When was the last time you actively went shopping? More to the point, when was the last time you bought something without checking it out online first?

Exactly.

Welcome to the retail apocalypse.

Or, in less dramatic terms, the demise of brick-and-mortar shops as the world shifts to buying online.

Where opportunities lie, entrepreneurs will pounce. That’s why at least part of ecommerce’s success can be attributed to people quickly learning how to start an online boutique, grocery delivery service, and so on.

Let’s take a look at some figures.

• By 2040, around 95% of all purchases are expected to be via ecommerce.
• In 2018, retail ecommerce sales grew 23.3% over the previous year.
• The total value of global retail ecommerce sales will reach $4.13 trillion in 2020.

Evidently, it is true. The retail apocalypse is upon us. Fortunately, we at Process Street are here to provide you with the tools to build your doomsday bunker. We have created 9 superpowered checklists that will ensure that you are equipped and ready to ride the wave of retail Armageddon.

If you’re just here for a checklist to use when learning how to start an online boutique, check out our free Business Plan checklist below!

Feel free to jump to a specific section of this post by clicking on the relevant subheader below. Or, just keep on scrolling.

• What is an online boutique?
• What to know before launching your online boutique
• How to start an online boutique: 9 free checklists
• How to establish & run a stellar boutique with Process Street

Alternatively, if you are already clued up on online boutiques and are ready to get stuck in, sign in to Process Street and start creating within Process Street.

(Sign up for a free trial here, if you’re not yet a Process Street user)

The links below will direct you to the section of this post that contains your desired checklist:

• Business Plan Checklist
• Brand Strategy Template Checklist
• Amazon Trends Analysis Checklist
• Monthly Cash Flow Plan Checklist
• Social Media Report Template Checklist
• Ecommerce SEO Checklist
• Neil Patel’s: Website Funnel Analysis Checklist
• PPC Report Template Checklist
• Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process

Now, it’s time to start building your doomsday bunker.

Let’s get started!
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Elisabeth Swan is the co-author of “The Problem-Solver’s Toolkit” and co-host of “The Just-in-Time Cafe Podcast.” She’s been a process improvement consultant, speaker, and innovator for over 30 years. She’s the Chief Learning Experience Officer for GoLeanSixSigma.com, a former cast member of ImprovBoston, and – if asked – may still be able to ride a unicycle.

Surgeon Atul Gawande made headlines when he told the world that a simple checklist could drastically reduce unnecessary deaths in The Checklist Manifesto.

Yet, checklists conjure images of forklift drivers on loading docks with clipboards counting boxes. How could they transform healthcare?

“He has… produced a 90-second checklist which reduced deaths and complications by more than one-third in eight hospitals around the world – at virtually no cost and for almost any operation.” – James Clarke, reviewing The Checklist Manifesto, Ulster Med J. 2011 Jan; 80(1): 54.

Aviation was transformed decades earlier when management and engineers at Boeing Corporation created the pre-flight checklist after the 1935 crash of the prototype Boeing B-17 at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Checklists have become so essential to the airline industry that most crashes can be traced to the misuse or failure to complete a checklist.

A New York Times reviewer noted, “no matter how expert you may be, well-designed checklists can improve outcomes”. Since the purpose of process improvement is improving outcomes, Lean Six Sigma and checklists are natural companions.

To prove that, this Process Street blog post will show the relationship between checklists and lean six sigma, and provide you with a free DMAIC Improvement Project Tollgate Checklist that you can use right now.

Use the links below to jump to that section of the post:

• Lean Six Sigma and the role of problem-solving
• Lean Six Sigma & the checklist
• Introduction phase
• Define phase
• Measure phase
• Analyze phase
• Improve phase
• Control phase
• Checklists and Lean Six Sigma
• Use Process Street to reduce error

Or, if you just want the checklist, check it out below!

Let’s get started.

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For sales professionals today, only 34% of their time is spent selling.

This begs the question, what are they doing for the remaining 66% of the time?

Sales teams struggling to keep up with data entry, quote generation, and other tasks drag sales reps away from potential leads. As such, 54% are expected to miss their quotas every year.

What you need are optimized sales processes that outline the best sale practices drawing from up-to-date research and findings.

This is where Process Street comes to save the day.

In this article, you’ll find 20 structured sales processes based on industry best practices which you can access for free. Simply click Edit Checklist to add any process to your Process Street account, so you can start supercharging your sales process today!

For a quick taster, check out our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template below:

Click here to get our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

You can click on the relevant link below to jump to your template of choice.

