From Chaos to Calm: Simple Steps to Evaluate Your Operations and Save Your Business
- Christa Jackson
- Nov 17
- 10 min read
Updated: Nov 19
When Everything Feels Broken & How To Start Fixing It!
When I decide to clean that really cluttered closet, I don't pull the bowling ball down and set it in the closet in front of the old roller skates and then continue to move things within the closet. I remove everything from the closet, evaluate it, and decide what actually goes back in the closet and where. I know this is a simplification, but it may help you with the mindset you need to organize the complexities of operations.
Whether you're a small solopreneur who has found themselves scaling beyond their single capabilities or a Fortune 500 company with 1,000+ people, operational chaos can occur and needs to be understood in order to be managed.
In this article, I hope to give you a quick look into Operations Management and some helpful tips to calm the chaos you may be feeling in your own business structure.
Operations is the business of business
One of my experiences exemplified how impactful operations really is. - If you lack a way for customers to pay you, you lack a business.
A client came to me with just that issue. Someone they knew had a high-level problem, and my client had the high-level talent and skills to solve it. But they realized: "I have no way of pitching what I can do, nor could I be compensated for this work." This started a whole internal dialogue with this client around, "what would I need to do in order to make money providing this service?"
Top of mind were the following:
Infrastructure to receive and issue payments
Pricing strategies and defined service offerings
Method to present service to clients
Scheduling and calendar management
All the complexities of establishing a legitimate business entity
What they really needed boiled down to one thing: Operations.
What Operations Actually Means
Operations is a tricky word and could mean a lot of things in different contexts, so let's break down exactly what I'm referring to with this definition:
Operations Management is the administration of business practices designed to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It involves converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize profit while ensuring quality delivery to customers.
I need to acknowledge that operations management at an industry manufacturing level is a person who ensures the literal machines run on time, people show up, and products are of quality. This is, in fact, an Operations Manager— a different branch of the same tree.
In a more corporate business environment, however, a COO or Operations Manager looks a bit different. They develop strategy or facilitate the conversation with the right leadership to define strategy, evaluate tech stack, align teams on process and methods, build tools and unify templates for company use, structure, and DO all of the things that allow other specialists to do their jobs. Just like our industry manufacturing Operations Manager, things keep running, people have what they need to work, and the product is of quality.
If you look up a search for fundamentals of operations management (which you might have done in locating this article), you will note there are similar but widely different lists.
I can simplify it to one word: Efficiency.
Now, some people think efficiency is just the “bells and whistles”, the "it would be nice to haves." But I mean efficient in a broader way.
Efficient Business Practices Mean:
Your clients are paying you on time and receive the correct product
Your team communicates properly and is aligned on the same goals
You are not paying for double work, poor product, or opposing work
Your company has the correct people or product to drive revenue
Bottom line: You save more money and make more money
A great mentor of mine described operations management as "the glue that holds the company together." Pun intended—that really stuck with me. It's true.
Operations Managers and/or good COOs should know what is happening throughout the whole company and how and where the connections exist. A great one will know how to leverage those connections to their fullest potential.
You don't want your high-paid CEO spending ten hours of their week searching through email threads for the contract they need to close a deal, or your skilled developers stuck in administrative tasks when they should be building your product.
The Painful Cost of Operational Chaos
Research from IDC shows that inefficiency costs companies between 20 to 30 percent of their annual revenue each year. That's nearly a third of what you're bringing in—gone because of disorganized processes and unclear responsibilities.
Let me put that in perspective. If your business generates $500,000 annually, you could be losing up to $150,000 to operational chaos. Some organizations are losing up to $1.3 million annually due to inefficient tasks weighing employees down.
According to OnePoll research, 26% of every employee's day is wasted on avoidable tasks—42 minutes per day spent on needless administration. When you consider that you're paying good wages for experts to handle tasks significantly below their pay grade, these costs add up quickly.
Indicators Your Operations Are in Chaos
Now let's assume you're not there yet—you don't have a COO or any Operations team at all. Your business is at the stage where you're still relying on random managers or just yourself to do ALL the operational work. Things are getting chaotic and stressful, and you need help.
