As a small business owner, competition is surely familiar to you.

The small business landscape in the US is densely populated, and clawing out a sizable competitive advantage is essential for success.

Small businesses today face a plethora of challenges, like cash flow issues, supply chain disruptions, customer acquisition obstacles, and failure to diversify their customer bases—especially when they’re trying to grow and scale their operations. In this environment, it’s no surprise that 50% of small businesses fail within five years, and 18% fail within the very first year.

So, is that it for small businesses? Will they not have the potential for growth and scaling apart from what they have already achieved? Are they all doomed to fade into obscurity? No, because that’s where small business advisory comes in.

Small business advisors can help these businesses supercharge their operational efficiency to drive their scaling efforts and gain a substantial advantage against their competitors through operation standardization.

Let’s explore how operation standardization helps small businesses focus on scaling beyond their existing capabilities while driving cost efficiencies—and how small business advisors enable these efforts.

Understanding Operation Standardization

Globally, businesses are increasing their spending on standardizing their processes, and this is not specific to small businesses. Why?

Operation standardization refers to the process of implementing a set of guidelines for business operations to ensure consistency, quality control, and improved efficiency. This has worked wonders for businesses of all sizes. For instance, Toyota has seen a 20% reduction in spending on car production after implementing a standardized platform for operations.

Here’s what businesses stand to gain from operation standardization:

1. Efficiency and Productivity

Standardized processes mean employees will spend less time and fewer resources on their respective tasks, streamlining their workflows. This means that employees can deliver better work in less time—contributing to increased productivity across the organization.

2. Consistency and Quality Control

By implementing standardizing procedures, small business owners can make sure that their processes are carried out consistently across the board—no matter the department or personnel involved. This also helps ensure that the results of these processes are predictable and of high quality. Ultimately, this means that the end products and services are also of high quality, improving profitability, customer satisfaction, and the potential for growth.

3. Process Analysis and Improvement

Standardization involves establishing clear and efficient standard operating procedures (SOPs), making it easier to track the KPIs and benchmarks of each department and employee. This also eases the process of implementing process improvements in applicable workflows. Aside from that, SOPs also help maintain processes that ensure compliance with industry and government regulations and standards.

It is clear that operation standardization can have a significant impact on a business’s bottom line, and this is particularly valuable for small businesses that are likely operating on limited resources and time. However, it may seem like a daunting task to take on, especially if the required knowledge and expertise are lacking on the organization’s end.

That’s where small business advisory services enter the fray.

How small business advisory improves upon operation standardization

Small business advisors play a crucial role in helping small businesses implement optimized operation standardization strategies within their processes. Here are some benefits small businesses can enjoy by working with a business advisor.

1. Expert Guidance

Small business advisors often have a wealth of knowledge and experience working with a diverse range of businesses and industries. This allows them to bring in fresh perspectives, innovative solutions, and a voice of reason that can help small businesses identify underlying issues and maximize potential opportunities for growth without jumping the gun.

2. Efficient Implementation

Advisors take steps to assess and optimize business processes, with a focus on enhancing productivity and reducing costs. They can identify inefficiencies in the business processes that hold them back, suggest solutions to improve the workflows and implement strategies to increase operational efficiency. This means the overall competitiveness of the small business is improved—improving its scaling potential.

3. Time and Resource Management

Standardization can consume a lot of time and resources if the small business in question lacks the know-how to implement these measures effectively, working in opposition to the objective of standardization—optimizing resource consumption, increasing efficiency and profitability, and driving growth. Advisors can support this by leveraging strategies like phased implementation to allow decision-makers to focus on core operations that facilitate growth.

4. Continuous Improvement

Implementing standardization procedures is only half of the equation. The next part is all about maintaining these efforts and building upon them. Small business advisory also contributes in this sense, helping monitor the effectiveness of standardization initiatives and making necessary adjustments over time so that the business can continue to benefit in the long run.

Now, this is all well and good, but aren’t small business advisors expensive to employ? Let’s take a look at the figures.

The average cost of an operations consultant in the US ranges from 80 to 250 USD per hour. A good practice to follow when employing consultancy services is to utilize around 25% of the free cash flow so that there’s room for other growth-related investments as well.

The value of operation standardization provided by a small business advisor can generate positive ROI from the get-go, and continue to generate value in the long run, thanks to their continuous improvement initiatives.

Focus on growth with operation standardization facilitated by a small business advisor

Today’s business landscape is cutthroat, especially for small businesses that may not have deep pockets to weather the storm of competition. This is where small business advisory plays a crucial role in helping small businesses establish efficient operations and scale with ease. Operation standardization stands out as a prominent driver of growth, and a small business advisor only serves to improve its outcomes.

Achieve your dreams for growth with the right guidance.