Sharon: Hello, this is Sharon, and I’m here today with Steven Kohnke from Denver Business Coach. Hey, Steven.
Steven: Hi Sharon, how are you doing this morning?
Sharon: I’m good. I’m good. And looking forward to kicking off a new series with you, and would love to hear, what are we going to be talking about?
Steven: Yes. So, as a business owner, it’s sometimes helpful to think of your businesses, not just this big blob of things that just happen, but really several different technical, intricate areas that need to be focused on almost individually and maintained regularly. Think about the inner workings of a car that everything needs to be working together. But they all have different functions.
And what we’ve done is broken down these big components of a successful business into seven different pillars that the foundations, leadership, sales, marketing, operations, financials and human resources. And we’ve put together the series of tips and insights that business owners out there can apply today and work on building a better business. Today, we’re going to focus in a little bit on the Operations Pillar here and specifically having Turnkey Systems and Processes within the business.
Sharon: Awesome. Well, I’m sure this is going to be super informative, so let’s start with this buzzword, Turnkey that I keep hearing about. What do you really mean by that?
Steven: Yeah, it’s it’s thrown around a lot for sure. What we mean by when we say turnkey here, at least,is really having systems and processes so dialed in that there’s really very little that needs to be done in order to have it running effectively. Someone can pick up right where someone else left off with very little wasted energy and very little information lost. So if someone comes into a new role, they can pick up right where the last person left off in terms of information. You know, I’m a big believer in continuous process improvement.
There’s always going to be a better way to to do something. Some never say process is perfect. That’s not what I mean by turnkey, but it’s the term “turnkey” is reserved for things that need to be visited once or twice a year for improvement, not every week or every month or something like that. It’s been established.
Sharon: Ok, good. Well, thank you for clarifying that because I have been hearing that term thrown around quite a lot. So that was very helpful. And why is it so important for business owners really at any stage in their business to show they have turnkey systems and processes in place for their business?
Steven: Yeah, business owners should always be working towards a turnkey operation. Now, as I mentioned a little bit before, the there’s never it’s never going to be perfect, but it’s going to be damn near close to being perfect. What this does is having these processes up to speed and and really working efficiently, it increases the value of your business. So, along the whole journey business owners should be looking to increase the value and it becomes a more enjoyable business to run. Getting to this point of having your systems and processes really dialed in, takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. And it’s very detail oriented work, which can be tough for some business owners.
But the rewards that come after it are well worth it. When you have a business where everyone knows how things work together and you have repeatable processes, the owner can really focus in on driving the success of the total company as as a as that full car, as that working machine. Instead of worrying about the little things that are going on and worrying if the gas is going to get to the engine, for instance, you have the confidence and those things will operate how they’re supposed to operate, because you’ve taken that time and effort to make sure that they do.
If you’re doing this along the journey, from start to finish, it’s never going to be that big, daunting task to to really create a good working system. It’s it’s rather small, incremental changes along the way that really get to that turnkey process.
Sharon: So, you talked about things being dialed in, which really grabbed my attention, as I’m sure others listening. So, if a business owner is listening to this, what are some things that they can do to start working towards having those systems and processes dialed in, in the way that you are talking about?
Steven: Yes, what we are going for. You know, in the past we’ve we’ve talked a little bit about document early and often, measuring the right things. And that’s that’s really the kind of beginning stages of getting to this turnkey operation to get to that point of optimal efficiency, what we’re talking about here, this should be worked into the annual or even quarterly rhythm of the business. Let’s take a look at the sales process.
Let’s take a look at our customer service process every couple months, and see where there are efficiencies or inefficiencies, rather, are in that process and how we can make better. Being purposeful in this process improvement with yourself and the team. Getting input from others, including your customers, will really help you create something great and you know, continuous, process. It’s a process in itself. So when you have dialed into it, it makes things run a little bit better.
Sharon: Well, it’s a lot to take in and of course, my my mind is turning and thinking about all the processes that I don’t have in place. So if someone’s watching this video and they want to talk further, maybe they know that they need some support and starting to move towards what you’re talking about, how can they reach out to you and what might be some good next step?
Steven: Yeah, the easiest way to get a hold of us here at Denver Business Coach is just go to the website, denverbusinesscoach.com. You can schedule your own intro call and really get to know myself or one of the other coaches on our team and then ask about systems and processes. Hey, I’d like to have a turnkey operation. How do I do that? And we’re happy to help you out and provide whatever information we can.
Sharon: Great. Well, thank you, Steven, super informative, as always, and I look forward to our next conversation.