The method
The method is published before you buy it.
Eight areas decide how smoothly work moves through a business, from winning it to after it is done. They are what the free Map rates, what the Survey looks at properly, and what anything we build is judged against. All of it is set out here, so you can judge the method before you spend anything on it.
Why eight
Eight, because that is how the work moves.
The eight did not start as a list of things to sell. They started as a map of every process a business runs to get work in, done and paid for, from the first enquiry to the question that arrives long after a job is finished. Written out one at a time, there were twenty-eight of them.
Those twenty-eight fall into three stages - winning the work, doing the work, and getting paid and after - with the firm itself underneath all three. Inside each stage, the processes that go wrong together sit together: a price that takes a week to go out and a price nobody chases are one area, because the same change fixes both.
Each area is then asked about with two factual questions, the kind you can answer without looking anything up. Nothing on the Map asks you to rate yourself. The colour comes from a fixed rule, which is why the figures on the result are only ever as rough as your own numbers.
Some of the twenty-eight are not on the Map yet: suppliers, knowing where every job stands, marketing, recruitment, payroll and a handful more. They stay off until there is a question about each one that is worth asking, rather than being asked badly.
The eight
Three stages, and the firm underneath.
Each area is described the way the person who looks after it would describe it. Two of them, getting found and the firm itself, are on the Map because they matter, but we do not work on them, and we say so.
Winning the work
Getting found
What the Map asks
- Is there enough work coming in to keep everyone busy?
- Where does most of your new work come from?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- quiet weeks nobody saw coming, followed by more work than the business can take on
- most new work arriving from one or two customers, so losing either would hurt
- no clear idea which enquiries turn into work, or where the good ones came from
- Who looks after it
- Whoever decides where the next piece of work comes from, and whether to take it on.
- What changes
- Work arrives steadily enough to plan around, from more than one direction, so no single customer decides whether it is a good year.
We do not work on this. The Map rates it because a business short of work has a different problem from one buried in admin, and it is worth knowing which one you have.
Answering and quoting
What the Map asks
- How fast does a customer get a price from you?
- When a price goes out and you hear nothing, do you chase it?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- prices written up in the evening, because there was no time for them in the day
- a customer who went elsewhere because the price took a week to arrive
- prices sent and never followed up, so nobody knows which were lost and which were forgotten
- Who looks after it
- Whoever works out the price and decides it can go out, and whoever writes it up if that is someone else.
- What changes
- A customer has a price in writing soon after they ask, and every price that goes out is followed up until there is an answer.
Taking a customer on
What the Map asks
- Before work starts, are the price and terms agreed in writing?
- How many places do you record a new customer’s details?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- work started on a handshake, with the price and the terms remembered differently by each side
- the same customer’s details written into three places, each slightly different
- a new customer asked again for details they have already given
- Who looks after it
- Whoever agrees the terms with a new customer and sets them up so the work can start.
- What changes
- The price and terms are agreed in writing before anything starts, and a new customer’s details are taken once and used everywhere they are needed.
Doing the work
Planning the work
What the Map asks
- How often do planned jobs get moved or rescheduled?
- If whoever organises the work was off for a week, would it still run?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- a plan that lives in one person’s head, or on a whiteboard only they can read
- the week rearranged most days, with the round of phone calls that goes with it
- a week off for whoever organises the work that everyone else dreads
- Who looks after it
- Whoever decides who does what and when, and puts it right when the day goes wrong.
- What changes
- The plan is somewhere everyone can see it, a change is made once rather than phoned round, and the work still runs when the person who planned it is away.
Doing it without retyping
What the Map asks
- From order to done, how many times are a job’s details recorded?
- How often does a mistake from copying details reach a customer?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- the details of one job written down or typed in three or four times between the order and the invoice
- a wrong date, price or address reaching a customer because it was copied across by hand
- evenings spent bringing one list up to date with another
- Who looks after it
- Whoever keeps the records straight as a job moves from order to done, and whoever finds out when they are not.
- What changes
- Each job’s details are recorded once and carried to every place they are needed, so copying stops being a way for mistakes to get in.
Getting paid and after
Getting paid
What the Map asks
- When do you ask for payment?
- When a customer pays late, what happens?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- invoices raised in a batch at the end of the month, weeks after the work was finished
- late payers chased when someone notices, or when the bank balance forces the question
- no quick answer to how much the business is owed, and by whom
- Who looks after it
- Whoever sends the invoices, watches what comes in and chases what does not, whether that is you, a book-keeper or someone in the office.
- What changes
- Payment is asked for when the work is done, late payers are chased promptly by rules you have agreed, and nothing goes to a customer or moves money without your say-so.
After it is done
What the Map asks
- How long would it take to find the paperwork for a job from two years ago?
- When a customer comes back with a problem, is there a record of the job?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- the paperwork for an old job spread across an inbox, a filing cabinet and somebody’s memory
- a customer coming back months later with a question nobody can answer quickly
- certificates and records that exist somewhere, but not where anyone can find them in a hurry
- Who looks after it
- Whoever answers when a customer comes back about finished work, and whoever keeps the records that answer depends on.
- What changes
- The record of each job, from what was quoted to what was delivered, is in one place and can be found in minutes.
We work on the records and on answering questions about old jobs. We do not handle claims or disputes.
The firm itself
The firm itself
What the Map asks
- Do you know whose training or certificates run out in the next three months?
- Is holiday and absence kept in one place everyone can see?
What it looks like when it is slipping
- a qualification or licence that ran out before anyone noticed
- holiday and absence kept in more than one place, or in nobody’s
- two people off in the same week, and nobody had seen it coming
- Who looks after it
- Whoever looks after the people and the obligations under all of the work: training, absence and the things the business has to keep up to date.
- What changes
- You know who is off, whose certificates need renewing and what falls due, without having to dig for it.
We do not work on this. The Map rates it because it sits under every stage, and it is worth knowing where it is thin.
Putting them to work
The same eight, at three depths.
Map it yourself, free
The Map asks two questions about each of the eight, in about ten minutes, and prices the weak ones from your own numbers. It is free, and we only call you if you ask us to.
Or have it looked at properly
The Survey takes the same eight and follows real jobs through them, rather than answers about them. It comes out as a plan you could act on without us: what to fix, in what order, and what each is worth.
And the work is judged on them
Anything we build is aimed at one of the eight, and it is judged on that area afterwards. The questions that found the problem are the same ones that say whether it has gone.
See where your business stands on all eight.
About ten minutes, free, and your map appears once you give an email for your copy. The Map rates your business on exactly these eight areas, and the Survey assesses against exactly these eight.
Would rather talk it through? Book a scoping call.