For many small business owners, there is a considerable
gap between what they thought it would be like running their
own business and what it's really like.
Like many business owners, you may have hoped that
finding success would bring you the freedom to work on
your own schedule and obtain a level of financial security
that you didn't have in your previous job.
Unfortunately, you’ve probably experienced the exact
opposite. More often than not, you are likely tied to your
computer and phone at all hours of the day, struggling to
make ends meet and spending all of your time doing
everything else other than what fulfills you.
The problem that most entrepreneurs face is that they tend
to apply their hard work to the wrong tasks and are
fundamentally off base as to what it takes to build a
successful business.
You will never achieve your vision of freedom and financial
abundance by answering the phone, handing out business
cards, or working long hours. These tasks are doing nothing
more than creating a self-employment job, not a business.
The answer to this problem is working harder on your
business, not in your business. The way to accomplish this
is by developing and implementing systems to handle the
mundane, but essential tasks, that keep your business
running.
By building systems, you are creating a company.
1. How Systems Will Benefit Your Business
Implementing business systems is one of the best things
you can do for your company. Imagine owning a bakery
without having a system in place for baking cookies. Every
day, the cookies would come out differently.
Some days, they'd be great, with the perfect combination of
ingredients and time in the oven, while sometimes they
might turn out dry and burnt. Your customers wouldn’t know
what to expect and wouldn’t trust your business to provide
them with a consistent experience.
Systems are Predictable
To be consistent with the delivery of your products or
services, you have to have a system in place that allows you
to complete the task the same way every time. Without
these systems in place, your business will be unpredictable,
resulting in poor customer service and a loss of trust by your
customers.
Many small companies have already built consistent
systems naturally out of habit, but they've failed to
document them, leaving their processes unpredictable.
Systems are Delegable
Until your business has clearly documented policies in
place, you are limited to three possibilities:
1. Doing all the work yourself
2. Being frustrated that the work isn’t being done correctly
3. Being held hostage to an employee who does complete
the task successfully.
When you have clear systems in place, you can quickly train
someone who has the skills needed for the job and provides
them with clear expectations. Systems guarantee that the
work will be completed the way you want it, every time.
Systems are Measurable
When tasks are completed the same way every time, they
become measurable. Creating detailed systems works for
every kind of business.
Going back to the example of the bakery, if the cookie
recipe was detailed enough and the baker had all the skills
or experience needed, you could expect them to make the
cookies the same every time. You’d also know how many
batches of cookies could be made in a day, how many
people walk through the door, and how many cookies you
sell on average in a week.
Systems are Improvable
When you can measure the details of your business, you
can make regular improvements. You might know that your
current sales presentation inspires 30 percent of those who
hear it buy your product.
With this knowledge, you can work on a new style of
presentation, and measure the results to determine whether
the changes that were made were an improvement over the
previous presentation style.
You can continue to try to improve your presentation by
experimenting with different aspects to make a much more
effective presentation.
Systems are Scalable
Once you've developed systems that are predictable,
measurably working and clear enough to delegate, doing
more becomes as easy as adding more resources.
If you want to sell more cookies, hire more bakers. If you're
going to manage more leads, hire another salesperson.
Systems Add Value
Systems will add enormous value to your business in the
eyes of investors and prospective buyers. Before investing
in a company, they want to know that the viable business
you've built will remain so, even if you leave.
They want to see that there are easy-to-follow systems in
place that can be used to train new staff and continue
running the business.
2. Where to Start
While the value of systems is apparent, where you should
start may not be. If you are like most small business owners,
you agree with the idea of systemization but are
overwhelmed by the prospect of making it happen.
Like most small businesses, your business probably
contains dozens of individual processes that are routinely
executed by you and your team.
The idea of writing them all down can be overwhelming.
Completely systemizing your business is going to take time
but the first step is rather straightforward and shouldn't take
you too long to accomplish.
Step One: List All Responsibilities of Each Position
To start systemizing your business, you want to create a list
of all the responsibilities of each position in your company.
Then you will need to have each employee write the
detailed process involved with each of their duties.
For example, your bookkeeper may be responsible for
keeping track of payments, depositing checks, and paying
the bills. They will need to write the detailed process for
each of those tasks.
It may be difficult for your employees to list exactly what
they do all day, much less break it down into steps. If this is
the case, have them write down every single thing they do
all day, every day for a couple of weeks.
