Several years ago I started competing with my horse and attending shows almost every weekend. As you can imagine I was always packing.
Packing for myself, my horse, and my dog. Sometimes, I would get to a show and realize then that I had forgotten something.
That’s when I came up with the idea of a checklist of all of the items that I would need for me, my horse, and my dog.
The purpose of a checklist is memory recall,to help you remember the things that you need to do. They can be for a simple list like a checklist, packing list, growing list, or they can be the steps to performing a function in your business.
They need not be a full explanation of how you do things. So, for example, how I pack my suitcase is not on the checklist, but rather the important items to remember. Just keep them simple and action oriented.
A few times I made the mistake of checking off an item because I had it sitting by the door ready to go – and then found myself heading down the road and remembering that I hadn’t put the items in the horse trailer. After that, an item did not get checked off the until it was actually in the trailer.
When you begin to create and implement checklists, they are not going to be perfect the first time around. You will need to test them. In fact it’s recommended that you test them, or have someone else run through the list with a fresh set of eyes.
Continue to update your checklist. It is a living document that will continue to change and evolve over time. For example, I’ve now added to my iPod to the packing list, which didn’t exist when I first created my list.
Here are some ideas of checklists you can create in your business:
* Customer intake / Welcome package
* Teleclass creation and setup
* Cleaning
* Event planning
* New product creation steps
* Repurposing teleclass recordings
…and the list goes on…