For many people, there comes a time where business growth is the next logical step. Whether it’s a new office, restaurant, store, or venue, they come with the same challenges. How do you take everything you need from one location and ensure everything works as smoothly in a new one?

Any new site will have to keep up your brand standards. It’ll have to get up and running as quickly as possible. And all of this while still maintaining compliance and adhering to health and safety protocol. So how can you prepare yourself for future growth? Here are our top four tips to put you on the right path.

Organise your documents

This one might sound obvious, but many don’t realise how out of sorts their documentation is until it comes to a moment like this. Suddenly, you realise every form, handbook, letter, and guide is scattered across your operation.

To hit the ground running at a new location, you need this documentation readily available. So your first step should be to ensure all of your core documents and records are online in one central hub. That way, there’s nothing that needs moving to a new site. No instruction manual to dig out for the new starters. It’ll all be on your centralised platform. This is great for any immediate new sites, and any that you decide to open well in the future.

Streamline your audit procedure

In a similar vein, make sure you have everything in order for your audits. To guarantee you’re sticking to your brand standards and are completing everything necessary (such as anything related to health and safety), you need streamlined audits in place.

Your centralised hub can come in useful for this. Upload photos to it so everyone is aware of what’s been done. And you want to be able to easily assign follow-on actions to the relevant people to ensure nothing is missed.

Complete any tests and assessments

Jumping ahead slightly, before you officially open any site, you need to ensure all relevant tests and assessments are completed. For example, you’ll need a full fire risk assessment carried out on any new location. Especially before any members of the public step on site.

Your hub should allow you to tick these off as you go and give any relevant parties full oversight. This way, everyone can be sure the necessary steps have been taken. This also goes for training any new staff. They need to be fully in the loop before opening day. Thankfully, your new document organisation means finding training materials should be a breeze.

Standardise your procedures

Left to its own devices, each site will eventually develop its own quirks. How they go about opening and closing, how they track daily tasks – they’ll find their own groove for doing these. Except that’s not what you want. When you have a system for doing something, you want that followed to a tee.

So make sure your procedures are standardised across sites. By doing this, you’ll reduce pressure on the head office and the new location. Digitise your procedures so it’s as simple as following a checklist. And if anything is missed, management can easily see and correct it. This goes for every aspect of your new site. Are they welcoming a new member to the team? Then their probationary period can be standardised, with scheduled reviews when needed. No need to worry.

Setting up a new location is a monumental task. So why let it be more complicated than it needs to be. By putting yourself in a better position and organising yourself, you make the process as pain-free as possible. And when you do that, you can guarantee you uphold your brand values.

Wondering where to start with your centralised hub? Get in touch with Inform People. Our platform allows you to store documents for easy access, set up regular audits, complete any relevant checks, and standardise your organisation. To find out more, reach out to us on +44 (0)161 713 4104.