• The MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template
• Sales Training Process Checklist
• Weekly Sales Prospecting Checklist
• Cold Calling Checklist
• BANT Sales Qualification Call Process
• Sales Presentation Template
• Sales Pitch Planning Checklist
• Closing The Sale Checklist
• Order Processing Checklist
• Monthly Sales Report
• Churn Prevention Checklist
• Cold Email Checklist for Sales
• Company Research Checklist
• High Touch Client Onboarding for SaaS Companies
• Investor Pitch
• Sales Competitive Analysis Checklist
• Sales Forecasting Checklist
• Sales Onboarding Checklist
• Sales Service Handoff Process
• Upselling Process for SaaS Companies

Click on the subheader below to jump to the relevant section, alternatively scroll down to find out all we have to say and perfect your sales processes.

• Sales processes: What they are and why it is important to have established sales processes
• Our top 20 free sales processes
• A quick tour of Process Street and the benefits of using our sales processes

With that said, let’s get started!
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In a past life, I interned at a fashion company. And at the tender age of 19, it was my first introduction to the working world.

But my time there was largely spent in a state of bewilderment, wondering what tasks I should be focusing on, what the right processes for those tasks were, and what a successful end-result for those tasks would look like. (This company was part of the 22% that have no onboarding program.)

And because the team was always out of the office – attending photoshoots, meeting brands and retailers, going for their 17th coffee of the day at over-priced (and mediocre) cafés in London’s East End – it meant I was often alone in the office, wondering what the hell to do.

Unsurprisingly, the company went bust in 2019.

If they’d have had an operations manual or some operations manual templates, however, I would’ve been able to complete a ton of work while they were focusing on other parts of the business. That’s because an operations manual contains information about the company, the company’s hierarchy, roles and responsibilities, business policies, and key facts regarding processes and procedures.

Don’t let your business fall into the same trap as the now-defunct fashion company.

Create, implement, and audit an operations manual.

In this post, I’ll further define what an operations manual is and the benefits of having an operations manual. To boot, I’ll provide you with a host of nifty operations manual templates, and tell you how Process Street can aid you with your manual!

Read the following sections to get clued up:

• What’s the operations manual definition?
• The benefits of having an operations manual
• 7 (free!) superpowered operations manual templates
• Use Process Street to take full control of your operations!

Or, if you just wanted the templates, grab them here:

• Operations Manual Template
• Checklist for Writing an Operations Manual
• Internal Audit Procedure for an Operations Manual
• Process Library Checklist
• The Process for Optimizing a Process
• ISO 9000 Structure Template
• ISO 9001 Internal Audit Checklist for Quality Management Systems

In fact, here’s a sneak preview of the templates that you’ll be getting for free!

Let’s get started, shall we?

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I’m not religious, but God bless high school lab technicians.

I can’t count the number of times that Dave (our high school’s technician), exasperated and exhausted, despaired at the lack of common sense some of our teachers had.

Heck, our physics teacher once almost exposed a classroom of Year 7s (11 years old!) to chlorine gas.

He forgot to turn on the extractor fans, leaving poor old Dave to rush in, turn them on, and then promptly evacuate everyone from the room.

Corroding the lungs of your students is, after all, not best practice.

This is why it’s important to have set lab procedures in place. Following these documented processes is the best way to prevent disaster.

When 25-38% of lab personnel have been in an accident that wasn’t even reported (as demonstrated by Dana Ménard and John Trant), you can see the dangers that are easily taken for granted in a lab environment.

That’s why we here at Process Street have created a Lab SOP process that you can use for free, and will go over the common points that a lab procedure needs to cover in this post.

If you just want to get the checklist for yourself, you can check it out below.

You can also click the links below to be taken to a specific section of the article:

• What are lab procedures?
• Why lab procedures are important
• Common lab procedure touchpoints
• Get started with our Lab SOP template
• Document and track your procedures with Process Street

Let’s get started!
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Knowing how to write a procedure is a key skill for anyone looking to build a successful business. Procedures are vital to consistent success for many of the same reasons that processes are important – they let you reliably repeat your successes, isolate and correct your mistakes, and create a business model that lets you scale your operations.

If you don’t know how to write a procedure then you’re dead in the water. Get it right, and the resulting efficiency boosts can put you on track to eclipse your competitors.

This Process Street post will cover the following topics to help you write effective procedures:

• What is a procedure?
• Why are procedures important?
• Preparing to write your procedures
• How to write an effective procedure
• How to write an effective procedure

Read on to learn the 13 steps to writing your business’ procedures effectively, in a way that they will actually be followed instead of getting read once and then forgotten.

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“The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement” – Helmut Schmidt

Only 4% of businesses measure and manage their processes. Process improvements are impossible with stats like that.

Why, when doing so provides an avenue for continuous improvement, advancement, and business success?

At Process Street, documenting our processes means we can continuously assess what is working and what is not.

