Right now, I'm shifting my focus towards improving my business and simplifying the processes the company needs to execute to keep everything working and organized. I'm doing all this by migrating them to ClickUp to enhance visibility.
The change intends to make goals clear and accessible, improving growth over time. ClickUp is only one of the few tools we use, and the idea is to integrate all of them, making processes more efficient.
My idea for the pipeline is that Google Workspace will work as the foundation of the systems, ClickUp to be used as a CRM and Project Management tool, and Zapier to automate them and integrate anything required.
We'll also use Shopify to deal with most of our web presence and front-end technology, Wave to maintain and organize finances, and Rocket Lawyer for docs and entity organization. But I still want to add a few more tools to the stack.
Drawing Inspiration from Success
The tools I use and the strategies I employ in my business are tried and true by many successful names across different industries. In addition, most people I draw inspiration from have written helpful books I use as a guide when deciding on my next step.
Some of the books that have influenced me are Traction by Gino Wickman, The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, and How To Set Up Your Business for Under $1,000 by Dan Fleyshman. They offer a set of real-world advice, methods, and information that are helping me increase the success of this new initiative.
Another step I took to help me keep things productive and streamlined was to tailor all my social media to have plenty of influencers focused on Business and Entrepreneurship. Big names like Process Driven creating content almost exclusively around setting up and using ClickUp has proven incredibly valuable in this new phase.
Applying Resources and Processes
After reading The Checklist Manifesto, I have taken some valuable lessons from it and decided to use it in parallel with Process Driven's approach to writing Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and roles. I have a Twitter thread going in-depth with examples of applying it in the real world.
This part of the book really connects with me and my objectives due to Flex Cosmetic's inherently complex internal project management. Therefore, it was crucial to help me understand the importance of decentralizing control and allowing parts of the team to work independently without my direct influence.
Instead, I now focus on checking on my team's progress and finding key components to hold crucial meetings designed to improve the project's needs.
Today I'm using the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) I learned with Process Driven's lessons. The structure consists of purpose, procedure, and frequently asked questions.
The purpose is designed to lay out the SOP goals and how they can aid the company's greater good.
The procedure is broken down into the inputs required, high-level steps, and final outputs. The high-level steps can be further broken down into a smaller detailed list to allow for quick and easy onboarding.
Checklists, ClickUp, and Organization
To put into practice all that I have learned so far, I have added a "To-Do" task to automate the procedures I could. In addition, I also added a "Communications Checklist."
The inspiration for this came from the book, which intends to outline key milestones of the project, where the right people involved need to be able to visualize it and discuss the next logical step for the project.
Right now, all the critical SOPs used in our core processes are complete, and each of them is integrated into our ClickUp with relationships to define their respective roles.
The idea is to do all the quick and easy-to-accomplish work in this new phase while building the project from the ground up. This way, we can keep getting results and having new meaningful additions to the business.
When it comes to how I plan to organize things, all the SOPs and roles are to be housed in the "Systems HQ" to provide a clear overview of processes, procedures, roles, and the software related to them. The hope is that with the HQ ready, it will become easier to solidify and visualize our business plan and make it into an autonomous system.
Why Did We Choose ClickUp?
While ClickUp is great when it comes to dealing with internal processes and organizations, it can do a lot more for my company. The plan is to use it as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and management tool since project management in our industry can become quite complex.
Our company provides product development services, and many variants must be considered when trying to give the client the best options and products.
To provide an excellent product, we must conciliate the client's vision, resources required, and regulatory needs. At this phase, we also work on testing the product, sourcing materials, and figuring out what's needed for scaling.
Considering how many moving pieces are involved in the process, a "Communications Checklist" and a project management tool make all the difference. From here, we want to make an individual folder for each customer and organize them under a space called "Project Management."
Within each folder, we'll have the client's product. The product will have all the necessary information to ease onboarding, such as lists, tasks, testing rounds, raw material facilitation progress, product development, and manufacturing.
Inside those lists, we also have statues of each step to make it easier to keep track of the progress. There's also space for notes, subtasks, and cues derived from the "Communication Checklist" and SOPs, guaranteeing the information inside is relevant and up-to-date.
We also have decided to create a "Project Management" folder under the "Our Proven Process" space. These lists hold our core values, mission, and testimonials, guaranteeing we always have in mind our delivery process.
Taking It Further with Process Org Charts
After using ClickUp to organize all Flex Cosmetic's operations, we plan on using the process org chart and decision trees to build systems for every process use and manage them all under the "Systems HQ" hub. The "System HQ" is a layout that anyone in the company can see. It has columns defining systems structures like relationships of SOPs, roles, teams, and software and their respective importance.
The process org chart will be present in every system we are automating (Our Proven Process and Internal Efficiency, to name a couple), and it will break it down into a simple flowchart focused on the objective of that process, like "making a profit" for example.
The chart then determines all the jobs required to reach that goal and the processes needed to complete the assignments. All items in the chart are color-coded to help streamline the categorization of those items in ClickUp's hierarchy. The hierarchy represents our purpose and all the professionals involved in the process, and opening it will give you a horizontal view to help with focus and visualization.
The Goal of These Changes
The goal of the changes is to automate as much as possible of the internal processes used in Flex Cosmetics based on our current operations and ultimately find new ways to improve, empower the team, automate, and grow the company as a whole.
The changes in tandem with Gino Wickman's Traction and his Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) have provided several positive results, and I'm just getting started with the organizational overhaul. Hopefully, after creating the structure and having our Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO) ready, we can use them to develop a business plan to boost growth even further.
I am still digesting a large amount of information from my sources of inspiration and trying to use them to meet Flex Cosmetic's goals and vision. I'm working on the foundation of the business here, defining procedures, roles, organization, and delegating more so we have space to grow.
The Lessons I've Learned
This article is a running record of everything I'm learning and how I'm implementing it in the company. So far, I have defined all the crucial procedures and roles and applied the "Communication Checklist," which felt like a holy grail of project management for a custom product development project. During my years working in the industry, I feel like every company has been looking for this.
I've also digested Process Driver's webinar together with some other content to figure out how to build my ClickUp hierarchy. I believe that a good hierarchy will greatly help with the cohesiveness of our company and its operations.
The Future
Right now, I'm starting to read Traction by Gino Wickman. Finally, I've got through the "vision" component to understand EOS and how to build a V/TO and share it. I believe a V/TO will be crucial to help us get on the right track and allow me to develop a business plan to boost growth and provide tangible assets.
I am still working on a lot in the background, so be sure to come back to follow my journey of growth and discovery.