What Is Business Operations (And Why Are People Making It Sound So Complicated?)

I think business operations gets overcomplicated way too often.

At its core, operations is simply how a business functions day-to-day. It's everything that needs to happen behind the scenes to keep the business running, delivering, and growing.

When I think about a business, I like to break it down into a few key areas:

• Strategy & Operations

• Marketing

• Sales

• Customer Experience

• Product or Service Delivery

• Finance

• Team

Within each of these areas are workflows, processes, decisions, and tasks that need to happen consistently in order for the business to operate effectively.

From there, I like to simplify things even further by looking at four core components:

• Founder

• People

• Process

• Tech

Traditionally, operations is often broken down into people, process, and technology. I've added Founder as a fourth category because in most small businesses and growing companies, the founder plays a significant role in how the business operates.

Founder

The founder influences how decisions are made, how priorities are set, how information flows, and how involved they are in day-to-day operations. Many operational challenges can be traced back to founder involvement, decision-making, communication, or capacity.

People

These are the humans responsible for executing the work. This includes roles, ownership, accountability, communication, training, and how team members work together.

Process

Processes are the repeatable ways work gets done. This includes workflows, handoffs, documentation, standard operating procedures, and the systems that create consistency.

Tech

Technology is the collection of tools that support the business. This includes project management software, CRMs, communication tools, automations, and any platform used to support operations.

Tired of constantly saying “WTF”?

When I audit a business, I'm usually looking at how these four areas interact with each other. If something in the business isn’t working, I’ve found that it is usually the result of misalignment between the founder, people, process, and technology.

What’s important is understanding how the business functions currently, identifying what’s creating an issue, and then forming a plan to fix it in order to get you to your future state.