5 Ways To Scale Without Scaling

This is a guest post by Chris Johnson, co-founder of Simplifilm.com. Chris’s company makes clear, short, effective videos to explain what can be complicated products. They have seen stunning success and meteoric growth over the last year and a half.

They are on track to having an incredibly busy, overflowing 2012, and yet he keeps his company very small by being extremely focused and productive. He shared this productivity tip with me over tea recently in Portland, and I wanted him to share it with you all. So here it is.

My company is growing fast right now. I’m immeasurably proud of the success we’ve had and the high profile accounts we’ve won (like Envato). At any given time we have 3-8 film pieces starting and we’re increasing that number gradually each month.

We’re doing this without adding staff.

When Mark and I met for tea in Portland a couple months ago, we talked about some of the ways that I learned to “scale without scaling.” We have to be ridiculously efficient–without coming off as rude or “too busy” for our clients. Mark was interested and so he asked me to write this up.

Out of financial necessity, we’ve had to learn some productivity techniques that have allowed our 2 person team to output more volume (and quality) than most (or all 😉 of our competing companies – even some that have 10 people.

Each Simplifilm takes us roughly 100 man hours all in, and we have many, many moving parts to coordinate. We have to:

• Write a script
• Cast Voice Talent
• Build a metaphor
• Find an audio track

All of this has to be coordinated across clients, agencies, co-founders and our internal people. This isn’t an easy task, and we’ve had to be ruthless about increasing our productivity. We’ve had to increase it Geometrically.

Here are the 5 things that are “productivity force multipliers,” that you should use right now in order to be more effective (and in less time).

1: The Daily Email Update: Power Habit.

At any given time we’ll have 3-8 Simplifilms in production. These are expensive projects and people are waiting on them. Generally, it’s the most important piece of their marketing. When a production gets past a certain point (and full disclosure, we’re still fine tuning this) we started to send out proactive daily messages explaining 3 things:

• What was last done or delivered.
• What’s next
• When it’s coming
• If we are on schedule (and what could go wrong).

The emails take 3-5 minutes each morning and go something like this:

“Dear Steve:

Here’s your update. We last fleshed out the logo reveal, and the next part is the intro. We hope to get that finished by Wednesday. Right now, we’re on pace for a 11/19 delivery date, but we have a lot of work to do and be approved.

Let me know if you need anything and you’ll here from me again soon.”

Now note: I don’t commit to a daily email, but we will generally do one if we can. I probably miss one day every two weeks or so, and because I don’t miss often, people approve it.

The next result: more time in the “alone zone,” and more time to tackle big projects that need my brain.

This saves a rather large chunk of my time. Further, it enhances our customer service and widens the gap between us and our competitors.

Look, most of the time, your customers will want an update anyway. Be proactive, do it when you can on your terms. Carry the burden for them, be a leader.

#2: Unless I hear Differently I Will ___________. (Power Phrase).

Collaboration creates bottlenecks. Approval delays eat time. Time we don’t have. We have to respect what our clients want, and we have to show them that we’re listening, but we certainly can’t wait for them.

We adopted a way of keeping things moving. We use the phrase “unless I hear differently” a lot. Because that presumes approved action. It also gives someone a chance for feedback, and it allows them to be looped into the process.

The longer a deal is open the more things can go wrong. This speeds up our productions pretty dramatically. It also improves customer satisfaction pretty dramatically.

#3: End of Deal Recaps (Automated Improvement Tip).

At the end of nearly every file, Jason and I try to figure out what went right, and what ate our time.

We talk about it on Skype. I write down what we did. (I make more errors than he does, generally). We improve our “standard process,” to the point where it holds up and forgives us the mistakes we make.

For example, we used to get the client involved in the process of selecting voice talent. Now we present it with the “unless you here differently, this is your voice.” This cuts hours off of the time needed to work on a file. Further, clients like this better.

Trimming hours on process stuff – and presuming that you’ll find a better way to deliver a better product, creates a virtuous cycle. We’re deliberate about it so that we have the benefit of experience.

4: Firing the Crazies. (Brave Tip)

I came up from a world of boofy-haired realtors, needing WordPress webesites. Most of my clients were nuts. I put up with a ton of unhinged behavior and drama with the website business I used to have.

But, Phil Hodgen, a great tax attorney, told me that the crazies blocked good folks. They took that slot. And that the second you fired a crazy client, a great client would take their spot. It was hard when I was broke and scared.

But, when I did it, it was true. Now, we don’t pursue people that seem to be intent on causing chaos and drama in our business

5: Never Take Rush Jobs (Brave Tip 2)

Even if you have a lot of staff, you cant field a team of 9 women to have a baby in a month. Creative work takes time. Meaningful work takes time. If it doesn’t fit with your schedule and if it doesn’t slide into your creative process, simply don’t do it.

Rush jobs mean working after hours, they mean fighting to maintain quality. They hijack what should be a thoughtful process. They get you into the employee mindset. The people that need them are often inconsiderate jerks, that don’t plan.

Embrace Proactivity!

Some of this might seem like a chore. Might seem like work. But look, we’re here to be of service to the people that pay us money. That’s why we’re doing what we do. We’re running businesses that exist for the benefit of others. So, sometimes we have to do what we don’t want to do.

We’re working hard to bring our operations up to where we over-deliver at every phase of every project. We’re a work in progress and we have a long way to go. But, we have laid some good groundwork.

It leads to this sort of response about our business:

Your Turn

So, what I want to know is what do you do to become operationally efficient? What tips do you have for me? What are you doing to provide proactive and welcomed service to the people that are going to be your clients?