We’ve all been there. The client needs something delivered tomorrow, your usual process won’t work, so you improvise. You manually export data from three different systems, massage it in a spreadsheet, and send a customized email with the results. Problem solved.
Six months later, you’re still doing the same manual process every week. What started as a one-time workaround has quietly become your standard operating procedure.
This is how most small business operations actually evolve—not through careful design, but through accumulated shortcuts that somehow became permanent.
Document The Workaround
Capture exactly what you’re doing step-by-step—this makes hidden processes visible and reveals inefficiencies you didn’t notice.
Set Expiration Dates
Decide upfront how long this temporary fix will stay in place, then create accountability to build the proper solution.
The Anatomy of Workaround Creep
Workarounds start innocently. They’re meant to be temporary bridges while you figure out the “real” solution. But temporary has a way of becoming indefinite when you’re busy running a business.
The pattern is always the same:
- Crisis emerges that your current system can’t handle
- Quick fix gets implemented to meet immediate need
- Crisis passes but the quick fix remains because it works
- New normal emerges around the workaround
- Real solution never gets implemented because the workaround is “good enough”
The problem isn’t that workarounds exist—they’re often necessary and demonstrate creative problem-solving. The problem is when they become invisible infrastructure that no one questions or improves.
The Hidden Costs of Permanent Workarounds
Time multiplication. That five-minute manual process seems harmless until you calculate that it’s actually 4.3 hours per month of your time—time that could be invested in growing the business instead of maintaining it.
Error amplification. Manual processes introduce human error at every step. The more complex the workaround, the more opportunities for mistakes that compound over time.
Knowledge dependency. Workarounds often live in one person’s head. When that person is unavailable, the entire process stops. This creates both operational risk and growth limitations.
Scaling impossibility. Workarounds that work for 10 clients per month break down completely at 50 clients per month. They create artificial ceilings on business growth.
Innovation resistance. The mental energy spent maintaining complex workarounds is energy not available for strategic thinking or business development.
From Workaround to Intentional Workflow
The solution isn’t to eliminate all workarounds—that’s neither realistic nor necessary. Instead, make them visible and intentional.
Document the workaround. Write down exactly what you’re doing, step by step. This makes the hidden process visible and often reveals inefficiencies you didn’t notice.
Calculate the true cost. How much time does this really take? How often do errors occur? What happens when you’re not available to do it? Put real numbers on the impact.
Set an expiration date. Decide upfront how long this workaround will remain in place. “We’ll do this manually for the next three months while we research automation options” creates accountability.
Design the proper solution. Don’t just automate the workaround—reimagine the entire process. Often the “quick fix” reveals requirements you didn’t know you had.
Implement incrementally. You don’t have to solve everything at once. Pick the highest-impact workaround and address it systematically.
The Workaround Audit
Take 30 minutes to list all the manual processes, spreadsheet manipulations, and “temporary” solutions currently running your business. Ask yourself:
Which of these were supposed to be temporary?
How long have they actually been in place?
What would happen if this process took 10x longer?
What would happen if the person who knows this process wasn’t available?
This isn’t about judgment—it’s about awareness. Some workarounds might be perfectly appropriate to keep. Others might be costing you more than you realize.
The Bottom Line
Workarounds aren’t inherently bad. They’re often signs of resourcefulness and adaptability. But when they become invisible permanent infrastructure, they create hidden friction that limits your business growth.
The goal isn’t to eliminate all workarounds—it’s to make conscious choices about which ones serve your business and which ones are just technical debt in disguise.
Your business deserves intentional design, not just accumulated solutions. Start with awareness, then make deliberate choices about what to keep, what to improve, and what to finally build properly.
