5 Common Process Issues that Small Businesses Face (and How to Fix Them)

As the leaders of your industry and your business, you’re in the driver’s seat, steering your business toward success. But, even the most experienced drivers can take the wrong turn or use the clutch incorrectly, stalling out. Navigating process pitfalls, identifying speed bumps, and avoiding disruptions can feel like going through winding roads without a GPS. 

It’s important to evaluate your processes and understand what common issues you may encounter so you can drive your business with more confidence. 

What Are The Most Common Process Issues?

If you’ve fallen into the trap of one of these process issues, don’t beat yourself up. These common process pitfalls can be sneaky and can easily find their way into our operations, especially during times of revenue or team growth. 

Inefficient Workflows 
An inefficient workflow is like a road laden with unnecessary detours and traffic jams, slowing down your business's journey to success. It's characterized by redundant steps, poor task allocation, and unclear procedures that hamper productivity and waste valuable resources. By hindering smooth operations and creating bottlenecks, inefficient workflows can be a significant barrier to achieving your business goals. 

Inefficiencies can be as simple as disorganization or manual data entry and complex as ego-laden bottlenecks or disjointed customer service.If your customer service team needs to jump between multiple platforms to access client information, respond to queries, or track issues, then your workflow needs improvement.

To solve inefficient workflows and move to streamlined operations, start with understanding your foundations - what’s the voice of your customer, what’s critical to quality, and develop simple processes from there. 

Lack of Standardization 
Imagine navigating a city without any road signs or rules. It would be chaotic, wouldn't it? Similarly, a lack of standardization in business processes can create a jumbled mess that hampers productivity and consistency.Standardization sometimes feels “cringy” for those business leaders trying to keep the start-up culture of their business alive and stave off that “bad corporate” feeling in their team. Though, standardization can still embrace adaptability within your team while encouraging a consistent level of quality.

Without documenting your processes and ensuring consistency, your team is bound to not only do things differently from team member to team member but also from client project to project. As the one in the driver’s seat, you have to be clear on where your business is going and give them the road signs and street lights to execute successfully. 

To solve this, start by just documenting your processes and make these documents easy for team members to reference. Appoint a process owner, typically a manager, to hold all team members accountable and refer team members to the SOP when they have questions or when something was done incorrectly. 

Inadequate Technology Integration
AI is disrupting all conversation about technology integration because it opens your team to a whole new level of productivity and creativity. Beyond AI, driving your business without leveraging technology is like driving an outdated vehicle that’s just guzzling gas.It immediately puts your team at a disadvantage by creating silos, increasing your chance of errors, and limiting how organized your team can be. 

To solve a lack of integration, audit your systems for functionality. Determine what automations are available and which of your systems may be able to connect or “talk to each other”. For systems without built in integrations, consider a third-party tool like Zapier. 

Poor Communication 
Poor communication is one of the more common roadblocks teams face because team members must learn to switch from the driver’s seat in areas where they have process ownership to being in the passenger’s seat (or even back row) on more collaborative projects. 

It also requires team members to know how to navigate conflict in a productive way. If team members aren't clear on their roles, if instructions get lost in translation, or if there's a lack of open channels for feedback and queries, you're dealing with a communication issue. This can all lead to misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and an overall drop in productivity. 

To solve this, consider training your team on communication & healthy conflict. Define communication channels (such as Slack for all quick questions, your task management tool for project updates, and email for major issues or announcements). Also take the time to chat with your team one-on-one to determine why they may not be inclined to communicate with certain team members - remember to solve what is solvable but also be open to letting team members with major resistance to communication go. Opt for medium performers with high trust over high performers with low trust. 

Failure to Monitor and Evaluate Processes 
Consider a driver who never checks their car's fuel gauge, tire pressure, or engine condition during a long journey. The trip will likely be fraught with breakdowns and unexpected stops. Similarly, failing to monitor and evaluate your business processes is like driving and hoping your car is going to make it. 

Without monitoring your processes, you’ll fall into the trap of all the four previously mentioned issues and more. Regular monitoring and evaluation of your processes with honesty acts like the dashboard in your vehicle, providing vital stats and alerts to keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

To solve this, establish regular times throughout the year to evaluate processes. You can simply add it to strategic quarterly reviews or monthly operation meeting agendas. Alternatively, you can also implement team feedback meetings to hear directly from your employees rather than just from management. 


The road to operational efficiency may be fraught with challenges, but with the right mindset and tools, it's a journey well worth taking. Addressing issues like lack of standardization, inadequate technology integration, poor communication, and failure to monitor and evaluate processes can transform your small business into a well-oiled machine, primed for growth and success.

As you navigate this path, remember that you're not alone. We're here to help you identify and overcome these hurdles, and to assist you in crafting an operational strategy that fits your unique business needs. If you're ready to explore the possibilities and chart a course towards a more efficient future, we invite you to book a chat with us. We promise no hard sales, just an open conversation about how we can support your journey to operational excellence. Let's drive forward together.