What Are Core Business Processes? The Top 5 and Why They Matter

If you’re looking to start and run your own business, you should have a solid idea of the types of business processes that keep things running. 

There are five different core business processes: customer support, finance, operations, sales and marketing, and human resources. Each serves a different function, but all are necessary for efficiency and growth.

Core Business Processes At a Glance

• Core business processes are integral gears that help keep the company running to provide its mission and outputs.

• There are multiple types of business processes, with customer support, finance, operations, sales and marketing, and human resources landing in the top five.

• Once your business is up and running, you can identify where you might need to implement a new process or add enhancements to an existing process.

What Is a Core Business Process?

Core business processes are fundamental activities that contribute directly to a business’s success. They reinforce the business’ mission, support value delivery, and add to its competitive advantage. As an essential part of business operations and functions, they detail specific activities that every entity needs to perform to provide its service, produce its product, or achieve its goals.[1]

It’s helpful to think of the core business processes as integral gears that help keep the company running to provide its mission and outputs.

No matter the business model, every workflow has room to be smoother and more efficient. Because core processes are routine business activities in the company’s workflow that repeat, owners should aim to remove inefficiencies where they can. 

Senior leadership and business owners could also consider other options to enhance what’s already in place. For example, automation, business process management (BPM), and process improvement strategies are all ways of optimizing core processes businesses need to run and be sustainable.

Top 5 Core Business Processes

There are several business processes, but we’ll focus on the five core ones generally considered to be the most important of their type. Whether you’re a new or seasoned business owner, these are necessary to ensure your entity can deliver its product or service, and each contributes directly to a business's overall success.

1. Customer Support

The very nature of a business is to provide a product or service to a certain audience. Customer support exists so businesses and organizations can advise or assist those who buy or use its products or services and improve customer satisfaction.[2]

It’s essential to provide customer support because it contributes directly to the overall success of your business. The goal is high customer retention because happy buyers are more likely to return. 

If you don't know where to start, you can implement complaint resolution through call centers or feedback management systems to gather intel on your customer experience.

2. Finance

Every business must have a resource in place for handling the financial needs and processes of the entity. Usually, state and federal governments will have laws and guidelines that every registered entity needs to abide by, which may include mandatory tax obligations depending on your business’ tax classification or structure, like corporations or LLCs.

Finance processes for entrepreneurs, business owners, and senior leadership can include:

• Invoicing

• Payment processing

• Financial reporting

• Procurements

• Contracting to procure goods and services

• Streamlining business supply chains

• Budgeting and budget planning

• Developing guidance related to financial management activities[3]

Invoicing is especially important because it helps maintain accounting and reporting with a paper trail. This internal document itemizes and records each transaction between a buyer and a seller, keeping a record of transactions needed for accounting internal audits.[4]

Businesses should set high standards regarding their financial processes. As your business grows, hiring trained financial professionals can help with general accounting, making a budget, and determining sustainable pricing. This can include the employment of accountants, budget analysts, contracting officers, auditors, or program analysts. 

3. Operations

Operations deals with the internal end-to-end business activities that transform inputs into outputs.[1] There’s always room to streamline your business incorporation flow, from product development and inventory management to quality control processes. 

Your business operations contribute directly to its long-term success by following legal guidelines and implementing other recommended processes. Especially in the early stages of your business, most of what you do during the day is a core operational process. 

Some common examples include:

• Assembling products

• Managing production

• Producing goods

• Managing services

• Conducting quality assurance[1] 

4. Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing processes contribute directly to the overall success of a business by bringing the audience closer to a brand. These processes aim to attract potential customers and retain existing ones through customer acquisition initiatives.

