As a Managing Director or Business owner you will be adept at taking calculated risks. Risk taking often goes hand in hand with entrepreneurial spirit and is always high on the lists of ‘Top 5 characteristics of Entrepreneurs’.

But not all risk takers are winners and this is because some of the biggest risks within a business are the ones that are inherent and not calculated!

One of the biggest risks that we see in businesses is that of a lack of a clear process and process review in place, this can be the difference between identifying and managing the impact of external factors that can have a direct impact on the business…

For example, if you or one of your key team members are unexpectedly off work…How will business continuity be affected? How do you manage their projects? Will cash flow be affected if invoices are no longer being raised or chased? Will business completely stop or will someone be able to pick up from where their colleague left off?

You cannot plan for the unexpected absence of a team member but you can prepare for it…

In addition, external legislative changes such as the new GDPR Regulation that comes into force in May 2018 can pose a significant risk, as they have a direct impact on your data collection and storing processes and even your marketing process.

Also have a think about the importance of maintaining accounting records for submission to HMRC, if the process is wrong are your submissions wrong? And who’s responsibility is it for ensuring you are compliant? You!

Ultimately the responsibility for compliance in all areas of business, finance, Data Protections, HR and Health and Safety all stop with the Managing Director.

How do you manage these risks?

The most effective way you can minimise the above risks and optimise performance, is by improving your systems. Automation of administrative tasks for areas of the business such as recruitment, sales, marketing and accounts can improve cash flow and add additional capacity for important client facing activities. Ultimately by applying an automation process you have the ability and capacity to grow your business.

It is the quality of production that set’s your business apart from the competition and ensures your business remains efficient as it grows. Whilst any small business that is fast growing will need the processes and systems to keep up with production; to what level is process management required? In short, if you want your business to grow, be successful and less reliant on you as a business owner then process management should be high on your agenda.

Interested in finding out more about what we do to support Managing Directors and ensure that your managerial risks are minimised…Please get in touch sarahvb@propolis-ps.co.uk