How do you approach scaling your business?

If you're growing but your systems, processes or tools haven't kept up, this session is for you.

Learn how other founders are navigating workflow growing pains and get clear, practical guidance on what to focus on next.

Topics covered in this session

• What's slowing your business workflows

• Practical methods to streamline the way work moves through your business

• A structure that makes scaling actually possible

About the speaker

Adelle King helps SMEs remove operational friction and build scalable workflows.

Using her Simplify–Systemise–Scale Framework, Adelle streamlines tools, processes and team workflows so businesses can grow without the chaos.

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Transcript

Lightly edited for clarity.

Caitriona: Hello, everyone and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Caitriona and I'll be your host today.

For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses.

I'm pleased to introduce Adelle King, who is a digital consultant.

In this session, Adelle will share how other founders are navigating workflow growing pains and provide clear, practical guidance on what to focus on next.

If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session. Today's webinar will be recorded and we will send a follow-up email to you with the recording and further resources later today.

Over to you, Adelle.

Adelle: Perfect. Many thanks. Welcome, everybody and thank you for joining me today. I wanted to get you thinking about how you approach scaling your business.

I predominantly work with businesses to help them handle more work and I do that by reducing the manual effort involved. So it's mostly about workflows, what happens to the work and the different touchpoints it goes through.

We often hear a lot of talk on social media and in the news about different tools, new automation options and all sorts of solutions. What I'm hoping to do today is steer your thinking toward a different approach to scaling your business, one you may not have considered before.

When we talk about scaling a business, what comes to mind for you in your own business? What does scaling look like? Usually, it's things like more clients, bigger teams, higher overheads and all the things that come with growth.

As your business grows, these things grow alongside it.

They are all part of a system. Your business itself is a system and every smaller system inside it needs to work together intuitively.

A system is just a way of doing things. It's the route from A to B. It could be manual, automatic or a mixture. Even in your personal life, you have systems.

So when we talk about scaling a business, I focus on those systems you have in place for when your volume of work increases and how to make sure the work moving through your business does so in an efficient and cost-effective way every time.

Most businesses don't stop to think about or design, how work actually moves through the business.

Work can come in through different channels. It can move through different systems. It can get stuck at different points. Simplifying the workflows is often what gives you the leverage to scale.

That doesn't always require a technical solution. It doesn't always mean technology. When I work with businesses, we start by looking at the full flow in its entirety, from the beginning to the end, before we even talk about any technical or automation solution.

To make scaling efficient and effective, repetition matters. Where you don't have repetition, you introduce inefficiencies in time, money and effort.

That said, not everything should be repeated. There are absolutely some processes in your business that should vary and that require human input to work properly for the customer.

But where there are processes that can and should be repeated, that's where you get the biggest gains.

I'm currently working with a client around freedom of information requests. Their process at the moment is that all requests come into one inbox. Different people support the request from within that inbox. Responses come into the inbox and final responses go back out through it too.

But there isn't a way to properly audit the work. Where is FOI number one in the process? Where is FOI number two? What is outstanding? Who owns it at this point and at that point?

You can't answer those questions easily if everything just sits in an inbox. So there are definitely parts of that process that can be simplified and systemised to make it more efficient.

I use a three-point framework.

First, I look at simplifying the process. That means understanding what happens, how it starts, what happens in the middle and what happens at the end. We need to be very clear about what should happen at every point.

This stage is foundational. We're looking at questions like: at what point does a founder, director or business owner need to get involved?

Do they actually need to sign something off or could there be a clearer decision-making process that means somebody else can handle it?

Could there be a simple guide that says, if this happens, do this and if that happens, do that, instead of constantly going back to the founder for the answer?

We also look at the tools already being used. For example, does something come into an email, then get manually copied somewhere else and then moved again because another team needs it in a different system?

When data moves around between systems and people like that, you introduce duplication, errors and delays.

So simplifying first is really about what happens and what is meant to happen. When the process is complete, what does "done" look like? Because once you can clearly define that, you can then measure it. Out of 10 processes, maybe five are complete and five are not. Then you can ask why.

At this point, there are no tools and no automation. It's mostly pen and paper or at least process mapping and really thinking through what happens from A to B.

Then we move to systemise. Once we've got that process written down, we can start asking what systems are being used at each point and what people are involved.

Going back to the email example, maybe something arrives in an inbox and then somebody manually moves it to a list or another tool. That's a point to examine.

We can ask: what can we implement here that reduces the need for a person to move data from one place to another?

We also look at those founder touchpoints. If the founder needs to sign something off, does that happen in the same way every time? If so, could there be a document or framework that says, if this happens, the answer is yes and if this happens, the answer is no? That removes the dependency on one person.

As we move through the process and identify touchpoints and inefficiencies, then we can scale.

That is when we can bring in automation. At that point, we're looking at how technology can support handovers or recurring decisions.

For example, I work a lot with Microsoft 365 tools and SharePoint lists. So if an email comes in, you can automate the process so the information is added to a list instead of someone manually copying and pasting it.

A list can just be the equivalent of an Excel sheet, but smarter in how it behaves.

When you start bringing in those automation elements and you know the process happens the same way every time, then you scale. Because at that point, it doesn't matter how much work comes in or when it comes in. Technology can work 24/7.

That means your opportunities for growth, scale and even global operation open up much more easily.

I like to think about scaling as giving your team time to do the things they do really well.

Technology does technology well. It can repeat the same process hundreds or thousands of times without getting tired. A person cannot.

At the same time, technology cannot talk to your customer with empathy. It cannot make every judgement call based on nuance or context. That is what your team members are for.

So when I use this framework, I'm always asking: what can your team do really well and how do we free them up to do more of that?

