Have you spot checked lately?

When you read ‘spot checked’, you may have had a mental image of HMRC arriving on your doorstep to check your bookkeeping, and your stress levels may have risen.

But don’t worry – that wasn’t the kind of ‘spot check’ I was thinking of!

In this context, I’m thinking more about being present in your business in a more ‘hands on’ way, so you can see exactly what goes on. Walk a different route around your office, speak to your team about the basics, not the latest projects, answer the phones and speak to customers and suppliers that you may not have seen or spoken to in a while.

It’s nothing formal, but just you being in your business in a less usual way.

The goal is to see your business from a different perspective every once in a while.

• It might enthuse you, and give you a lift.
• It might show you that everything is running strictly in accordance with your Procedures Manual.
• But it might also show up one or two other things!

The thing is, in most businesses, and our old one was a perfect example, spending some time looking at it from a different perspective can show up areas where you can make small adjustments and improvements. These may be for customers, for your team or that will affect the bottom line.

It’s really easy for your team to deviate from the processes you may have put in place weeks, months or even years ago. A business evolves and so do the team members, so you may not be aware of some of the changes that have evolved too.

Just to be clear, you’re NOT looking to find fault.

What you’re doing is educating yourself, as it’s so easy to miss what’s happening in the day to day when you’re in meetings and rushing from one place to the next. We’re all busy people, but taking a small amount of time to reacquaint  yourself with the detail can be hugely beneficial and a really smart thing to do.

When will you ‘spot check’ your business? Why not book an hour into your diary for early next week, before you move on from this article….?