As your business grows, the chances are that you’ll be looking to expand, which is why it’s important to understand the art of managing multiple sites or locations, which technology has made easier than ever.
Taking the right steps to manage multiple business sites will ensure you get steady and consistent growth for your business, which is why we will cover the process in the rest of this article.
Register for a demo, to see how Operandio can help you manage operations for multi-site businesses.
Step 1 – Establish a Systematic Approach to Site Management By Standardising Operations
Having a plan at the ready means that you’ll be prepared for anything that affects your business sites, and adapting to changes will be a relatively seamless process.
Standardising your business operations involves the following;
Identify operational tasks and possible problems
The starting point for any business is to establish all tasks that need to be completed at each site every day for the business to function. As you establish these tasks, it is important to categorise them based on the different sections based on their area.
For example; if you’re running a restaurant franchise with multiple sites, then you’ll want to group your tasks into areas such as kitchen, front of house, etc. Not only does that give you a clear indication as to how your tasks will be delegated on any given day; but it also eliminates the risk of overwhelming your staff with tasks that are outside of their area.
To learn more about best practices for multi site restaurant management explore our guide.
As you identify your operational tasks, this is the perfect opportunity for you to foresee any problems that can affect the completion of these tasks on a daily basis. These can range from minor issues that could affect your business’ ability to be efficient, to major issues that close your business down until they can be solved. The more problems you identify, the more prepared you’ll be in the event that they arise to mitigate any of their negative effects.
Develop SOPs for operational task
This involves two major tasks.
The first is creating documents that outline your standard operating procedures (SOPs). That way, your staff have the knowledge they need to work autonomously throughout the day, and they also have a baseline for what is expected of them.
The second is to assess the problems you identified previously and determine fixes for them that you and your staff can easily implement. Having a response to potential problems ready to go saves you time and effort in the long run.
Monitor and maintain the site
You can do this yourself, or you can delegate the tasks amongst your staff, but the site needs to be monitored and maintained, should any of the problems you identified arise. Ultimately, you want to have a site that is safe, functional and also appealing for customers and employees alike.
Regularly review and assess the plan
As time passes, there are going to be a lot of changes that will affect your business – from your customers, to the market, to the world in general. As a result, you’re going to need to constantly assess your plans to make sure they haven’t been made obsolete. After all, what’s the sense in having a plan if it doesn’t work anymore?
Communicate with important stakeholders
Part of maintaining a business site is consulting local authorities and community stakeholders to make sure that your business is meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining good relationships. Not only do you need to make sure your business is compliant with regulations, but good relationships mean that your business site has a lifeline when you need it.
Step Three – Utilise Operations Tools Like Operandio for Streamlined Efficiency
The thing about managing multiple sites is that you can’t do it on your own. Multi-site businesses are far too big for someone to manage with a paper and pen. You need to embrace technology.
Operations management software like Operandio* is ideal for multi-site business, as it contains a variety of tools that;
- Facilitate communication between employees, even if they’re in different sites
- Easily delegate tasks and help you track their completion
- Measure productivity and provide you with a series of metrics you can share with your employees
Register for a demo, to see how Operandio can help you manage operations for multi-site businesses.
Step Four – Leverage Analytics to Monitor Performance and Make Adjustments
Once you use software to gain analytics that are pertinent to your business, you should assess those analytics the same way that you analyse other aspects of your business. The metrics that these analytics provide are incredibly valuable for your business, as they are objective measurements as to how well it’s operating that you can use to implement improvements and adjustments for your business site.
BONUS – Identify the Benefits of Managing Multiple Business Locations and Sites
If you own a business with multiple locations, many will tell you that you need to anticipate problems that arise, so you can respond to them accordingly and diminish their effect on your business.
What isn’t discussed as much is that you need to anticipate benefits too, that way you can be prepared to get the most out of these opportunities when they emerge.
The benefits of multiple business sites include;
Proximity to customers
If your business has grown enough to warrant multiple business locations, chances are that your customers are spread over a wide geographical space – from different suburbs, to cities, to states, to different countries.
Multiple business sites makes it easier for your customers to engage with your business. Not only can they visit your business in person if there is a branch close to them, but they can interact with your business online without having to worry about extended delivery times or a difference in time zones.
Incentives for staff
Incentivising your staff is always important, as that is how you can ensure they’ll deliver their best possible work. With multiple locations, you offer your employees more opportunities for promotion and managerial roles in different sites, and the potential for travel and new roles.
Wider recruitment pool
More business sites means more employees from more locations. Not only does this mean you have more employees to hire, it also means that you have more opportunities to find exceptional employees with new skills that you can incorporate into your business to further promote its growth.
Heightened problem response
If your business operates on a single site and suffers a critical problem, that is enough to effectively close your business until said problem is solved. However, if you have multiple sites and one of them suffers a critical problem, it is possible to keep your business running. Not only can other sites compensate for the site that isn’t operating, but other sites can pool their resources together to help the site that is shut down, solving the problem if possible.
Better opportunities for understanding local markets
If your business is the kind that stands to benefit from multiple locations, then the chances are that you sell your product or service to customers across different markets. Multiple sites allow you to get close to those markets and observe how they operate and change in real time, informing your business strategies going forward and allowing you to adapt to changes in each market quickly.
Conclusion
Once you have implemented all the above steps, you will have a robust framework that will allow you to manage multiple business sites with ease. If you want the best software for making all the above steps happen, you should use Operandio. It has all the tools you need to manage multiple business sites.
If you like what you’ve read, and you’d like to use Operandio to help you manage multiple sites for your business, request a demo for Operandio today.
