An SME strives to grow, while there may be a million self-help books that show a million ways to achieve growth most often there is one major reason that stunts the SMEs growth in more than one way.
This reason is “Altering Business Approach & Making Exceptions to win potential project & maintain a relationship”. Most entrepreneurs have to be multitasking, however; without a clear process & plan to achieve the goal most of the energy goes waste. Having a clear process to follow from inquiry to delivery would mean ease in hiring support staff people who just have to follow the best practices & process an SME has personally created. This also gives significant clarity to the new staff stepping into the company in its phases of growth. It helps build confidence in the minds of these new hires as the SME appears to be clear and focused.
While a process is a backbone to efficient management it also makes it easy to set correct expectations to new clients & blooming relationships.
When you start making exceptions to processes it strands the entrepreneurs alone, as he would alone understand the intentions and opportunities. It becomes a threat as the position of an affordable staff hired to follow the processes would now demand to be replaced with higher quality staff that can think for itself and understand the customized approach and maintain this in the entrepreneurs’ absence. Which is often expensive & hence the entrepreneur ends up serving a specific purpose of maintaining the new approach which can get worse if it is not a pilot trial to update the existing processes.
So, stick to your homegrown style of working and make adjustments but stick to the positive attitude you have built and change for no one.
Ofcourse… makes sense