Operations are the lifeblood of a business

Most entrepreneurs remain focused on sales and marketing and generally forget about how they are going to execute the promises made to new customers.  The success of any business is how they execute business activities through operations.

How do you define business operations?

“Operations transforms resource or data inputs into desired goods, services, or results, and create and deliver value to the customers. Two or more connected operations constitute a process, and are generally divided into four basic categories: (1) processing, (2) inspection, (3) transport, and (4) storage.”.source, The Business Dictionary

How we operate our business is much like the human heart.  The body needs blood flow and the heart pumps it to all our functions so they work as required.  If you don’t take care of your heart health, your body starts to break down and eventually fails.

How good are your operations?  Is there a strategy in the way your business operations execute?  How do you know your business is operating optimally?

Successful businesses take periodic reviews of their operations.  Key performance indicators (KPI’s) provide the knowledge about how well your operations are meeting the needs. A few examples of KPIs are: 1) Order fulfillment time 2) Customer retention rates 3) Cost of customer acquisition 4) Gross profit margins 5) Variable cost measures 6) Handling costs of inventory.  

Do you have KPI’s in place?

If you would like to know how your business operations measure up, let’s talk.  There is no obligation, simply schedule time on my calendar now