Should You Standardize Business Processes?

Should You Standardize Business Processes?

Sean: And a lot of businesses are running it as you are, and I’m seeing the, it is really good all the way to where you are right now, maybe 20-25 man team. And I’m wondering, you mentioned earlier that you wanted to build it in a healthier way. Can you give us a little bit more idea about what that means when you say standardized things? What does that really mean?

Dancho: Healthier way is that when we started Bizzbee, it was project-based. Someone gives you money. You have one month of work and that’s it and you need a new client. Working with long-term clients gives you monthly recurring revenue, which is much healthier because you’re not every month starting from a clean slate, but you already have; like we have 2030 clients at the moment.

So you don’t start with zero, you already have the cost covered, so that’s much healthier rather than doing from scratch every time. In terms of systems and processes, now it’s much clear. Okay, now we need new employees then it’s we have a clear agreement. Project managers tell my wife, okay, we need employees.

She puts the job ad, puts some Facebook paid ads on the job ad. People are applying. Then the project manager interviews them. She decides who she keeps then my wife actually builds the contracts, enforces them, and everything. This is actually standardized.

Before that it was like, we need them, employees. Okay. What should we do? I don’t know. What about you? I also don’t know. Let’s ask Dancho and then they come to me and I’m like, man, come on this has to be standardized. Or, “well, we actually put the job at nobody applied.” Did you put some ads on the job post? Nope. Well, how will you expect people to see it? Okay.

People applied. Should we accept this or this? I’m like, that’s not my problem. Actually, the project manager needs to decide because she needs to live with the decision. If I decide for her, then you gave me the wrong people. And we did that. And then, okay, but now what should we do? We need a contract. We need this X, Y, Z.

And I was like, man, this has to be standardized. Clarity helps everybody because you know, what are the next steps? What are the next steps? And this is just in-house. I’m also talking about with the. Like we have a new client. Okay. What should we do now? I don’t know. Well, give them a contract. Okay. But, how are we going to start? We were like, no, we have an onboarding process. Step one, kickoff meeting, introduce the project manager, the copywriter, the nurture specialist.

Okay. Step two. Copywriter books and meeting with the client in order to do an interview, to understand the passion, the driving force, and everything, because she needs to create messages that are specific to that client.

Step three, the project manager gives them filters and LinkedIn sales navigator and everything. Step four, we wrap up everything and we decide on the starting of the execution. Stage five, clarity. It’s good for us, but it’s also good for the client because when you reach to a supplier and you see that they have no structure, you’re like I’m going to run away from here as fast as I can because of the structure gives clarity.

Managing expectations. I know what to expect when I’m getting a supplier. So it’s like, okay, what happens to your steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay. Now I know where I am through the stages. So this systematization and standardization is actually having a healthy business because when something is wrong, you can isolate specifically at what stage is not working.

For example, we have a bad campaign. Okay. What happened? First, was the message good? Well, I don’t know. Well, let’s check on LinkedIn. How many people accepted the client – acceptance rate? It’s good. That means that the profile was very well structured and optimized because it has a high acceptance. Have the people responded to the messages?

Yes. What’s the percentage X, Y, Z. Okay. That’s a healthy response rate. Well, then what happened? Well, probably the nurture guy, which is the last part, did not do his job well in trying to qualify them and move them to the meeting. But when you have the structure, you can easily isolate it exactly. Where is the problem?

For example, if the acceptance rate is really bad, I know that the profile optimization was not really done well and needs to be redone.

Sean: And so all of these steps are, I assume, recorded into process documents. You have it in-house internal, is that right?

Dancho: Not just internal. I mean, now with the book publishing, I actually put the processes and everything into the book.

The book has like seven chapters and it’s more, really like a, how to we already named it. So it’s called Sweet Leads. Because we have the bees, so it has to be sweet. And it’s really a very simple framework. I mean, the first one is you need to identify who your ideal client is because the campaign has to have a laser focus.

Then it’s how to build a database of companies, prospects within the companies, and their contact information. Then it’s how to create the outreach conversation starters. Not outreach messages or outreach pitches, but really outreach conversation starters. Then it’s how to execute the campaign on LinkedIn and email. Then people start responding is actually how to nurture the responses, how to handle when people start responding. And the last chapter is actually how to optimize the campaign and introduce the A-B testing.

Like this week. I’m going to try this next week. So I’m going to try that. I’m going to compare, this is better -we continue like that. The agilization of the outreach process. So it’s really how to, with templates, with structures, with everything wrong that we did and everything that we learned along the way. So I’m really excited for the book actually to get to life.

Sean: So am I, I need that book in my life.

Sweet Leads, definitely let me know when it’s out?

Dancho: Yeah and Sean, another aspect that I wanted to add here is that it also helps with the branding. When I was starting Bizzbee in my head, I knew that I need a decentralized company that can work without me in the equation. So it was with that mindset from the start.

