Have too much work on? Think about increasing your capacity.
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Everyone starts their own business for different reasons. Some want the flexibility to own what type of work they'll do, how much money they'll make. Some enjoy the status that comes with owning your own business, and some just want to fly under the radar and make enough to get by. Occasionally we'll talk to a business owner who's doing the business version of 'flipping' - they start or take over a business, make it profitable, and then sell it on, never looking back. Whether you're in it for the status, the flexibility, the challenge, or the money - at some point you may start to have more work than your capacity allows.
There are lots of causes of having too much work. The first is termed 'Waves of Work', and refers to what happens when your company builds up various marketing strategies, from advertising in the local paper to getting referrals from past customers, from radio to your Service Central membership. The problem with most of these marketing activities is that you pay up front without (usually) the knowledge of how much work you're going to get out of it. When you don't have much work on, you'll often advertise harder than if you're busy, and this can create a peak of work that your business can barely handle.*
The second is a pervasive skills shortage in many trades. Where demand exceeds supply, there are customers who are relatively desperate for someone to do the work. Desperation is sometimes difficult to say 'no' to - especially when it means you might be able to name your price and also get new customers out of grateful referrals.
So what happens when you've got too much work on?
As a small business owner, having too much work on has exactly the same effect as having a boss that makes you work overtime every day. Some people handle the stress well, but many don't. Our family lives suffer, we get less sleep and overall we become less effective. But besides the personal sacrifices, it also affects our customer service. You're in a rush to complete things, so quality can suffer. Decisions are more difficult to make, and customers can feel as if you don't take pride in your work - even if you keep your quality high, people are great at sensing when someone is rushing or not. If you try to manage the volume, you'll lose customers because you'll have longer lead times than they can handle, or calling that customer about their quote won't seem as important.
So this doesn't sound ideal. Damaging your health, your relationships, and your business. Let's have a look at your alternatives.
1. Expand your business's capacity
As demand exceeds supply, simply get more 'supply'. Not quite as simple as making bigger orders like a retailer would, but there are ways to increase your capacity.
Take on another person
We've all either heard someone say it, or said it ourself. "If you want a job done right, do it yourself". If you've worked alone or in a team that's been together for ages, you'll know that sometimes taking someone new on is a bit of hassle in the beginning. You spend more time training that person than you spend time doing the flurry of work that you've hired the person to help out with. And so it seems counter-intuitive to take someone on. But it's not - sure, there's a spike at the beginning while that person learns, but after the spike you'll have far greater capacity to take on the work you're taking on, plus more. Often you'll also find that you can hire someone part time initially, and move them to full time when there is more work, you can cut down on the risk of not having enough for them do do.
Get smarter about the noise
In one of my other blogs for trades businesses, I talk about 4 steps to achieving business success daily. Now that sounds like it's going to be marketing advice - but it's not. Plan, start, finish, and review are the 4 steps to success - and they work. When you're under pressure, it's even more important to focus on the fundamentals than ever before. Proper planning and reviewing will reduce the noise and focus your activities on what's important, reducing the 'busy' work and freeing up some of your time to take on more jobs.
Be more efficient
Efficiency is different for each business. For mine, I've had great success with co-ordinating diaries, discussions and tasks with my staff in a really efficient way: Using Google Docs. It means that everyone's automatically in the loop all the time and I spend less time updating people to the happenings. There are lots of other ways to be more efficient in your business - and we've written about several innovative ways your business can become more efficient in our 'Tools of the Trade' series - where you can read about ways some businesses are using technology to save them time and money.
There are a good few other things that you can do to handle the high work volumes. I'll discuss 2.turning away work, 3.keeping your customer anyway and 4.changing your marketing mix in future blog articles, but in the meantime if you've any ideas please drop us a line to suggestions@servicecentral.com.au or comment below.
* As an aside here, it's of course good to mention that Service Central manages these Waves of Work for you, by constantly advertising and driving new customers towards your business - but if you're too busy to take on new work you simply don't accept the job opportunity with no harm done to your business's reputation. When you need them, you accept them.
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