Some activities include:

• Promoting the product

• Advertising and telemarketing

• Selling and maintaining sales

• Retail management[1]

The goal is to convert potential buyers into paying customers in an act called conversion, either by getting potential buyers in the door or keeping the ones you already have. For example, businesses could try lead generation, which attracts potential buyers, or “leads,” to increase future sales.[5]

5. Human Resources

When it's time to hire employees, including human resources in your business development plan is crucial. Human resources focuses on the well-being and success of internal personnel who work for the business, which includes activities like recruitment, hiring, onboarding and training, compensation, and dismissal.[1]

One of the most important processes is onboarding, where new hires are integrated into the organization by learning, hands-on experience, and sometimes mentorship. This can include activities like an initial new-hire orientation process to outline the organization and its structure, culture, vision, mission, and values.[6]

Human resource activities help contribute directly to the overall success of a business because they support staff and personnel-based resources. As you build your team, identifying and attracting talent through hiring and ensuring they have the support they need to perform well are crucial steps to growth.

Why are Core Business Processes Important?

As you build your team and your entity expands, it’s crucial to help support the growth of your business. Core business processes allow organizations to streamline their workflows, which can:

• Increase efficiency

• Enhance productivity

• Enable consistent quality

• Increase adaptability

• Allow scalability

Once the essential processes are implemented in your business operations, you can consider how to enhance them. The goal is to remove bottlenecks for ultimate efficiency. Some ways of achieving this are by installing management software or other helpful project management tools, introducing process automation, or using business process mapping in your business strategy.

How to Determine Your Core Business Processes

So, how do you determine what core processes you’ll need? Each of the five core processes outlined in this article plays a part in supporting the success of your entity. However, determining where to start depends on your unique business plan and where you might need to supplement or boost a specific process.

Once your business is up and running, it’s easier to identify where you might need to implement a new process or sprinkle in an add-on to an existing process. Follow these steps to determine your most core business processes:

1. Define your objectives and business model: Ensure your processes align directly with your company objectives

2. Map current processes: Create process maps to help identify gaps, errors, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies

3. Conduct a process audit: Evaluate existing workflows to understand all critical functions

4. Analyze your value chain: Determine what processes significantly impact value delivery and prioritize based on importance

5. Establish KPIs: Define key performance indicators (KIPs) to measure process effectiveness

6. Involve key stakeholders: Seek insights from employees, managers, and customers

7. Identify opportunities for automation: Highlight processes suitable for automation[7]

Ready to Begin Your Process Management Journey?

Core business processes are vital because they act as the foundation for your entity and directly contribute to efficiency, growth, and sustainability. While there are other types, these five focus on the building blocks of attracting customers, providing a positive customer experience, navigating internal operations, supporting staff, and maintaining professional finances. 

Once your business is in a rhythm, be sure to pay extra attention to the workflows that can either make or break your success so you can streamline your operations toward success.

FAQs

What are some examples of core business processes? 

Customer support, finance, operations, sales and marketing, and human resources are all examples of core business processes.

What is business process management (BPM)?

BPM uses certain methods to optimize business strategy and processes through continuous process reengineering. This end-to-end and repeatable process helps businesses streamline workflows by minimizing efficiencies, ultimately leading to cost savings.

Why should I identify a core business process?

Core processes directly benefit your business’ overall success. Knowing what your business needs, either as a new process or as a supplement to an existing one, helps keep things running smoothly and ultimately leads to positive outcomes.

How do I determine a core business process?

Once your business is up and running, you can determine your core business process by aligning current processes to your business objectives, mapping out current processes to conduct an audit and prioritize what’s needed, establishing KPIs, or involving key stakeholders.

Bibliography

1. Monthly Labor Review. “Business Processes and Business Functions: A new way of looking at employment.” Accessed November 13, 2023.

2. Department of Homeland Security. “Is There a Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Experience?” Accessed November 15, 2023.

3. U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Financial Management and Business Operations (FMBO).” Accessed November 15, 2023.

4. Investopedia. “What Is an Invoice? It's Parts and Why They Are Important.” Accessed November 15, 2023.

5. Salesforce. “What is Lead Generation?” Accessed November 15, 2023.

6. Society of Human Resource Management. “Understanding Employee Onboarding.” Accessed November 15, 2023.

7. LinkedIn. “How do you identify the most important business processes?” Accessed November 16, 2023.