We've all been in one of those groups — whether it's the school WhatsApp group, your
local neighbourhood WhatsApp, or a Facebook group — and somebody asks:
What day are the bins going out? Or is it PE tomorrow?
Even though it's literally written right there, or a quick two-second Google would
have got them the answer.
People don't look — they ask. And the exact same thing is probably happening inside
your business and driving you crazy.
One thing I often find when I'm talking to business owners is that they have become
the source of truth in their business.
So everything comes back to you. You're answering the same questions repeatedly, and
you've inadvertently taught your team that if they want to know the answer to
something, they have to ask you.
So, for example, they're going to ask you: what are we focusing on this week? Has
that delivery arrived yet?
Are we promoting this or that? How do I process a refund? Should I be refunding this
order? What should I say to this customer?
And it can feel like constant interruptions, never being able to switch off, and
everybody needs you.
The reason this happens is — if you look at the way information is flowing around
your organisation, you've created a wheel-and-spoke system of information.
In other words, you are the centre of the wheel and everybody else is a spoke around
the edge.
So if they want to find out a piece of information — even from somebody else in your
organisation — they're coming to you. They're asking you the question.
You are then going out to somebody else who's on a spoke to get the answer, coming
back, and then going back out to the original person to give them that information.
So everyone else is the spokes. You are the centre. And the information is going in
and out, as opposed to flowing around the business.
What this results in is bottlenecks. If you're not available, are people going to
have the information they need to do their job?
So then you get delays, because nothing's happening — everyone's waiting to hear
back from you.
You get inconsistency, because not everyone is getting the same information at the
same time.
And to be honest, it's probably driving you completely crazy.
It might feel like you're sitting at home relaxing, and then somebody will send you
a message and you feel like you can't turn your phone off — because what if somebody
needs you?
And here's the thing: when you grow your team, when you're adding new people, it's
not actually fixing the problem.
It's actually creating more demand on you, because there are now more spokes to the
wheel — more times when information has to flow into you and then out again in order
for people to get the answer they need.
So what you want to think about creating instead is what I call a single source of
truth.
The single source of truth is an information bank where key business information
lives. Everyone knows where to go.
It can help remove the guesswork. It can help avoid duplicated answers and
conflicting information.
And the interesting thing is, this isn't just a small business problem. I worked for
many years in the retail industry for larger retailers, and one of the companies I
worked for was Coast — which is women's occasion wear.
It no longer exists in the form it was when I worked there. It's now a brand for
Boohoo, but it used to be a standalone business.
We had new management come in, and one of the things they decided was that they
wanted to send all of the buying and merchandising teams — which I was part of — off
on a training course.
So we got sent away to work on all kinds of different skills that would help us in
our jobs. And one of the things we had to do was write a final project.
My final project was all about how information flows around the business. And what
was happening was: we had multiple decisions being made, but they weren't being
clearly communicated.
So we had teams who were working off different versions of the truth. We had updates
that weren't being passed on properly, and decisions being made on outdated
information.
For example, we had a lot of different external partners. We had concession
partners, we had wholesale clients. And that information flow was not really working
very well.
So one team would have a conversation about what designs were going to be in a
catalogue spread, or on the homepage of a website for a concession partner — without
realising that style had actually been cancelled by the product team several weeks
ago.
And therefore everything that we had done — all the information that had been passed
on — was incorrect.
So it can cause a lot of confusion. There was a lot of back and forth, and a lot of
strained relationships.
In fact, I was looking back over the project, and I had identified £100,000 worth of
lost wholesale revenue that came from poor information flow.
So all of that is to say — this is not just something that happens in small
businesses. It happens in big businesses too, and it's something they have to
tackle.
You might not lose £100,000 in one go, but you will see it in missed sales, wrong
stock decisions, poor timing, wasted effort — and also in your own frustration
levels.
So it's not really about being organised. It's more about thinking about how the
information is flowing around the business, and whether or not you have become the
bottleneck.
So what are some of the things you can include in your single version of the truth?
The easiest thing to do is to start with the questions you get asked the most.
Some of the key categories are going to be things like your weekly focus. What are
we selling, promoting, talking about this week?
What are some of the key things your team all need to know about, be aware of? Can
you communicate that once, in a document? Put it into a central planner so that
everybody knows where to go to find that information.
Key dates — so new product launches, when new deliveries are coming in, when you're
running promotions, what dates those start and end.
And also any key sales drivers for your customers. If you've got people selling on
the shop floor without you there, have you given them all the information they need
to really think about what kind of occasions your customers might be buying for?
What are some of the key triggers for them, or key conversation starters they can
use with customers?
Stock and order trackers are also really useful. If you place an order with a
supplier, can you have a central area where you record that information?
You're able to let people know what you've ordered, whether or not it's shipped,
been received. And it can be really helpful if you've got multiple teams working.
For example, you might have somebody who's putting products live on your website. If
you can have a central document where you're recording whether something's been set
live or not — that can also help you get the information you need without having to
check in with everybody all the time.
You can give them information about priorities. What are the things that absolutely
have to be done? What are the key tasks you really want them doing each week?
