5 Indicators it is time to bring in operations support

Watching 5-year-old kids play soccer is brutal. A cluster of kids circles the ball, kicks at it, misses it, and the ball somehow moves, likely not in the desired direction. 

As the kiddos get older, they start to learn the value of spreading out across the field, working as a team, and passing the ball. In time, they are introduced to a dedicated position role – the goalie. They learn the need for distinct roles with defenders staying closer to the goal and the striker staying forward. Year over year, there is progress in efficiency and effectiveness as a team.

Professional teams have maximized efficiency and effectiveness with each player in a distinct role from goalie to defender to midfielder and striker. Everyone contributes based on their position/role which they have earned because of their strengths on the field.

Moving from 5-year-old soccer to professional soccer is an evolution.

Your business goes through this same evolution. 

When you start, it is you, the owner, doing it all. As you add folks, roles spread across the team with most people wearing multiple hats. As time goes on, roles are more defined to more specific needs. You as the owner move into the coach role and oversee all the players in their roles.

This evolution will look different for each business, but the evolution does happen. The challenge for many business owners is understanding indicators that it is time to leverage a more role specific team member for your operations. Here are five inflection points that signal you need additional operations support.

• You are working too many hours per week with no relief - When the business owner consistently works excessive hours just to keep up with operational demands, it indicates the firm has outgrown what one person can manage. The number of hours that is too many will be different for each owner. Whatever your “too many hours” threshold is, sustaining that pace leads to burnout and limits growth potential.

• Cash flow problems despite strong revenue - When you are generating good revenue and the bank account does not align, it is often due to inconsistent invoicing, collections issues, or ineffective budgeting. Leveraging a dedicated bookkeeper or other financial operations support person can reduce cash flow problems. 

• New clients and projects exceed delivery capacity - When your sales wins outpace what you and your team have the capacity to deliver effectively it creates operational strain. You may need to bring in operations team members to take tasks off the plates of those coordinating and delivering services or hire additional team members focused solely on delivery. 

• Adding more team members - As you add more employees, new challenges present themselves. Areas you need to focus on include incorporating new communication channels and processes, more detailed project coordination, and documentation. In addition, as you hit different thresholds of employee numbers, your compliance requirements change. Leveraging dedicated HR and operations support reduces the burden on the owner to keep current on all the norms and requirements. 

• Technology systems create inefficiencies and risks - As your business grows, technology solutions can become inadequate. If team members turn to the owner to support technology issues, multiple people are losing time trying to resolve problems. In addition, team members increase security risks and data silos. Leveraging a dedicated IT resource to support each team member in staying online and minimizing security and cyber risks is an important operational role as your business evolves. 

What roles need to be added to the kids’ soccer team is straight forward. Unfortunately, that is not the case for your business. There are diverse ways you can strengthen and grow your business by adding operational support. These inflection points are a starting point for you to determine what will help you, and your team operate at a level that will positively impact your clients.

If you are struggling with how to build out your operations as you hit these inflection points, reach out to Elevation Business Consulting for a complimentary conversation to discuss your indicators and where you might find the greatest relief.