue growing your business, you need an operations playbook.

As the business owner, you will always carry an operations load. For many, however, the load can become a burden. Sometimes transitioning tasks off your plate is not possible immediately. There are, however, easy and efficient ways to reduce your operations burden while you build up to offloading it completely.

As your business grows and evolves, your operational needs change. The inflection points that trigger needs and the order in which operational support is added is unique to each business. Regardless of the order and timing, there are indicators common to businesses that it is time to add support.

As a small business, your budget often prevents you from having dedicated software that addresses all your unique needs. A spreadsheet is a great tool to fill in the gaps. With so much versatility, why do so many business owners hate using spreadsheets? It is a tool that could be a game changer for your business.

When it comes to streamlining your business and saving time, automation is not the only option. Using templates across your organization can save time and create a more consistent, quality experience for your clients and employees. Not sure where to get started, here are three examples of where templates can help your business.

Businesses today are looking for opportunities to automate their operational activities. Automation has the power to free up time to do higher impact work for the business. In addition to asking if a process can be automated, it is important to also ask if automation is the answer.

Business needs change over time and often we ask more from team members because they are already on the team, not because they are capable. It is important, as an owner, to monitor the capabilities of your team and ensure that their skills, abilities, and motivation align with the needs of your business.

Business owners like to set big goals that align with the vision they have for the company. While the big goals can be motivating, sometimes they feel so far off they can be demoralizing. Do not let big goals diminish your drive. Use simple math to figure out a bite size data point that you can monitor, track, and feel good about your progress towards your larger goal.

Many owners put off vacations or stay connected to work while away thinking the business cannot run without their involvement every day. Unfortunately, we will all experience unexpected emergencies that force us to step away for a period. Doing the prep work now will help your business continue moving forward when you cannot be present.