Do you have the processes in place to help you to succeed in 2012?  If you’re just starting, do you have your list in place?  If not, what are you actively doing to create your list?

The ability to use processes for the basic functionality of your business tells the tale of whether your business is a smooth running machine or if it’s an only half drafted

Rube Goldberg mechanism that changes with each day.  The difference between the two is the ability for the system owner to focus on what is actually occurring repeatedly in the business in order for the business to create revenue.  The good news is that you already do this to some extent when you get up in the morning.

Most people get up, attend to personal hygiene, eat, drink and then move to the first item on their to-do list for the day.  At the end of the day, they come home, eat, recreate a bit, personal hygiene to prepare for bed and then bedtime.  The getting up process and retiring process that are used here personally could be compared to the process that you use to bring a customer on board and the process that you use to let a customer go.

Processes can be used in all areas of your business even when you’re just starting.  Processes are generally put in place in a rough form and refined over the course of time.  So the good news here is that you can start with just the idea that “Hey, I think this is a good idea for a process!”.  Once the process is in place, working well and refined to where you could almost do it in your sleep, then you’re ready to automate the process and take yourself out of it so that it runs by itself without you.  That’s the real beauty of having a process!  You don’t have to hire somebody, you don’t have to double check anything, you just have the confidence of knowing that until IT tells you it’s having an issue, you know it’s working!  This is where the machines truly begin to work for you and it’s a beautiful thing when this happens!

So you have the beginning and the end processes of what you need for your business.  The rest is just the processes in the middle.  Those will vary in specifics from business to business.  In an information marketing business, you might have processes such as newsletter creation and production, speaking engagements, order fulfillment, credit card processing, reversing credit card transactions (hopefully there are at a minimum), affiliate communications, and so on.  Once you have found all the processes at a high level that you need, you will label and define those processes.  Think of the processes as a point of arrival.  For instance, once a customer has arrived at the “on board” stage, what does that mean?  What activities have already occurred that have brought the customer to this point.  Those activities are your action steps.  You will have at least one action step between each stage.

Obviously, this is a very simplified version of what you are doing; however, I believe this will give you an idea of the basic structure.  Some of the common business processes are procurement, financing, marketing and sales, human resources,  manufacturing, transportation and customer service.  To assist you in getting started with thinking about what you want to present as offerings to you customer, I have created for you a Freedom Funnel, calendar and cash flow projection template to assist you in planning for 2012 in your business.