And another key area for your single version of the truth is your processes — how
things get done. This is so helpful to have your SOPs, or Standard Operating
Procedures, mapped out in a document.
It will help you enormously when you have new people coming in, if you've got to
train somebody. You've already got everything documented, telling you what they need
to know, what they need to do, how they're going to do it — with pictures or videos
showing them the exact screens they should be looking at, or little scripts to help
them understand exactly what to say to customers.
Or a flow chart to help them understand whether or not they should be giving a
refund and what the various criteria are. Those are all examples of having your
processes mapped out — and it makes it so much easier to bring people in and train
them when you've got it all documented.
The key thing to remember though is that people will not use this information
automatically. This is one of the hurdles I see people stumble at.
I've worked with lots of clients where we've done this kind of work — putting in
these processes, putting in the single version of truth — but they're still getting
the teams coming to them and asking questions.
And they said: okay, well obviously this isn't working. They're not really able to
access this information.
And I was reminded again about the neighbourhood WhatsApp group example. In our
neighbourhood WhatsApp group, different people will ask very regularly: is it the
black bin day today or not?
Because it's not every week, it's every other week. And somebody will always
respond, pasting in the link to the council website, which everyone can access,
which tells you whether or not it's the week for the black bins.
Does anybody ever actually just think, oh, maybe I'll Google that or look it up on
the council website instead of asking? The answer is no — because it's the path of
least resistance. They feel more confident because they can ask somebody. And
they're not going to go and get that information.
You might have seen this as well. This is the absolute classic in the parents'
WhatsApp group — what are the kids wearing to school tomorrow? The information's
there. They could get it.
But for whatever reason — whether it's a confidence thing, or just that it's the
easiest way — they're not going to actually go and get that information. It's human
nature.
So your team will do this too. You could put in a lot of effort setting up all of
these documents, and it may well be that your team members are still going to ask
you those questions.
So if that happens — if you've set those up or you've already done this exercise and
you're thinking, well, Catherine, this just didn't really work because everyone's
still asking me — then it's going to be time to take a more direct approach with
your team and really set your expectations.
It's not just a document. It's not just a repository for all the information in your
business. It's actually a new way of working.
Can you get people together in a team meeting, or have one-on-one conversations,
where you explain: this is where the information lives?
And — in the nicest possible way — I actually won't be answering questions until you
can tell me you've checked this documentation. And if it's not there, then ask.
So the first question should be them asking themselves: do I know where to find this
information? Yes. Okay, have I checked? Yes. Okay, am I still not sure? Now I can
ask the business owner.
You definitely want to be making it clear to them that you are not going to be
entertaining the questions. The information is already available.
So make sure you've walked them through it. Obviously, make sure you're showing them
where things are, how to use it, give them examples.
This is where you find this week's focus. This is where you check the deliveries.
This is where you find the flow chart for what to do if a customer comes in asking
for a refund.
This is where you find the documentation that tells you how to dispatch an order.
Make sure they know where this is.
But then, after a while, you have to put the emphasis back on them. They have to be
able to self-serve with that information.
Make sure you're repeating that, and make sure you are reinforcing it. So this is
really the key thing: holding the line.
When it does happen, instead of answering, redirect them. Say: have you checked the
planner? Have you checked the tracker? Have a look and come back if you can't find
it.
Yes, it feels slower initially, but most people will get the point sooner or later.
And hopefully it will create independence.
Because nobody likes being micromanaged. Nobody. Generally speaking, people prefer
the feeling of being independent and self-serving. So why not encourage them to
stand on their own two feet and find the information they need?
It can reduce the constant interruptions, the reliance on you, and the accidental
micromanagement. Because that's the thing — as a business owner, you may find
yourself having to check in with people and ask them questions if they haven't
recorded that information somewhere easy for you to access.
So you should get people asking you fewer questions, doing things quicker. You
should get them taking more ownership.
And you should be able to have some visibility of what's happening without having to
be involved in everything — and without having to send endless checking-in messages.
In terms of where to start — it can feel really overwhelming. It can feel like a
really big job. Certainly something like mapping out your processes is something
that can take some time.
So my suggestion is: start small. Start with what you get the most questions on.
What is the number one most commonly asked question you get from your team? Start
there.
Is it going to be about this week's focus? Maybe that's something you end up telling
them the most, and you feel like you're constantly having to remind people about
something. Is it key dates? Is it a simple question about how to do something?
Whatever it is, start there. Get it documented, or get some way of people coming up
with the answer that doesn't involve asking you. And then hold your ground.
Explain kindly but firmly that this is the way you're going to be doing it moving
forward, and this is the information they need to access.
Because if everything is living in your head, then your business depends entirely on
you. It makes it harder for you to take time out. It makes it harder for you to have
downtime.
It makes it harder for almost everything to happen, because it just feels like you
are the middle of this wheel — and the more people you bring in, the more spokes you
have around you. So this whole information flow isn't getting easier — it's only
getting more complicated.
Thanks so much for listening. Thanks so much for watching.
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