The biggest benefit of a professionalized business process is that it delivers consistent results while allowing you to rapidly scale your ability to capitalize on those results. As I mentioned in part one, there are two general categories of professionalization: Generating revenue and managing expenses. I covered the revenue side of this equation in the previous post, so now it’s time to talk about managing expenses.

The most obvious place to start is with production. This also includes various kinds of product-related work, such as program management. It doesn’t matter what kind of product you’re producing, it’s really about what you’re delivering for the customer. The process for making that product — whatever kind of product it is — is what needs to be professionalized.

In this case, one of the major benefits is lowering the production cost itself. This approach often goes hand-in-hand with improving product quality. Eliminating inefficiencies, from wasteful steps to poorly defined workflows, can make a huge difference in production cost. Finding the optimal balance between cost and quality, all while implementing great processes and systems, is really what professionalized production means.

The production process can always be improved and made more professional. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, or whether you sell a physical product or providing a service. Whatever you sell, there are costs to product it. The more efficient your process for producing it, the more profitable it becomes.

Speaking of money, you also need to have your financial house in order. To have a functioning business, you need to have a strong grasp on your finances. At a minimum, you need to know how much money you have, and how much money you owe.

Professionalizing your finances involves more than simply having your books in order. It means having great accounting in place, and having a clear picture of the cash flow. The better of a handle you have on your finances, the more advanced options you have for putting your financial resources to work for you. The good news is that there are more and better options for professionalizing your finance than ever before, and those options are becoming more available and easier to use every day.

Lastly, we need to professionalize the human resources side of the business. It’s relatively easy to manage your staff when you’re a very small company, but it becomes exponentially more challenging as you grow the business. As you scale up your operations, HR professionalization should become another major priority. A professionalized HR department will help you retain great people, and it will also help you avoid potential legal issues long before they become problems.

The bigger the company, the more requirements your HR department will need to meet. We’re talking about managing workplace behaviors, handling benefits, and dealing with payroll taxes. Each of these elements bring with them a variety of legal and privacy concerns, and every mistake carries a certain level of risk. All this makes HR professionalization something that every entrepreneur needs to be mindful of.

Now that I’ve covered the major priorities for professionalization, it’s time to talk about the actual process. It’s not as overwhelming a process as you might think, but it does deserve its own blog post. I’ll be tackling that substantial topic in part four.