How Many Core Processes Does a Startup or SME Really Need?
- Hieu Do
- Sep 1
- 5 min read
When founders think about operations strategy, one of the first questions that comes up is surprisingly simple but deeply important:
“How many core processes should my company actually have?”
For a founder with no industry background, it can feel like staring at a blank page. Do you need five processes? Ten? Fifty? Or is it enough to just “wing it” until things get messy?
Table of Contents
Why this question matters more than you think
Different lenses to identify your core processes
Huong’s Travel Agency: A Founder’s Journey
An Online Kitchenware Brand: Operational Scenario
Key Takeaways
1.Why this question matters more than you think
Processes aren’t just corporate red tape—they’re the repeatable activities that generate value for customers. Without them, a startup relies on heroics, luck, and ad hoc decisions.
Many founders discover this the hard way: first sales campaigns are chaotic, handovers sloppy, customers complain, and the team burns out.
But here’s the trap: over-engineering processes too early slows down a startup. Writing a 200-page manual for a five-person team is wasted effort.
The skill is finding the right number of core processes at the right stage, which is where structured thinking comes in. By asking practical, targeted questions, founders can identify the minimum set of processes that truly matter.
2.Different lenses to identify your core processes
There isn’t one “right” answer. Experienced operators often combine a few perspectives to see what really matters:
Customer Journey Lens – Follow the customer from awareness to purchase to post-service. Every step that directly shapes the experience usually maps to a core process. Ask: “What steps do customers go through from discovery to repeat purchase?” (yes, not just "Purchase", as you would need happy customers to come back & refer new customers to you)
Porter’s Value Chain – Separate activities that directly create value (sales, operations, service) from support activities (HR, finance, IT). Core processes live in the primary stream.
APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF) – A global library of processes organized by operating, management, and support. It’s comprehensive but can be too heavy for an early-stage startup.
Business Model Canvas Approach – Look at the “Key Activities” that enable your value proposition. Each can translate into a core process.
Functional/Departmental Mapping – Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance, HR. Simple and familiar, but be careful not to confuse departments with processes.
Output-Based Thinking – Focus on the products or services customers pay for. Each deliverable often represents a process.
Risk & Compliance Filter – Especially for regulated industries, identify processes that protect licenses, legal standing, or partner agreements.
Growth Stage Lens – At seed stage, 3–4 core processes are usually enough. Scale-ups may need 10 or more.
The key: you don’t need to master all frameworks—just ask the right questions to uncover what’s critical.
3.Huong’s Travel Agency: A Founder’s Journey
Huong left her 9–5 job in Vietnam to start a premium travel agency, offering tailored tours from Vietnam to Africa for adventurous travelers.
Without prior experience, she first Googled sample workflows and asked friends in the industry. That gave her a basic starting point. At first, things seemed fine—but after a few months:
Travelers complained about inconsistent service quality
Refund requests and compensation claims increased
Operating costs and internal conflicts rose
Huong realized she needed to step back and really think through how her agency operates.
We started by asking her about these questions:
“What steps does a traveler go through from first hearing about your agency to coming back for another tour?”
Her answers: discovery, booking, travel experience, feedback & repeat bookings
This is essentially the Customer Journey Lens—identifying the processes that directly impact customers.
“Which tasks must happen perfectly to keep you legally compliant and avoid risk?”
Answers: licenses, insurance, visa procedures
This highlights Risk & Compliance, ensuring the business can operate safely.
"Which tasks directly deliver value to customers? Which are behind-the-scenes support?”
Answers: tour design, operations, guiding; while HR and Finance are behind-the-scenes.
This is a Value Chain check, separating primary value-generating processes from support processes.
Through these guided questions, Huong was able to define a manageable set of six core processes:
Product design (building tour packages)
Sales & marketing
Service delivery (operating tours end-to-end)
Customer care (post-trip engagement & repeat sales)
Compliance & risk management (licenses, insurance, visas)
Partner management (airlines, hotels, local operators)
This method helped her move from chaos to structure, without over-engineering unnecessary processes.
4. An Online Kitchenware Brand: Operational Scenario
Tony launched an online kitchenware brand in Vietnam, importing high-quality products from Europe. He sells both B2C through social media and e-commerce platforms, and B2B via retail partners and supermarkets. There’s no physical store—just a warehouse for storage and order fulfillment.
At first, Tony thought operations were simple: list products, take orders, ship. But soon, challenges appeared:
Customers complained about delayed deliveries
Popular items went out of stock while slow movers piled up
Retail partners demanded consistent quality and packaging
To make sense of his operations, we guided Tony through a set of practical questions:
1. “What steps does a customer experience from discovering your products to receiving them?”
Answer: marketing, order fulfillment, delivery, returns & customer care
This shows the Customer Journey Lens, highlighting the processes that directly shape customer experience.
2. “Which operations would stop the business if they failed?”
Answer: inventory management, warehouse operations, supplier coordination, logistics
This reflects the Value Chain / Operational Lens, identifying primary processes essential to deliver value.
3. “Which tasks directly deliver value to customers? Which are behind-the-scenes support?”
Answer: order fulfillment, packaging, timely delivery vs. warehouse bookkeeping, internal reporting
This is a Value Chain check, separating primary, value-generating processes from support tasks.
4. “Which rules or standards must be followed to avoid penalties or lost partners?”
Answer: marketplace policies, supermarket contracts, quality standards
This highlights the Risk & Compliance Filter, ensuring Tony’s operations stay legally compliant and maintain partner trust.
From these reflections, Tony identified his core processes:
Marketing & brand storytelling
Order fulfillment & logistics
Customer care & returns
Inventory & warehouse management
Supplier & partner coordination
Marketplace compliance & partner agreements
By asking practical questions instead of blindly copying processes from other companies, Tony discovered the tailored core processes his business truly needed to operate efficiently and scale.
5.Key takeaways
Both founders’ journeys show the same principle: there is no one-size-fits-all process catalog.
Huong’s travel agency prioritized compliance and service delivery.
The online kitchenware brand emphasized fulfillment, inventory, and partner management.
The lesson: identify processes that fit your customers, regulatory requirements, and value flow, instead of copying big-company playbooks.
Start lean (3–6 processes), test them, and evolve. As your company grows, processes will naturally split into sub-processes—but the foundation you build now ensures scalable, structured growth.
Operations strategy for startups & SMEs and process excellence for startups & SMEs isn’t about building the most processes—it’s about building the right ones at the right time.
If you’re still staring at a blank page, SOSP Consulting Group offers a free 30-minute consultation to help map the core processes your business truly needs.
Contact us today!
Book a call: mkt@sospgroup.com (Linh)
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About SOSP Consulting Group
Founded in 2024, SOSP Consulting Group is a research-backed Operations Consulting firm that helps businesses in Vietnam streamline processes, optimize costs, and scale with confidence. We deliver process improvement projects for key business stages:
Scale up / scale down
Pre-digital transformation
Post-merger integration
Restructuring
New product / service launch
Using Lean Six Sigma frameworks and experience across Import–Export, Logistics, E-commerce, Retail, SaaS, and Banking, we help SMEs achieve effective, scalable processes faster than in-house teams—aligned to both customer needs and business goals.
Work with us!
🏢 Rep Office: 17th floor, Vincom Center Buildings, 72 Le Thanh Ton Street, Saigon Ward, HCMC, VN
🏢 Headquarter: 3th floor, 126 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street, Vuon Lai Ward, HCMC, VN
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