At the end of that time, they should have a list of their
responsibilities that can then be documented in the
operations guide.
This process doesn’t have to be completed all at once. Here
are some places you can start.
• Any task that you need to urgently delegate
• Any role where you need to replace an employee
• Any part of the customer lifecycle that needs
improvement
Each system that you develop should detail each step of the
process so that any qualified person can complete the task
by following the documented process.
While creating and documenting processes can be time-
consuming, they will ultimately reduce the time it takes to
complete tasks and keep you from continually scrambling to
meet deadlines.
Step Two: Systemize your Customer Lifecycle
The next area that you will need to create systems is in your
customer lifecycle. This is essentially the map of the most
basic business goals; to attract potential clients, convert
them to paying customers, fulfill your promise, and
encourage referrals.
Each of these stages in the lifecycle will have unique
processes and systems.
For each aspect of your customer lifecycle, you will need to
write out the specific steps that are required to be completed
every time.
You need to ensure that these processes are repeatable
and scalable. When it comes to systemizing your customer
lifecycle, it works best if you complete the process
development in the following order.
• Fulfill – you'll need to be able to deliver a high-quality
product and client experience above everything else.
So, first start by documenting your systems for
fulfillment to determine any areas you can streamline.
• Convert – spend time looking at your marketing
processes and determine the areas that need
improvement to encourage more leads to be converted
to customers.
• Refer and Expand – encourage long-term customer
retention by creating systemized upsells, cross-sells,
and resells. Also, create a system for gathering
customer testimonials and managing referrals.
• Attract – this includes creating systems for advertising,
networking, SEO, content marketing, public relations,
and other marketing outreach programs. You want to
get every ounce of value out of your effort.
3. Constantly Improve Your Systems
Using systems to create a culture of constant improvements
in your business can ensure that your business will improve
over time.
However, knowing the right time to make changes to your
systems can be a challenge. Here are four main reasons
you may need to update a process.
Something Breaks
Things won’t always go the way you plan. This is especially
true when you are first starting out with business
systemization. When a process is new, or you have a new
person in a role, your methods may not produce the results
you had intended.
In most small businesses, processes aren't a matter of life
and death. If something goes wrong, you can make it right
and fix your process. If the procedure was followed and
things still didn't go well, it may be time to look at how you
can improve the process to avoid errors from being made in
the future.
Something Changes
A needed change in a process won't always be as a result
of something breaking. Sometimes processes need to be
improved because there's a significant change in the
business.
For example, if you suddenly have a lot more work, you may
need to shift the responsibility of a task from a single person
to a team. A change in the process makes sense.
Other changes that may trigger an improvement in your
process are new laws or industry rules, the adoption of new
technology, or the decision to do some work remotely.
Something is Learned
As a business owner, you are always looking for new and
better ways to do things. Sometimes the ideas you have
won't go as planned, so you experiment.
Some things will work better than before, while others won't.
When they do work, you'll need to update your process
documentation to reflect what you've learned.
Deep Dives
Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. Diligent
and good-intentioned employees get busy adding to and
extending processes to avoid anticipated breakdowns.
Over time something that was once simple and effective can
turn into a daunting cluster of nonsense. To prevent
overdone procedures, it is essential to step back periodically
and see if there might be a better way.
4. Automate Your Systems and Scale
Once you've documented all your processes, you can begin
automating many of them using one of the various software
programs or apps on the market.
Using software to automate several key businesses,
marketing, and sales processes will essentially lead your
customers through the entire sales cycle automatically while
still providing them with the personalized customer service
they've come to expect from your business.
It's important to keep in mind that you need to carefully think
things through when it comes to automating your processes.
You have to ensure that the system works before you can
automate it. If you can, try completing the process manually
before you convert it to an automated process.
Once you've determined the ideal method, take the time to
map it out. After you've successfully mapped out the
process and know that it works correctly, you can then begin
to build the system into the automation software.
5. Conclusion
Over time, you'll be able to gather all the stats that are
required to measure the effectiveness of your processes, so
you can continue to make improvements in your systems.
What you'll find is that the more that you are able to
automate your business successfully, the easier it will
become for you and your team to focus on creating new
value for your clients.
By streamlining and systemizing the processes in your
business, you'll be able to save time, so you can focus on
the essential tasks needed for growing your business.
With stable systems in place, you'll be able to start making
more money and continue to build a successful business.