The Workflow Bias
Recently I received some unsolicited marital advice from a close friend who’s in the middle of separating from his spouse. The advice was, “If you notice any issues in your marriage just get counseling. Trust me you don’t want to wait until you’re 600 pounds to try to go to the gym”. He was obviously making the analogy between letting yourself, or your relationships for that matter, go bad for so long that eventually, it becomes too late/or at least much more difficult, to make the necessary changes. I appreciated his perspective and advice.
Most importantly it got me thinking how this analogy can be applied to every aspect of personal and business life. When you boil it down, he was essentially saying take action before it’s too late. If you notice even the smallest issue, fix it, don’t let it grow and fester to be unmanageable.
Unfortunately, as it relates to my business this is all too common when it comes to workflows and potential clients I speak to. Your workflow is not nearly as important as a marriage, but that same bias for action before it’s too late applies. Today it’s easy to manage hand counts of the operation. It’s easy to write copy using a spreadsheet manually typing in HTML code (yes people still do this) and it’s easy to still manually rename each image via copy and pasting off of a spreadsheet.
Today it may not make the most sense to implement robust software like Studio Bridge because you’re only processing a few products, but what happens when your business starts to scale?
I can definitely tell you where you don’t want to be. You don’t want to be forced into a situation where your only option is to throw people at the problem. Your processes are so manual that you effectively have to double headcount to double output. This isn’t scaling. This is essentially you on your way to being 600+ pounds because eventually, you’re going to be at a point where more growth is unhealthy. But you’re so big that taking the corrective actions is much more difficult than had you solved the problem earlier in the growth process.
What’s the solution?
Once you notice that your studio volume is going to be increasing, it’s time to implement a technology foundation that’s built for scale. A workflow platform that’s flexible enough to adapt to your business, and strong enough to support your business as it grows. To bring it back around to the analogy I guess you could sort of think about Studio Bridge as the gym facilities and our team your personal trainers? We provide the tools and knowledge to ensure you never become too out of shape to move and adjust quickly. Maybe I’m stretching the analogy too far on this one, but one thing’s for sure. As soon as you notice problems, whether it’s in your professional life or personal life, fix them, don’t wait until it’s too late and you find yourself in a situation that’s much harder to change than if you would’ve taken the corrective steps earlier in the process.