For instance, when I first began as a Content Writer, I found navigating HTML code difficult. Luckily for me, at Process Street we document all of our business processes, creating full transparency over what works and what doesn’t. In this sense, a stronger HTML focus was needed during training. The required changes were made, and our training resulted in major process improvements.

In this article, you will find out how you can do the same. You will learn how to:

• Identify opportunities for process improvements.
• Implement the changes required.
• Measure the success of the changes made.

Think of this article as your ultimate toolkit, to make continuous process improvements in your business. We provide you with 17 free templates, to support you in improving your processes. Click on the links below to jump to the relevant template.

• Business Requirements Template
• SIPOC Template
• SWOT Analysis Template
• FMEA Template: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Template
• SOAP Note Template
• HACCP Process checklist
• HAZOP Process checklist
• Lewin’s Change Management Model
• Bridges Transition Model Process Checklist
• ADKAR Model Change Management Process Checklist
• McKinsey 7-S Model Process Checklist
• Kotter’s Change Management Model Checklist
• Kubler Ross Change Curve Change Management Model
• Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process
• PDCA Change Management Model Process Checklist
• Satir Change Management Model Process Checklist

Or, if you just can’t wait, check out the first of our templates below to see what we’ll be giving you!

We begin this article by explaining exactly what we mean by the term process improvement, and identifying the three steps you should follow to effectively improve processes in your business. The templates provided above have been carefully designed to assist you with each step.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to the appropriate section, alternatively scroll down to read all we have to say.

• What do we mean by the term process improvement?
• Process improvements, step 1: Identifying business opportunities for improvement
• Using process documentation as a business opportunity
• Process improvements, step 2: Implementing changes
• Process improvements, step 3: Measuring the impact of change

Let’s get started!
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I didn’t expect to get ill the last time I ordered food via UberEats.

Was it because of the rib eye steak? How the cook prepared it? Or how the steak was transported to the restaurant from the producer?

I don’t know.

What I do know, though, is that the CDC estimates 48 million people each year get sick from foodborne illness.

No matter your role in the food supply chain – whether you’re a primary producer, a storage operator, or a subcontractor to a food outlet – a food safety management system is necessary. Otherwise, you’re exposing people to illnesses that could potentially be life-threatening. Even if the illness is fleeting, the long-term result of a consumer’s sickness will result in your brand being tarnished.

Luckily, ISO 22000 can help you create and sustain a solid food safety management system.

In this post, I’ll discuss what ISO 22000 is in more detail, its requirements, its benefits, and why food safety management systems are just so important. Plus, I’ll explain how Process Street can help you gain ISO 22000 certification!

Read through the following sections to get clued up:

• What is ISO 22000?
• The importance of a food safety management system
• ISO 22000 requirements
• The benefits of ISO 22000
• Use Process Street to gain ISO 22000 certification!

Hungry to learn more?

It’s time to dig in!

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People are the most important asset in a company; processes need people to execute them, and the outcome of these processes is often a function of how well the instructions have been put together.

If the outcome is less than ideal, then don’t just blame your employees: check your processes.

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are there for your employees to follow so that the job gets done properly. SOP software is all about figuring out how to innovate and improve efficiency in your internal processes.

This Process Street article will help you understand the benefits of SOP management software and give you some actionable SOP templates to get started. We’ll be looking at:

• What is SOP management software?
• Should you implement standard operating procedures at your company?
• 5 features to look for when choosing a SOP management software
• Benefits of a SOP management software
• Using Process Street to manage your SOPs
• More SOP resources

Let’s start with a simple introduction to what SOP management software actually means.
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Unequipped. Unprepared. Uncertain.

34% of people believe their organization isn’t properly prepared for employees to be working from home.

Speaking of which, has your organization recently – and rather hastily – transitioned from office working to working from home?

If the answer is “Yes“, no sweat. Process Street has you covered.

This post will guide you through the basics of working from home (WFH), the positives of it, the potential problems you could run into, on top of offering you our (free!) checklist templates that’ll ensure a safe and smooth WFH transition.

Read through the following sections to get completely clued up:

• What does WFH mean?
• The advantages of working from home
• WFH transition struggles
• Process Street’s free WFH transition templates
• Use Process Street for all recurring processes and tasks!

Or, if all you want is the checklists, get them here:

• Work From Home Office Space Checklist
• Remote Daily Work Schedule Template
• Virtual Meeting Checklist
• Onboarding Remote Employees Checklist
• Work From Home Policy Checklist
• Achieving Work-Life Balance Checklist
• Work Anxiety Resolution Checklist
• Critical Incident Stress Management Checklist

Let’s dive into all things WFH, ASAP. ‍
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