*Deliverables (what you get as defined in Engagement Plan):

*Engagement Plan (what you do, what I do, what gets delivered to you, timeline); it will contain items from below:

Documented Processes including flow diagram and step-by-step instructions

Forms (MS Word typically)

Inventory of processes and tools

Documented product or service lifecycle (requirements through customer support)

Action Plan (if you want to do parts of the process development)

Web site review and testing

Documented Operational Review

Process Development Plan

Sandra Piotrowski, Quality Management

   Pragmatic, Value-Added Processes and Practices

                                                       "Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." -- Jim Rohn

Sandra J. Piotrowski

Small Business

"Time is money" is a old but true adage.

Choosing where to spend your time is every bit as important as choosing where to spend your money.

As a small business, your company will go through cycles of feast and famine. During the boom times, you need to be able to ramp up quickly - get the resources you need to deliver your product or service quickly and with great quality. To reduce the amount of slow time, your business needs to be staged so you can continuously invest in bringing new business and funding through the door while retaining your existing clientele.

To do this, you need to be equipped with the forms, processes, and tools that keep your company operational with as little time from you as possible. This toolkit needs to be simple, easy to train on, easy to update, and absolutely applicable to your specific business. To bring in investors, you need to demonstrate maturity in your operations. Nothing says "mature" like established, documented processes and diagrams. Nothing works better than practical, well thought out, usable practices.

A natural byproduct of documenting processes and practices is the elimination of inefficiencies that have crept into the system as a result of organic growth. You were figuring out a lot of things as time went by. As business speeds up, it is hard to step back and see how things can be improved.

Opportunity 1: Comprehensive Operational Review and Plan

Identify key processes for your existing operations

Identify core competencies (strengths) and weaknesses

Determine which strengths you, personally, want to focus on

Create an inventory of the tools currently used. This includes software, hardware, processes, forms, social media, etc.

Determine how to compensate for the weak, non-critical, or areas that, while important, are not where you want to spend your time

Develop a plan to document key processes, your service or product lifecycle (order in here, happy customer out there), and timeline

Specify your time and money budget - how much time, how much money to be spent in key areas

Execute plan

Opportunity 2: Key Process Identification and Documention

Identify top five key processes and prioritize them

            Examples:      Hiring, order fulfillment, updating social media, creating and
                                  posting marketing pieces, delivering a service, invoicing

    2.    Create a flow diagram for each process. Document key process steps.

For more information: sandra@sandrapiotrowski.com or 425.985.8833