Why You Should Perform a Resource Audit

Your strategy may be well planned, with a list of tactics, milestones, and to dos. Or perhaps your preference is to follow opportunity as it arises and not make too many decisions upfront.

In either case, how are you ensuring your time is spent on maximum productivity? Can you confirm that you are having the best people perform each task? Is money being tracked through all the chosen projects?

A resource audit is how you ensure that you are not only meeting your goals, but doing so in a way that maximizes efficiency, allowing you to continually reinvest in your business growth.

As a service business an internal resource review is a good place to start.

Time

As a business owner, team lead, manager, the first question to ask yourself is how are you allocating your own time. What percentage of time will be spent on the craft, versus business administration, versus people management, etc.? And how will it be managed: set hours or days for each “hat” you wear? Ad hoc?

Then do the same for your team and employees. Consider your expectations in terms of reporting, data management, goal-setting or tracking, and other activities that are not about their specific job tasks. Are your expectations realistic, given the number of hours in a day?

Money

First of all, ensure you track your profit & loss and that you built a cashflow forecast, at the least.

Have you dedicated specific budgets or accounts to specific areas of business or projects? Once you cover your operating costs, what is left over for additional ideas, growth, innovation and ad hoc projects? How do you manage separate accounts for separate needs, departments and projects?

People

Is everybody doing the tasks that only that person can do? Should some duties be outsourced for a more efficient or consistent delivery?

Approach this from another direction: think of all the roles required to run your business successfully, without considering who is in place now. Once the list is complete, review it against your team and who is doing what. Has labor been allocated in the best way?

Reach

To whom, in your market, do you already have access? Think about the people you encounter organically through your current networking, marketing and business efforts. What is your reach to potential clients and business partners?

What more could you do to easily fit in to your efforts? What associations can you join, with whom can you connect through virtual networking, and who might already be in your circles but you have not yet considered?

Communication Tools

Do you keep a list of all the ways you communicate with your clients and prospects? These will include your website, your storefront, if applicable, your support and front of house people, printed materials, ads, sponsorships and more.

Do you have the same brand presence throughout? Are you communicating the same message throughout? Is you wording consistent? And, most importantly, are your promises real?

Measure your business

These are good places to start to audit your available and organic resources. Ensure you are efficient, as that is the first step towards being effective.

The first time you do this audit bring in multiple people to ensure you don’t overlook key elements. Build your list and a method for reviewing your resources going forward. Then ensure regular deep dives into resource allocation for your business.

And if you can benefit from external guidance in this work, drop me a line to arrange a structured resource audit session.