Mapping your small business's processes in one week
Augmented Transitions ·
Business process mapping for a small business can be done in one week if you aim for a useful first version rather than a perfect manual. On Monday you take notes; on Wednesday you group them; by Friday you have a one-page map of your 10 to 15 key processes, with every step that still goes through you marked in red.
Why one week is enough
Many owners put off process mapping because they picture a big consulting project, with complicated diagrams and months of meetings. That's not what you need to start.
What you need is to see your business from the outside, once. How a client request becomes a quote, then an order, a delivery, an invoice and a payment. Who does each step. Where things wait. A normal working week contains almost all of these movements: it's your raw material.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is to answer three questions:
- What already works without you?
- What's missing, or done by gut feel?
- What lives only in your head?
Those three answers are the foundation of the whole first step of the path, and of everything that follows.
The method, day by day
Monday and Tuesday: write it all down, unsorted
Keep a notebook or a note on your phone. Every time you do something, write it in one line: "approved the steel order", "called the Granby client back about a late order", "fixed the price on Marc's quote". Don't sort, don't judge. Ask two or three key employees to do the same.
If you want to go further on this part, our article on taking inventory of everything you do in a week gives you a complete grid.
Wednesday: group into processes
Take all the lines and sort them into broad families. Most businesses end up with roughly the same ones:
- Selling and quoting
- Purchasing and managing inventory
- Producing or delivering the service
- Shipping and installing
- Invoicing and collecting
- Hiring and training
- Payroll and finance
- Maintaining equipment and premises
You might have 10, you might have 15. If a line doesn't fit anywhere, it's often a sign of a process that exists without a name.
Thursday: draw each process
For each family, draw a simple line from trigger to result. For example: "client call → site visit → quote → approval → order → production → delivery → invoice → payment". Under each step, write who does it and with what tool (paper, spreadsheet, accounting software, email). A whiteboard and sticky notes work perfectly well.
Friday: mark the red and the gaps
Go back over each line and mark in red every step that goes through you: an approval, a price, a call, a piece of know-how. Then note what's missing: a skipped step, a decision made case by case, a control that doesn't exist. Our article on the processes most small businesses are missing will help you know what to look for.
An example: a machine shop in Drummondville
Picture Josée, 61, who owns a machine shop in Drummondville. She's invented, but her situation is a common one: 28 employees, about $4 million in revenue, custom parts for manufacturers in the region. Josée feels that "everything runs fine".
During her week of notes, she logs 140 lines. Grouping them on Wednesday, she gets 12 processes. On Thursday, drawing the quoting process, she realizes every price goes through her: the estimator works out machine hours and material, but Josée sets the final price based on the client, the volume and her instinct. Buying steel and tooling, on the other hand, runs very well without her, thanks to a purchaser who's been there 15 years.
By Friday, her map has 19 red steps. Nine involve quotes and pricing. Four involve the big manufacturing clients, whose buyers call her cell directly. She also finds two gaps: no inspection sheet for short runs (the machinist decides on his own whether a part is good), and no follow-up on overdue accounts unless she handles it herself.
Nothing dramatic, but it's now visible. A buyer would have found exactly the same things during due diligence, and factored them into the offer. Josée now knows where to start: quoting, because that's where the business depends on her most.
Your checklist for next week
- Monday morning: tell two or three key employees you want to spread the work better, and ask them to log their tasks. No need to mention a sale at this point.
- Monday and Tuesday: write each task in one line, unsorted.
- Wednesday: group the lines into 10 to 15 processes.
- Thursday: draw each process from trigger to result, with who and which tool.
- Friday: mark in red the steps that go through you, and list the gaps.
- Friday afternoon: take a photo of the board and file it. That's your map, version 1.
For choosing the medium (whiteboard, spreadsheet or software), see our article on simple tools to map your processes.
Four ways to get the map wrong
Mapping what should happen. Draw what actually happens, even if it's a little embarrassing. An ideal map teaches you nothing.
Doing it alone. You don't see everything, especially what happens without you. Employees often correct the map in five minutes.
Trying to detail everything. One line per step is enough. Detailed procedures come later, at the step where you document your business processes.
Stopping at the map. The map doesn't raise value on its own. It shows you where to work. The next step is measuring your bottlenecks, starting with the two-week test.
What you have in hand on Friday night
A photo of a whiteboard, a dozen processes and a list of red steps you can count. The following week, sort those steps into three piles: the ones an employee could take on right away, the ones that first need a written rule (a price grid, a purchase limit), and the ones that truly need the owner. The first pile is often longer than you'd expect.
The map turns a vague feeling ("everything goes through me") into a precise list. And a precise list can be fixed one line at a time.
Do it with a pro
Alone, between two emergencies, this one week often stretches into several months. With us and our regional partner, the map is built on site, with your employees, in a few weeks, and feeds directly into the next steps. See how it works, or start with the 45-minute free audit.
In step 1
Map your processes- Mapping your small business's processes in one week
- The processes most small businesses are missing
- Taking inventory of everything you do in a week
- The key processes a buyer will examine
- Simple tools to map your processes
Frequently asked questions
- Can it really be done in one week?
- Yes, for a first version. One week is enough to draw the 10 to 15 processes that bring money in and out. The map will be imperfect, and that's the point: it's there to show the gaps, not to document everything. Detailed documentation comes later.
- Do I have to stop working to build the map?
- No. Plan on an hour or two a day. The rest of the time, you work normally and write down what you do. That normal work is what feeds the map.
- Who should take part in the mapping?
- The people who do the work. Your assistant knows invoicing better than you do, your foreman knows production. A map drawn alone in your office often describes what should happen, not what actually happens.
- What do I do with the map once it's finished?
- It's the base for the next steps: finding bottlenecks, deciding what to delegate or automate, then documenting. Keep it posted and update it when a process changes.
What is your business's annual revenue?
Do it with a pro
You can do it all yourself. With us, it gets done faster, and better.
We and our regional partner implement each step directly in your business, while you keep running it.
No commitment. No cost. 45 minutes.
Focus regions: Eastern Townships (Estrie) · Montérégie · Centre-du-Québec · Mauricie · Quebec City region (Capitale-Nationale) · Montreal · Laval · Laurentians (Laurentides). 1 regional partner.