You may be reading this because efficient business practices are NOT what's happening at your company. The indicators are just the opposite:
Clients are complaining or leaving – maybe you know why, or maybe you don't
Product you're building or providing is not received well, incorrect, not aligned with expectations, or of simply poor quality
There has been double work, train wrecks, misunderstandings, and general friction within the company structure
Team members are not sure what they're working on—maybe they're asking you more than you'd like about what they're supposed to do
You are stressed out, working more hours, and LOSING money
Sound familiar? You're not alone.
Why This Is a Hard Issue to Resolve
The simple answer: because it is literally everything that you're trying to solve. You pull one gear out of a watch, it stops telling the time.
A Harvard Business Review study found that companies that cut costs by improving operational efficiency rather than just cutting overhead and expenses emerge 12% stronger from a recession. This tells us something critical: it's not about slashing budgets—it's about organizing what you have.
The challenge is that operational problems are interconnected. When your invoicing system is broken, your cash flow suffers. When your cash flow is unpredictable, you can't plan strategically. When you can't plan, your team doesn't know what to prioritize. When they don't know what to prioritize, quality suffers. When quality suffers, customers leave. It's a cascade effect.
Solution Mapping: Where to Start
Here's a good place to start. Remember that closet cleaning analogy? Well, we're coming back to that. Things are complex and confusing within your company, so you need to start figuring out what is in that closet. Start with a simple document or spreadsheet. Even a piece of paper if that works for you and start documenting the items that need to happen for you to maintain your business.
Hint: Start with those stressful items that made you read this article.
Customers are leaving? Now follow the path—why are they leaving? Cost too high? Quality issues? Not receiving the product they ordered?
Start breaking it down:
Quality issues – Is this a production problem? A training problem? A materials problem?
Process problems – Are handoffs unclear? Are there unnecessary steps creating delays?
Price issues – Are you priced correctly for your market? Are competitors undercutting you?
Communication gaps – Do customers know what to expect? Are promises being kept?
Try and capture everything. Don't leave out paying the electric bill because you think it's obvious. It is work someone has to do or monitor—it goes on the list.
Sort It Out
Start moving things onto another list by priority and assign a weight. Pick an assignment weight based on what you're seeing so far: 1-5, or name them, but be consistent. If everything would stop tomorrow if ABC isn't working—that's top priority.
As you dig into this process, you will find three main categories emerging:
Category 1: Keeping the Lights On
Basic operational resources such as paying external sources. This could be software stack, utilities, rent, insurance—the foundational expenses that keep your business legally operational and physically functional.
Examples:
Monthly software subscriptions
Payroll processing
Utility bills
Insurance premiums
Rent or lease payments
Tax obligations
Category 2: Strategy & Business Process
This encompasses everything from how you engage with your clients and pricing structures to how internal projects are documented and how data flows within your business. Are these decisions that need to be made? Actions? Research? Maybe all of the above?
Depending on your business size and type, this could be several subcategories: Marketing, Product Strategy, Sales, Customer Management, Human Resources.
Examples:
How you acquire customers
How you deliver your product or service
How teams share information
How decisions get made and by whom
How you track performance and measure success
How you onboard new clients or employees
Category 3: Functionality
Do your employees have the proper tools to do their jobs? Supply chain issues, material management cycle, anything that affects producing your product or delivering your service.
Examples:
Technology stack (CRM, project management tools, communication platforms)
Equipment and supplies
Training and documentation
Documentation or Information access
Workflows that don't require constant management intervention
Next Steps: Assign Ownership
Who is working on that now? List who is responsible for that activity or action. If the list has one name (maybe yours), you know you have an issue.
This evaluation will help you start to see a pattern. Group things into categories and understand what type of help you need.
A Few Possible Solutions
Solution 1: Leverage Technology
Are you doing a lot of manual work paying bills? Set up automatic withdrawal and monthly check-ins with the account. Are you noticing a lot of strain and work that there could be a technological solution for?
Maybe your company is larger, and the issue is no one is using the technology you paid so much money to set up? Poor communication alone costs businesses an average of $12,506 per employee per year.