What are they spending the most time on that they don't really need to be spending their time on? And what can technology do really well that you can implement?

I also try to keep businesses grounded in what they already have.

There are lots of tools out there and new ones appear all the time. But I always come back to the simplify stage and ask: what have you already got? What is already in your tech stack?

What tools are your team already comfortable with that could support this process instead of introducing yet another platform?

Another tool means another login, another security requirement, another system to maintain, another browser tab, another source of friction.

So more often than not, you don't need another tool. You usually already have the tools. It's about how those tools are being used, how they are configured and what training or process sits around them.

So we go through the three-point cycle. We start at the beginning and then as the business grows, we move through it again. When we're at the simplify stage, we're always keeping the long-term goal in mind, which is to get to the point where technology can support that process and help the business scale.

I wanted to bring in a few examples of where I've used this framework. They're not huge or complex examples, but they show how this works in practice.

I've already mentioned the freedom of information inbox example. Another one is a training business. They had all the training material, but the process still relied heavily on the founder. Every time a trainee had a question or got stuck at a certain point, it required founder input.

That's fine until volume increases or until the founder is unavailable. Then the whole process becomes fragile.

So we looked at what they already had and how we could build a training pathway that introduced decision points and guidance without relying on the founder every time.

Recruitment is another big one, especially for small businesses.

If you don't have a recruitment tool with any kind of filtering or analysis, somebody has to sit and sift through every CV manually. And as we all know, something can be advertised for 10 or 15 minutes and already have hundreds of applicants.

At some point, somebody has to come in and review that. But most of the early filtering can be automated as long as your criteria are clear enough.

So a recruitment officer could simply receive a report at the end of the process that says these applicants matched all criteria, these didn't match everything but had relevant keywords and these clearly aren't suitable.

That saves a huge amount of time. The person still reviews the outcomes, but they no longer have to sift through everything from scratch.

Another example is a charity that had training materials on its website. People could apply for or book the training, but the process was entirely manual.

They would fill out a form, it would go to an inbox, somebody would email them back with bank details, check the payment had come through and then send out the training materials. Again, that can be automated.

The main process can run smoothly and then a person can step in only where necessary for approval or exception handling. That means the core of the process is automated, while the human element remains where it adds value.

So the final point I want to leave you with before we open up for questions is this: I don't believe automation is just about speeding things up.

I think it's about allowing your team to do what they do best. It's about using technology as part of the wider team and identifying the areas in your business that don't need as much human input but do consume a lot of time.

As you scale, as you bring in more clients and as the volume grows, those are the sections of the business that will get busier.

So the question becomes: how can we use technology to support that? Thank you.

Caitriona: Thank you, Adelle. We had a question from Kirsty and they're asking if someone wanted to start looking at how work moves through their business, what's a simple first step you would recommend?

Adelle: I'd go back to the simplify stage in my three-step process. Have you looked at what actually happens within the process? That's the first step.

Once you've done that, the other two steps become much easier. So yes, start with simplify. Map it out first. Do the boring bit.

Caitriona: What are some of the most common invisible workflow issues founders overlook when things start breaking?

Adelle: Dependency. Dependency on a particular person.

In almost every business, there is someone who "just knows" how something is done. They just deal with it. That's fine until that person leaves, is off sick or moves on and suddenly everybody else is scrambling to work out what to do.

So I think the biggest invisible issue is dependency. People often don't realise how dependent they are on one person. And that person may even be the founder.

Caitriona: Thank you. A question from Valian: how often should businesses review their systems?

Adelle: When I say systems, I mean everything from manual processes to technology solutions, not just software.

How often they should be reviewed depends on how big the process is, how many touchpoints there are, how many people are involved and how many systems it crosses. That will give you a rough idea of how often it needs reviewing.

Some processes may be fine for a year and not need much attention. Others may start showing edge cases more quickly and then you need to ask whether the process still works or whether it needs to be adjusted.

Caitriona: Thank you. How can you tell whether a slowdown is caused by people, process or tools?

Adelle: Once you go back to the simplify stage and actually map the process, it becomes much easier to see.

If you've got it written down, you can follow a piece of work through that process and identify where the delay or bottleneck is.

Caitriona: Thank you. How do workflows need to evolve as a company moves from early stage to growth stage?

Adelle: For me, it comes back to volume.

As the business grows, you need to ask where the increase in volume will show up first. Which parts of the process are going to get busier as you take on more clients?

Growth itself is not the problem. The question is what you do before that volume arrives, so that it doesn't become a burden on the business.

Caitriona: Thank you. A question from Daniel: when systemising, should one also map the most common events which derail the usual system? For example, a client request or collaboration with internal or external partners and what to do when that arises?

Adelle: That sounds to me like edge cases. It suggests the process doesn't happen the same way every time.

If that's the case, then I'd say you need to go back to the simplify point, because we need to understand why it isn't happening consistently and what could be done to make it more consistent.

As I said earlier, there are some processes you simply can't fully automate. Some of them do require a person in the loop. And if that's the case, then that's fine. You can put that process to one side and focus on another one where there is more potential for time savings and consistency.

Caitriona: Thank you. When everything feels inefficient, how do you decide what to fix first?

Adelle: That's a big one, especially when you start out on your own and things can spiral quite quickly. I would start with the thing that has the greatest volume.

If there's one process where work comes in most often and where you can map it and then make it run more smoothly, that will often give you the quickest sense of control again.

So I would probably start with the area with the biggest volume and then also look at the area with the biggest impact.

Caitriona: Thank you. We're just coming to the end of the session now and I don't see any other questions in the chat, so I think we'll leave it there. Thank you so much, Adelle, for your presentation.

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