How to improve your business when things are going well

Managing a business is an achievement and like any other achievement it requires work and dedication. When it comes to compliance and quality management, it can feel like an audit is the end of the road - once you “pass” that, you can relax and focus on other things.

Unfortunately though, the hardest thing about achieving success is maintaining it. Not maintaining your quality management system can mean that by the time your next audit is due, you find that your policies and procedures are out-of-date, you haven’t done the tasks that you have to do, such as internal audits or client surveys, and some new forms have been created and snuck into your processes.

What does this mean for your next audit? It’s either a big rush to get things tightened up and back on track, or you get nonconformances or observations in your audit because your practice doesn’t reflect your documentation. At worst, if you haven’t kept an eye on the regulatory environment, it may mean major nonconformances because you no longer comply with legislative requirements.

This can happen over a long period of time. If you’re finding that your business is growing, maintaining its finances, or getting through audit after audit with no issues, you might think - what else is there for me to improve on? How can I show that I’m looking at continual improvement?

What action can you take? The first step is to make time to review what you've achieved so far and plan for where you want to go. Ask yourself where you would like to take your company and where you want to be in five years’ time. The second step is to identify the areas where you need to improve - it’s best not to do this in a room by yourself. Have your staff involved, and most importantly, have your clients involved. Do this in a meaningful way - a paper or email survey sent out with questions that you’ve copied off another survey or made up based on quality standards is not meaningful. A better way is to talk to people. Dig deep into where a process has gone wrong and ask the people involved how it affected them and what would have made the situation better. Encourage an environment of no retribution - vital when speaking with staff about issues - so that people can be comfortable talking to you, knowing that your goal is improvement, not punishment.

Then, don’t just make changes and forget about it. Make sure you know how you’ll know if the change worked in a positive way. Set measures or goalposts and timeframes for checking that your improvement has been a success. And, of course, record everything in your Continual Improvement Plan.

Another way to look at improvements is to review your business plan. Many start-up businesses write business plans but neglect to update them as the business grows. If you don't have a business plan, now is a good time to write one. The plan will help you focus your attention on the big picture and give you clarity on what changes you need to make to grow. Having a business plan is a requirement under the NDIS Practice Standards, Governance and Operational Management. Refer to the standards to ensure you include all of the required sections in your business plan.

Make your review an annual habit: Just as a business should review and revise its business plan at least once a year, you should take time to review the actions you took in the previous year and assess what went well and where you can improve.

In summary, there are a few things you can do to improve your business when it's already doing well. Doing more planning, identifying and solving problems can help take your business to the next level. Implementing changes and measuring their effects is also important.

Thanks for reading!