Technology opportunities:
Automate repetitive tasks (bill payments, invoice generation, data entry)
Create calendar reminders for monthly check-ins with repeated services
Implement shared project management tools so everyone knows what's happening real time
Use shared documents so information isn't trapped in email chains
Set up automated reporting so you can see what's working without manual compilation
Solution 2: Realign RACI Responsibilities
RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. It's a framework for clarifying roles and responsibilities.
Use those categories you created to determine where the gaps are. Is it with decision-making? A layer deeper—is it strategy-based, or is it internal functionality? Maybe the gap is financial—do you need to hire a CFO or just a part-time accountant? Can you leverage one of the many software applications that help manage finances? You know the scale at which this issue exists.
Ask yourself:
Who is RESPONSIBLE for doing the work?
Who is ACCOUNTABLE for the final outcome?
Who needs to be CONSULTED before decisions are made?
Who needs to be INFORMED after decisions are made?
If you can't answer these questions clearly for your key processes, you've found your problem.
Solution 3: Create Quick Wins
Don't try to fix everything at once. You'll burn out, and nothing will improve. Instead, identify 2-3 quick wins that will give you immediate relief.
Examples of quick wins:
Create a shared spreadsheet for one critical handoff process – YES it is ok to use a shared spreadsheet! It has real-time updates and unified information. Don’t make it the final solution – but it will close communication gaps and show you what information you need determine a larger solution.
Set up a 15-minute daily check-in with your core team (I will have other articles detailing this or look up how to have a daily stand-up.) You don’t have to be software to leverage good project management practices.
Document one frequently asked process question
Automate one repetitive task that's eating everyone's time
Clarify decision rights for one area causing constant confusion
Companies that conduct quarterly efficiency audits see a 12% reduction in operational waste. You don't need perfection—you need progress.
Make a Plan
Set some goals around how to solve these issues. If it's hiring someone, researching software solutions, or realigning existing team members, create your steps and a general timeline. Start with those quick wins to get you some relief.
It doesn't have to be perfect—just better—and plan for future perfect.
Your 90-day roadmap might look like:
Week 1-2: Complete your operational inventory (what's in the closet)
Week 3-4: Categorize and prioritize issues
Week 5-6: Implement 2-3 quick wins
Week 7-12: Address your top priority operational gap
Month 4+: Build on your foundation with ongoing improvements
Operational excellence isn't about immediate perfection. It's about having systems that work reliably, people who know what they're responsible for, and processes that support your business goals instead of fighting against them.
Need Help Beyond DIY?
Sometimes the DIY approach isn't enough. Here are signs you need expert help:
Your list is too large, or you're not sure what items to add. This type of management is not for everyone. You started your business for some other reason besides sorting spreadsheets and learning operations management on the fly. That's okay—this is specialized work, and there's no shame in recognizing it's not how you want to spend your time.
You made the list, but there's no one to assign anything to. Either you're a one-person band, or everyone's bandwidth is maxed out. You can't add more work to an already overloaded system without something breaking.
Things have stopped working. Did you lose money or customers because some part of your operations simply stopped and no one noticed? Delays, errors, and miscommunications resulting from inefficiencies can leave customers frustrated and dissatisfied, having a lasting effect on your company's reputation and leading to a decline in customer trust and loyalty.
You're working more hours but making less money. This is the clearest sign that operational dysfunction has taken over. Hard work should translate to business growth, not just keeping the lights on.
An experienced operations consultant can:
Leverage specialized skills focused on operational improvements
See patterns you're too close to notice
Diagnose root causes, not just symptoms
Design systems that fit your specific business
Implement solutions without adding to your workload
Build capacity within your team so improvements stay and grow with you
A Good Starting Point
If you're just learning about operations or if you're in the weeds and need help, you're on the right track seeking answers. Recognizing you have an operational problem is the first and most important step.
A global survey of CEOs found that 77% were pursuing operational efficiencies to drive revenue growth. The most successful businesses aren't just good at what they do—they're good at how they operate.
The question isn't whether you have operational challenges. Every growing business does. The question is: will the chaos run your company, or will you?
The closet is messy. But now you know how to clean it out.
Christa Jackson
GrowOp Business Consulting & Operations Management