Do you want a profitable, scaleable business that can operate without you? Then you need strong systems that create value as well as save you and your team time and effort.
FREE Resource: Your 9 Step System Development Checklist
The key to building a business that’s profitable, scalable and can work without you, is implementing strong systems that create value and maximise efficiency.
To set the scene…
I’ve just got done interviewing a client of mine who has achieved some tremendous results.
He went from this:
- Him and his partner working 90 plus hours per week in their business
- Barely breaking even
- Sales had stalled at around the $500K mark
To this:
- Him and his partner working only two days each per week
- Sales increased to $2Million
- The business became highly profitable
They then went on to sell the business for a multiple seven-figure sum that was “too good to refuse,” a few years later.
As you can imagine, people had a lot of questions about how we facilitated this tremendous turnaround…
Now, while we did a lot of great things, the number one thing that underpinned everything was good, solid systems.
So, in this article, I want to do three things:
- Go through some of the main challenges that I see business owners have, when it comes systems
- Share with you how to overcome these challenges, so that you can apply them and get great results
- Give you a checklist that walks you through the 9 steps for building systems that streamline your business
Challenge #1 – Being Too Ambitious
One of the biggest challenges when trying to systemise your business, is attempting to take on way too much, way too quickly.
Inevitably, this leads to a constant state of confusion. It always causes problems and nothing ever get sufficiently implemented.
Solution – Slice and Dice
You alleviate this, by breaking your business down into its functional areas.
- How you attract prospects
- How you convert them into customers
- How you deliver to those customers
- How you get paid
You then choose the functional area of your business that’s either:
- The least leveraged (meaning the most manual or time consuming)
- Giving you the biggest amount of challenges or headaches
- Has the biggest potential for upside profit
Once you have selected the functional area, you then drill down further and break it into smaller chunks that can be easily digested.
You then create ONE system at a time.
Do not move on until this system is properly documented, people are trained on it, and everybody is successfully using it.
Challenge #2 – Being Too Ambiguous
Another big challenge, is that when a system is created, it is too ambiguous or ill-defined.
This leads to people not knowing how to follow the system properly. Mistakes then get made, or worse, people just end up ignoring it altogether.
Solution – Definition of Done (D.O.D)
To alleviate this, a good, solid system needs to have a clear and defined starting point.
It also must have a clear and defined ending point.
The actual system then, is comprised of the steps needed to be taken between the starting point and the ending point.
Critically, every good system also needs to have what I call a Definition of Done (DOD), i.e.:
- What’s the definition of each particular step being completed?
- What’s the criteria or the trigger point that needs to occur before someone is allowed to move to the next stage in the process?
The clearer the DOD, the less ambiguous the system becomes and the easier it becomes to follow… This will greatly eliminate mistakes.
Challenge #3 – Lack of Visibility and Conviction
The other big challenge that businesses face, is a lack of visibility surrounding their systems as well as a lack conviction to follow them.
If your team can’t easily and conveniently locate your documented systems, then they simply will never follow them.
Furthermore, if there is no-one to monitor and insist that they do, then your team will end up doing it their own way.
They will “wing it” and when they wing it, mistakes and errors occur.
Solution – “What Does the System Say?”
Your systems must be located in a centralised area that’s easy for everybody to access.
When any problems, questions, or issues arise, the first response and protocol must be:
“What does the system say?”
Was the system followed? If there’s no system for it, or the existing system is inadequate, then update it or create one.
As the business owner, you must never be the main resource that answers questions for your team.
This is the trap that keeps you locked operationally to the business and undermines your team members’ ability to step up and think for themselves.
Rather, they must be able to rely on your systems manual. This is how you build a culture that is system-centric.
The more your business relies on systems than it does on you, the more time and freedom you will have.
Your team will perform at drastically higher levels, everything will run more efficiently and you will end up with a profitable, scalable and leveraged business that’s a valuable asset.
FREE Resource: Your 9 Step System Development Checklist
