Getting Started (Ops Life)

You started a business, congratulations! Now what? 

Many entrepreneurs I work with fail to go through the proper steps when they get started and have huge potholes within their business, making it shaky at best. 

I always say the strongest foundations build the tallest of skyscrapers. 

So what is some of my best advice when it comes to starting and building your business? 

Let's dive in. 

Project Management

Where is your action plan or to-do list? If you said in your head or on a million sticky notes, the wrong answer my friend! 

Project management software is the first step I implement in any business that I work with. Project management software allows you to clearly categorize and plan out all areas of your business while leveraging a cloud-based solution to assign and work with anyone all around the world. 

Some of my favorites include Asana and Monday.com. 

I suggest you begin by starting with “Teams” or boards in the major categories needed for your business. 

• Operations

• Legal

• Financial

• Marketing

• Sales

• Tech

Within these overall categories, you can get as granular as you wish-

• Operations

  • HR

  • Advisory Board

  • Training

  • Customer Service

  • KPI’s

• Legal

  • Contracts

  • Formation

  • Issues

• Financial

  • Books

  • Taxes

  • Pitching

  • Grants

  • Sponsorships

  • AR/AP

• Marketing

  • Social Media

  • Website

  • Blog

  • SEO

  • Ads

• Sales

  • Hot Leads

  • Current Clients

  • Partners

  • Deliverables

• Tech

  • Timeline

  • Build

  • Tech Support

And so on, and so on. Create sub-tasks within, assign a person or department responsible and assign a deadline based on priority and company goals.

Legal

One of the biggest flaws I see in the businesses I work with is spotty, DIY, or nonexistent legal foundations. Proper legal documents and formation are crucial to your company's success. This will prevent you from the heartache of soured relationships, fines, or bigger legal trouble down the road. 

So what are some things you should have squared away?

• Formation Documents

• EIN

• Operating Agreement

• NDA

• Partnership Agreements

• Sales Contracts

• MOU

• Advisory Contracts

• Waivers

• Privacy Policy/GDPR for your website

• A LAWYER ON RETAINER

All of these things are crucial for your success. Yes, legal is costly, but not having proper legal foundations will cost 10x more. I promise. A few resources are Avodocs and LegalZoom.

CooleyGo also has an extensive database of templates and support.

Financial

Financial is another key area people fail to fill all of the gaps. Understanding your numbers, and having organized and categorized books and statements, will help you not only be successful in pricing your products and services, but also will help you forecast, make predictions and raise future capital. 

If your financials are a mess, I promise most won't come near you. Not investors or creditors, and sometimes not Executive level team members or advisors. 

So what are some things you need to have?

• Business Checking accounts

• Business Credit Cards

• No mixing of Personal and Business Funds

• Clean Books (use Quickbooks and connect your account digitally)

  • This means the correct chart of accounts

  • Up to date income and outgoing expenses/revenue

• Statements and how to reach them

  • Profit Loss Statement

  • Balance Sheet

  • Cash Flow Statement

• CPA/Bookkeeper

• Projections

• Understanding of current needs

• Cash Flow

• Payment Processing or Invoicing (I love Melio)

Operations

Operations are the backbone of a company. Anyone can dream and have visions of changing the world with their ideas, products or services, but without a proper plan, and implementation, it will remain just that, a dream. Be sure to have these things in place. 

• Project Management (see above)

• Standing meeting cadence

  • Leadership Team

  • All Call

  • Sub Depts. As you grow

• Goals/Sprints/KPI’s

• SOPs for training and operation of the company. 

  • Consider using Loom for easier recording of your processes. 

Marketing

Ahh marketing. You either love it or you hate it. Even though this portion of business is often the least funded, as well as the first to get the ax for budget cuts, it is absolutely the most crucial. Marketing is how people find you, perceive you, and ultimately learn to love and trust you. Trust builds a customer base and even better, loyalty. 

So what are the key things you should have?

• All social media handles

• Editorial Calendar

• Branding Kit

  • Logos

  • Fonts

  • HEX Colors

  • Voice

  • Hashtags

  • Imagery

  • Sub Marks

• Shared Drive Folder with Branding/Marketing Assets

• Website

• Social Media Scheduler

• Graphics and Images

• SEO

• Customer Personas

I could go on and on and on about marketing but I find these are typically the key elements missing when I first start working with startups and entrepreneurs. 

Once you have some of these key things in place, you will have a path towards successfully setting and achieving any goal! 

Be sure to print my free Getting Started checklist HERE and see what potholes you may have. If I can support operational success, corporate or overall strategy, be sure to reach out today! Hello@flossiehall.com