So I didn’t make a company like danchodimkov.com. So then everything is dependent on me and everybody will want to talk with me. And I also didn’t take the route like cheapleads.com because then cheapleads.com. It’s really generic. And yeah, SEO is really good. You have the traffic, but from day one, I actually start the – Business Bee like Bizz Bee Solution.

And over the years worked on the branding. So now if you go to Bizzbeesolution.com, you can see that for each process, we have a different Bee. So for the ideal client profile, we have an inspector Bee that actually is looking for who is your ideal client profile. For the database building, we have a hunter that actually hands down for leads.

And you can actually create a story around your branding. And especially with bees, you know, bees are important. Earth will not exist without bees. And I can play with the honey. I can play with the hexagons, the waxes, and it really helps because it’s kind of standing out of the crowd because you have a unique branding.

And now even on our website. I’m not the CEO, but I’m actually Chief Executive Bee. Because we’re trying to build everything around the culture or project Bee or marketing manager bee. So we really tried to incorporate it into our entire branding and culture. So even it helps in HR because we have a very, a new bee or a happy bee or keep buzzing is also the thing that we try to use.

So it really helps from the start when you have a plan for taking yourself out of the equation from the start, because then you orchestrate everything in that direction.

Sean: I wouldn’t be surprised if you had your own apiaries and your own bees at home.

Dancho: I do have beehives.

Sean: Really?

Dancho: Yeah.

Sean: Wow.

Dancho: I’m actually a fifth generation of beekeepers in my family.

So it helped, but that explains also interesting that now I’m considering that for each, for every new clan that we onboard, I’m going to start sending, you know, a jar of honey. Like, thank you for trusting us. Here is a jar to taste the honey that our bees produced or something. It really has endless marketing opportunities here Sean.

Sean: That is amazing. And Dancho, thank you so much for your time. I learned a lot. I’m sure everyone else did. We are better for it. Where can people find you if they want to ask follow-up questions?

Dancho: The simple way is that www.bizzbeesolutions.com is the easiest way, because what I’m trying to preach here is, we have everything in seven different eBooks that we give for free. And by free, of course, we are asking for your email it’s the 21st century.

But the whole goal is that I want to spread the word that people should use outreach in order to start getting more clients. And we have – each book is dedicated to different things like how to create messages, how to handle the responses, and everything.

Personally, I use Facebook and LinkedIn of course. We do what we preach and both LinkedIn and Facebook are down. So Demco fighting. So if you just type it sure. I’ll, I’ll pop up. And generally, those are the things I still don’t use. Instagram. I take talk is really dumb, getting too old, for that platform. I missed the train there, but other than that, I mean, they can subscribe to our newsletter because every two weeks we create a new blog.

Every two weeks we publish a new newsletter. We spent a lot of time on the newsletters. So they’re not just like generic newsletters. And then just for the sake of having it, it’s really more our way of nurturing people that are interested in outreach, so we really add some curated – we add some tools. We recommend, we have podcasts, we do our own video interviews.

So we put a lot of effort. I think that soon enough song that newsletter will grow into a digital magazine. It should be maybe not this year, but there is a lot of content, in the newsletter. So it is fair to, to create it as a magazine.

Sean: That is amazing. And we will have all of that, that in the show notes, all of the Dancho’s, links his website, his LinkedIn just search for his name Dancho Dimkov in leadershipstack.com.

You’ll be able to find it, click the links right there, go to his site and get in touch with him. Dancho, before I let you go, do you have anyone last piece of advice for the entrepreneurs tuning in?

Dancho: Well, I think I said a lot of stuff. My whole goal is to actually try to inspire some of them. If I manage, if you manage to take at least one golden nugget from this conversation, I’m really happy because at the end of the day, we try to do these kinds of shows just to spread the word outreach, about leadership, about entrepreneurship, and it’s not easy. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, hustle, and I’ve seen just one thing that you really need to be passionate about what you’re doing.

Because I’ve seen people the first obstacle I give up, I tried it doesn’t work. God hates me or whatever. extinct. People that are passionate about it, get the first obstacle and, they open YouTube on the one screen and they open their screen. They tried to solve the problem. They read tutorials, they learned tutorials. They get mentors if needed, they solved the obstacles and then they meet a new obstacle and a new and a new.

So it’s not like whether it’s going to be a rough path. There are obstacles, but after every obstacle, you’re getting better and better. And if you’re not passionate about the work at the first obstacle, and just giving up, it’s like, “man, I tried, it doesn’t work. That’s it.”

So the last advice was that try to find a business that you’re really passionate about, that you can actually work and not feel exhausting. Man, if you need to spend 8, 10, 12 hours every day doing something, try to find something, at least it’s you at the end of the day.

Sean: Amazing.Thank you so much Dancho for being here on the show. I really appreciate your time.

Dancho: Yeah, Sean, thank you very much for inviting me. I truly hope that I helped someone at least.