Small Business Coach shares advice and tips on how you can evaluate what is working and what is not working and how you can use this information to improve and grow your business

1. A short video for
small business owners....
How To Evaluate What’s Working In
Your Business and What’s Not
www.entrepreneursystems.comwww.entrepreneursystems.com ©2010

2. Have you ever been so caught up in what
you’re doing in your business that your actually
wondering if it is even working? You’re
constantly giving attention here and there,
attending to this while trying to prevent that,
basically fire-fighting all the time and as a
result things are never really completed or
achieved as you would have hoped, and results
are sketchy at best.
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3. Well, over the years from working with many
different companies, where I have been
involved in implementing software, upgrading
web technology, or even just overhauling
major business processes, I have realised that
the same fundamentals that are used to
determine if something is working or not can
be applied to small business.
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4. As with everything in your business, it all
comes down to simple process to really detect
what is working and what is not, what you
need to be giving more energy to, and what
really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of
things.
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5. As with everything in your business, it all
comes down to simple process to really detect
what is working and what is not, what you
need to be giving more energy to, and what
really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of
things.
www.entrepreneursystems.comwww.entrepreneursystems.com ©2010

6. Its a two phased approach. The first phase is
where you actually need to identify what your
core business processes are. These are the
ones that are fundamental in the ongoing
operation and viability of your business,
without which your business would not
survive.
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7. Once you have identified your core business
processes for each one you need to ask “What
do I expect should happen as a result of this
process”. Following this, the next question you
should ask is “Is what’s really happening what
I expected should happen”. It all comes down
to what you expect to happen versus what is
actually happen and the difference between
the two will help you decide whether or not
that business process is actually working.
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8. With the first part of this exercise, its a really
good idea to involve the people who carry out
the business processes you’re trying to
evaluate because they will have an insider’s
take on any peculiarities and anomalies that
might not be so obvious from an outside
looking in perspective.
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9. But after all this, after you have identified your
core business processes, worked out what you
expected “should” happen and what is
“actually happening in reality”, you’re left with
a list of your core processes that are probably
working OK and a list of core processes that
are just nor living up to your expectations.
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10. The second phase of this evaluation process is
where you need to determine if you actually
need these core processes. It will take an
investment of time and energy to improve tem
so you want to be sure you will see a return on
your investment. So, from here, your should
take your two lists – the core processes that
are working OK and those that are not meeting
your expectations and start with the list of
processes that are working OK.
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11. Take one process at a time and ask “Will the
continual execution of this process on a
regular basis get me closer to my purpose and
the ideal vision I have for my business” If your
answer is a resounding “Yes”, then this is a
process to keep. If your answer is a resounding
”No”, then eliminate the process.
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12. Do the same now for your list of core
processes that are not currently meeting your
expectations with the outcome for each being
either to “keep the process and work to
improve it immediately” or to “eliminate the
process immediately because it does not
contribute to the growth of your business”
www.entrepreneursystems.comwww.entrepreneursystems.com ©2010

13. Once you understand this basic formula for
evaluating what is working and what is not
working in your business you will be able to
quickly and easily determine what is adding
value to your business, versus what is taking
value out because it is not contributing to your
overall goals.
www.entrepreneursystems.comwww.entrepreneursystems.com ©2010