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Operational Best Practices
Answer these 10 questions about your current operations.
1
If your best employee quit tomorrow and you had to hand their responsibilities to someone else — how much of what they do is written down somewhere that person could actually follow?
Almost nothing — it's all in people's heads
Some things are documented, but there'd be a lot of gaps
Most of our key processes are documented well enough for someone to follow
2
When two different team members do the same job for two different clients, does the client get the same quality experience — or does it depend on who did the work?
It really depends on who does it — quality varies a lot
Mostly consistent, but certain people definitely do it better
Very consistent — we have clear standards everyone follows
3
When a client asks "how long will this take?" — are you giving them a number based on actual data, or are you guessing based on gut feel?
Honestly, I'm guessing most of the time
I have rough estimates based on experience, but no hard data
I can give accurate timelines because we track actual delivery time
4
At the end of a busy month, can you actually tell whether you made money on each job — or do you just hope the bank balance looks okay?
I don't really know until I check the bank account
I have a general sense, but I couldn't break it down by job
Yes — I can see profit and loss per job based on tracked time and costs
5
Have you ever had a client complain about something your team did — and when you looked into it, realized it was something that should have been caught before it left your hands?
Clients catch problems more often than I'd like to admit
We catch most things, but some still slip through to the client
We almost always catch issues internally before delivery
6
Before your team starts a job, is there a clear definition of what "done well" looks like — or do people just figure it out as they go?
People figure it out based on experience — there's no written standard
We have a general idea, but it's not spelled out for every job
Yes — we have clear criteria for what "done" looks like before work begins
7
Think about a mistake your team made more than once. After the first time it happened, did anything actually change to prevent it — or did the same problem just... come back?
Same problems keep coming back — we never seem to fix things permanently
We fix things sometimes, but it depends on who remembers
When something goes wrong, we change the process so it doesn't happen again
8
When a project wraps up, does your team take even 15 minutes to ask "what should we do differently next time" — or does everyone just move straight on to the next fire?
No — we're always straight on to the next thing
Occasionally, when something went really wrong
Yes — we always take time to review, even briefly
9
When you last hired someone new, how long before they could handle a job without coming to you or a senior person with questions every hour?
Months — it was exhausting for everyone
A few weeks of heavy hand-holding, then gradually less
Within about 30 days they were handling core work independently
10
If you switched off your phone and disappeared for two weeks — honestly — would your business still be delivering quality work when you got back?
Things would fall apart quickly
Some things would be fine, but important stuff would slip
The team would handle it — the systems are in place
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