WAKEshine

In a previous article I discussed making your business modular.  Let’s look at one task and see how we can modularize it.

Every week I buy groceries.  It’s easy to look at this as one activity but actually it involves a lot of different tasks and roles.
 

•  Somebody to figure out what needs to be ordered
•  Somebody to place the order
•  Somebody to collect the groceries
•  Somebody to deliver the groceries

I used to be the "Somebody" for all the tasks.

This is a great example of a process that is tightly integrated: I would go to the store, walk up and down every aisle, and get those things that I knew we needed.  I’d collect them into a cart and then go to pay.  Once I purchased them, I’d put them into my car and drive them home.

There was not much way that anybody could help me out.  Sure, the bagger could load the groceries into my car; that would save me effort but not time.  It would be pointless to have somebody come along just to collect the groceries, dependent upon my saying "yes" or "no" to all the items in the aisles.

I felt there would be big payoff if I could get the collection and the delivery done by somebody else.  In the process I discovered that the first two actions were made a lot easier.

How it turned out was this: I was not impressed with the produce at any grocery store that did delivery, and fruits and vegetables are very important to me.  However, I found a grocery store with great produce that had online shopping where the customer picks it up.  I felt this was a good combination.

It takes time to set up the online system, but once you’re done, the whole thing is incredibly convenient.  It remembers what I’ve bought in a Master List, so a few weeks into it, all I have to do is run down my Master List and click on the items I want.

In the end, here is what I have accomplished with this simplification:

• The selection process has been greatly simplified
• I’m not distracted by a bunch of other products that I don’t want
• Somebody else does the part I liked the least and which was the most time-consuming, the collecting of the groceries
• I still pick them up, but I found a store near my office and with a gas station adjacent to it, so it’s a ten-minute stop on my way home and I tied it to another activity I dislike, putting gas into the car.

In addition, the most personal part of the process–figuring out what needs to be purchased–actually requires my input less than it used to.  If somebody had my login, I could tell them "I need milk, bread, and apples this week" and they could choose it from my Master List.

Of course this applies to business processes as well.  You may be right that you are the only one who can do the whole process, because only you have the right skills and information.  But once you slice it another way, you can isolate the part that only you know how to do, and open up the rest for others to come in and help.

Once you’ve split many processes into layers like this, you get the added benefit of being able to collect and perform all the tasks for a role at one time (the way that I could get groceries and gas in one trip that was already dedicated to doing only manual-intensive tasks).

When I used to go grocery shopping, it would take over an hour, and I would feel like I had so many other important things to be doing.  But now it’s a quick stop during my daily commute.

Making your processes modular reduces stress and maximizes productivity, even when you’re still doing most of the work yourself.  When your mindset can be fully in the role you are performing, you know you are working at peak efficiency and that you are working on a task that fits into the master plan.

How can you apply this principle to your online business?  Make charts of the roles and processes involved in the basic activities of your business.  What does it really take to write a new article?  To change the theme of your website?  To analyze traffic? To test a new marketing plan?

The more processes you split into layers, the more you’ll find similarities and common tasks.  The more you’ll find tasks that can be grouped together and split out, ready to be performed by others.  And even if you perform them, you’ll be doing it with high efficiency.