Project Support for Those with a Small Office

Vicadea Concepts guides small office professionals through the process of designing, meticulously detailing and implementating systems in their business. Creating your business systems means developing a strategy to turnkey your operations. Financially successful businesses are well-managed businesses.  

Through our relationship you will be able to identify better ways to operate, streamline processess and increase profits. Develop systems where it matters most.  

What is your RSTLNE?

Best practices are generally-accepted, informally-standardized techniques, methods or processes that have proven themselves over time to accomplish given objectives. Often these best practices are common sense to the business owner but certainly not common sense to the staff. Documenting and charting procedures is a time consuming process, that is too often neglected.

Implementation is the work required to get things done.

Vicadea Concepts specializes in developing, documenting and implementing best practices into small businesses and professional practices.

Systems are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Inefficient business teams spend too much time handling mistakes, irate clients, time urgency's, incur poorer than expected results, and experience low morale when SOPs are not in place and followed. The biggest source of lost income in any business is from poor efficiency. Well thought out SOPs allow people to focus on the tasks at hand and deliver the high quality results necessary for business growth. Work with Vicadea Concepts to determine (and improve) your Productivity Index Value.

A business system is a methodical procedure or process that is used as a delivery mechanism for providing service to your customers. It usually consists of a combination of hardware, software, and planning, which together allow businesses to carry out specific jobs, manage aspects of the business, and maintain a quality infrastructure.

Consider this:

Businesses that don't have proven systems, require staff with a higher level of business skills (maybe you are even doing tasks you shouldn't be). Systems remove the people dependency factor. Documenting your business means communicating exactly how you want your business to operate on a daily basis. It also means staff know, understand and accept their responsibilities and can be held accountable to the work they do.  

Systems allow you to effectively delegate tasks and leverage your business' best practices to get the best results.

All workflows have a number of logical steps.

Every logical step is an activity. Every activity can be categorized as a Manual Activity or an Automated Activity. 

• Manual Activities have a performer (a person accountable to completing the task)
• An Automated Activity is performed by technology

Workflows specify the sequence of activities and whether they happen in parallel (at same time) or serial (after one another).

Seven Steps to Creating a Workflow

1. Determine the business process which requires document workflow.  This can be an repeatable action in your business.

2. Who or what initiates the workflow?  Is it paperwork received, a meeting taking place, an email received?

3. Determine what manual activities need to take place and what processes are automated.

4. For manual activities, decide who is going to perform the activity and in what time frame.

5. Decide whether the actions are parallel or serial.

6. What triggers the next activity in the workflow?

7. What documents or custom fields need to be completed during procedure?

SAMPLE WORKFLOWS

Seven Steps to Creating a Employee Handbook

1. Vision, Mission, Code of Ethics

2. Organizational Chart

3. Job Descriptions

4. General Management Practices (Anti-Harassment, Complaint Resolution, Hours of Operation, Dress Standards, Use of Office Resources and Technology, Confidentiality)

5. Payroll Administration and Compensation (Benefits, Leave Policies, Vacation, Statutory Holidays, Bonuses, Salary Reviews, Performance Reviews)

6. Employee Development and Disciplinary Policies

7. Employee Declaration

Seven Steps to Creating a Procedures Manual

1. Define what the finished service looks like and how it contributes to the overall success of the business.

2. Record steps necessary to accomplish tasks.

3. Assign responsibility to every task.

4. Designate an approved time line for tasks.

5. Describe equipment, supplies and resources needed throughout.

6. Who provides the quality check?

7. What priority is given to what tasks?

Seven Steps to Your Hiring System (Objective: Hire the best people and don't hire out of desperation)

1. Prepare job description and posting (include the value and culture of the business to attract like-minded people)

2. Discover source of candidates (job boards, signage, ad, resume banks, internet, network, colleges)

3. Screen candidates (phone first, in-person second – stop and listen and get a handwriting sample, references third)

4. Making and Offering and Welcome the new hire

5. Train new hire

6. Evaluate employee

7. Reward or dismiss employee