You don’t need a process…until you need a process.
I had conversations with two different business owners recently. The first, a seasoned entrepreneur who’s bought and sold multiple companies. He’s now starting up a new venture with a younger co-founder.
The second, a 30-something owner of a small creative firm. He’s transitioning from freelancer-supported project work to retainer work driven by an in-house team.
They both had the same question: How do we know if this is the right time to focus on documenting processes?
Different people, different levels of experience, different industries, different team size. Same question.
The short answer is: After you’ve learned what works. Before you hand it to someone else.
The seasoned entrepreneur’s company had a bigger team, more capital, and more customers.
But they were also still testing offers, working on pricing and delivery, and discovering who their customer really was.
Locking in “the way we do things” right now would be premature. It wasn’t the right time to spend their most valuable resource—their attention—on standardizing processes, because too many things were in flux or unknown.
Documenting moving targets doesn’t bring clarity, it creates confusion.
The owner of the small creative firm, on the other hand, was ready to multiply.
Much smaller team and revenue goals. But he already knew what worked because he’d been doing it himself for years. He’d refined the craft through tons of repetition.
Now, it was time to define it, document it, and pour gas on the fire by finding others who could do it, too.
Not to replicate him, but to replicate what he’d found that works.
He didn’t need formal processes before…but now, he does.
Here are two lessons we can take away from comparing the two business owners above:
1 - You don’t think your way into processes. You do your way into them.
Putting processes in place can make us feel like everything is under control (even if it’s not).
But there’s no skipping the experimentation phase. Only once you have enough reps in, do you know what works (until what works changes).
Once you find it, then you can define it, document it, delegate it.
2 - Your need for processes will grow in proportion to your team…until it doesn’t.
Adding people adds complexity. When you have just a few people, you need just a few processes.
You don’t have to (and in fact shouldn’t) standardize all at once.
Your job as the leader becomes a cycle of figuring out one area of the business, hiring and delegating what you’ve found that works, then moving on to either fix or scale another part of the business.
For many, a big pain point begins around the 10-person mark. That’s when things really start to feel like they’re getting away from you internally, because you can no longer watch everyone at once.
During this stage of the business is when investing in your team is critical—onboarding, training, performance management, etc. so people can make great decisions on their own.
Then, somewhere around the 100-person mark, things shift again. Instead of building, building, building processes, the work becomes pruning, pruning, pruning so you don’t turn into a huge ship that sinks under the weight of too much red tape.
Understanding where your business is in its life cycle will help you decide how much of your attention to give to process and training.
Let’s explore the first two phases of business, which for the purpose of this article I’ve named Discovery and Growth, so you can discover how to set yourself up for success, no matter where you are on your journey.
Stage 1: Discovery
The Mission:
Figure out what actually works. Do we have something here, or not?
The Leader’s Job:
Shape the offer
Find the ideal customer
Sell, sell, sell
Wear multiple hats
Hire founding team members (who likely won’t travel with you into the next stage)
Communicate with the team regularly, although informally. Decisions happen fast and change is a constant.
Where Process Fits (and where it doesn’t)
No need to invest significant time or attention into systems and processes—external focus is paramount
Develop the checklists or knowledge transfer habits that make work efficient and consistent enough
Begin to notice patterns, but file them away for later. They are early signals of future standards.
What seems to work repeatedly?
Where do mistakes keep happening?
What do customers praise?
What drains time every week?
Tools You’ll Need:
A very simple onboarding path to help new team members land in your company with the context they need to jump in. Keep it tight and light.
Lots of crystal clear communication as things change.
Stage 2: Growth
The Mission:
Double down on what works best, and prune away everything else.
The Leader’s Job:
Build the team—hire well, train well, manage well
Develop systems and processes that keep you out of the middle of everything
Where Process Fits (and where it doesn’t):
Now is where robust standards and operating norms become critical
What does “good” look like?
How do we do this here?
What happens when something unusual comes up?
Who decides?
If the answers live in five different Slack threads or in your head, growth gets messy fast.
Tools You’ll Need:
A robust onboarding process to ensure 1) great hires get up to speed as fast as possible, and 2) hiring mistakes are corrected quickly.
A robust training playbook that serves as the company’s single source of truth. No more “quick calls” between colleagues to hash out how it’s done. Most operational aspects should be well defined, well documented, and followed.
The Bottom Line
Turning your attention to process too early can slow you down. But avoiding it until it’s too late is what lets so much of those hard-earned sales slip right out the back door. Putting process in place at the right time is leverage.
Want tips for turning your works into documented playbooks your team can actually use?
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Hi, I'm Elizabeth
After growing and selling my first business in the food industry, I started Untangled to help other business owners scale their business without losing its soul.
I've been working with fascinating, smart, growth-minded entrepreneurs ever since. Most have rapidly growing small businesses where it's challenging to get everyone aligned around doing things the same way.
Curious about working together? Reach out here: elizabeth at untangleyourbiz dot com or contact me here.
