I spent 10 years on the road as a management consultant. I wasn’t with a big company, but we had clients all over the US and Canada. I was pretty good at my job.
My job was to identify and break apart any bottle-necks or log-jams that got in the way of success for my clients. Sometimes that was replacing certain personnel who were the problem. Mostly, it was to simplify the clients’ processes.
It was amazing how ingenious people can be in designing their workflow or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). It seems important to them to identify every conceivable problem area or loophole and get it handled.
No, it isn’t.
What’s important is to keep processes as simple as possible. Why? To minimize the areas that can break.
The more moving parts there are, the more likely one will break, stall, or go off the rails. The more inter-connectedness there is in the SOPs, the more likely something will un-sync and gum up all the other parts.
Keep It Simple. And Successful.
Determine what the end goal of your process is. Draw or chart out what needs to be done in order to reach that end-state. Look for duplication or back-tracking. Identify areas of restriction or bottle-necks. Apply your imagination and brainstorm ways to do the job. Do what-ifs.
Amazingly, you will be able to see that your initial take can be simplified.
Do it again.
Your end-goal is to have a process with as few steps as possible, yielding the most important results.
For an FBA business, the process is:
- Find a Product
- Source a Product
- Prep a Product
- Ship a Product
- Promote a Product
- Replenish and Repeat.
Ideally, your finding and sourcing efforts will net you profitable products you can easily replenish. Your prepping and shipping processes should not consume your life, or your life savings. Your product sells and sells and sells, and you make money.
In each area, determine what needs to be done, then determine how to do it. Write it down – you WILL forget. Then just follow the steps.
Make it easy to proceed and hard to fail.
That’s how I made my clients successful. That’s how you can do it, too.
John L
Thanks, great advice. Still working on the ‘right’ products.