Whatever it is, it will be a process! All businesses, large and small, have a process—a series of operations required in making a product or furnishing a service. The process of making a hamburger, for example, requires knowledge (how to prepare), materials (meat, bun, pickle, special sauce), labor (cooking, assembling, packaging) and results in a specific output (a hamburger) in a form that the customer wants.

Think about the processes that you’ve already participated in. Maybe you’ve made or sold hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant. Or maybe you’ve worked in a paper mill, helping process wood chips into paper. You may have experience as a receptionist in a professional office, processing requests into appointments and appointments into billing charges. In each case, you process one thing into another thing that adds value. The more value you add, the more you’re paid.

Your Opportunity Worksheet (you’ll find sample in the WORKSHEETS section of this website) will help you study the processes that you’re already familiar with and what you’ve learned from them. You’ll consider the purpose of each process, its inputs, what you did to add value, the outputs and who benefited from them enough to exchange money for them.