A BOT business model is where a company is hired to build a company from the ground up, operate it until it is stable, and then everything is transferred after a specific period of time, to the entity that requested the job. To put it simply, a businessman has an idea, they bring that idea to a company that has a BOT service, then the hired company sets everything up for the idea to become a reality, creating new company that can sustain itself while ironing out any potential problems that may arise, and then transferring everything over so that the businessman legally owns everything.
Build
During the building step, the office/infrastructure is set up, staff is recruited, operational processes are created, and legal framework is set up.
Infrastructure
The office space can be bought, leased, rented, depending on the client’s choice. Once a building is selected, the different infrastructures can be built i.e..: internet system, computer network, anything else needed for the business.
Recruitment
Recruitment for staff happens in this phase as well. The staff, both internal administration and the client facing staff are hired here. For the internal team, you get everything you’d expect from an internal department, including but not limited to, a full human resources team, a recruitment team, a finance team, managers, everything you’d need in order to keep the client facing staff happy and productive. On the client facing side, depending on the business being built, staff will be appropriately sourced, screened, interviewed, assessed, and hired. For example if the business is selling solar panels, you’d have a team of lead generators, a sales team, a quality assurance team, a customer service team, all with their own team leaders.
Training And Certification
After the staff is hired and the infrastructure is set the training of the staff begins. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are put into place in order to efficiently train and measure growth. As the staff hired will already have prior experience, the training is for anything extra the job might need including the product training. Certifications are also acquired at this stage in the event any are needed. The company culture will start to be implemented at this stage as well, the staff will be introduced to the mission statement, the goals, and the culture will begin to grow.
Standard Operating Procedures And Governance
Standard operating procedures (SOP) as well as the governance of the business is created in this step. How your staff reacts to certain events will all be written in the SOPs. What to do when there is a salary dispute, how to handle absences and late attendance, everything you need to run the business will be created here and the implementation comes during the operation stage. The overall governance system is also created here. This will be the foundation of the corporation’s success and future growth. The system put into place will allow for full transparency and accountability. The governance system will allow the staff to feel like they’re being taken care of and heard.
Legal Documentation
Everything is done by the books and is documented. The company is registered, all internal documents are done properly and in accordance with all the rules and regulations. Everything is done on time and in line with the proper schedule.
Operate
This is essentially the start of operations. The SOPs written will be put to practice, the staff will begin to perform their duties after finishing up training and certifications, operations will be optimized overtime and changes will be made to ensure a smooth transition once the transfer plan is created and set.
Finalize Trainings And Certifications
Any ongoing or additional training and certifications needed will be finished within this stage. Coaching and personnel development happens during this stage in order to smoothen the rough edges that may exist due to prior work experience. In the event that something comes up and there needs to be additional training in order for the team to run smoothly, it will happen in this stage so that you won’t have to do it after the transfer has been made.
Standardizing Operations And SOPs
Operations should begin at this point and in line with finalizing training, the team leaders should start collecting data and doing calibrations in order to get all the staff on the same page. KPIs help with the calibrations and shows off what each member of the team needs help with and what they excel at. While operations begin, the SOPs should be put into practice, in the event that things need to be tweaked, it is always better to do it earlier so the new procedure becomes the norm before the transfer.
Preparing To Transfer
The transfer plan is prepared to ensure a smooth transition. All the legal documents are prepared for the transfer. The corporation is registered and prepped to be handed over to you. All the written processes, operational procedures and other written documentation is also polished in preparation for the transfer. You basically get a written manual on how everything works. The staff, infrastructure, and all other assets are prepped for your take over.
Transfer
As the name suggests everything will be transferred to you. The preparation done in the previous steps are in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. The corporation would have been established by this point. All assets and staff are transferred to you. If property was acquired for the BOT, it will be transferred in your name as well. The manner in which the property was acquired will be transferred to you as is, for example if it is a leased building, you will take over the lease.
Benefits Of Choosing A BOT Model
There are a couple of reasons to choose a BOT Model over starting up the business yourself. The biggest and most obvious reasons are to save time and money, less obvious reasons include less stress for you because experienced professionals will handle the logistics.
Saving Time And Money
It is possible to build a business from the ground up all by yourself with enough dedication and time. It however is not plausible to do efficiently, all great leaders have an equally great team behind the scenes making sure everything works as intended. In the case of a BOT, an experienced team can cut time and money. The money can be saved due to their experience, they would know what the right building is, potentially saving you capital by picking the correct size building as opposed to something too small or too big. Time and money can be saved during the recruitment process as well, by finding the right people in a timely manner, you cut down search time allowing training to take place earlier which means operations also get to start earlier.
Less Stress With Experienced Professionals
Having someone else take care of growing your business ultimately leads to less stress. Is there still stress? Yes. People will worry about how their business is doing. Having professionals take care of it will lead to better results than a first time entrepreneur. Hiring a company that’s done multiple BOTs before means they won’t buckle when the stress levels get high. You can trust them to make the right decisions. The weight lifted from your shoulders by having a dedicated team to handle the logistics, recruitment, training, and implementation is greater than the little worries that may come up during the Operation stage of the BOT. The biggest time saver however, comes in the set up. With the culture and processes established, growth comes easily. You can rapidly scale the operations as needed.
Overall the BOT model caters to people with an idea and capital for the idea, but without the knowledge of how to execute it. Many other types of business professionals avail of the service due to the hands off nature of the model. Think of it as a build-a-bear for businesses. You have the idea, the capital, but not the know how to do it all yourself. You have professionals do the entire process along with customizing it to your specific requirements, then take over once it’s up and running. If you’re thinking about starting a business but are scared to take the first step, you should look into companies who offer BOT services as one of your options.
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