January 28, 2022
Stop wasting time and profit by doing work more than one time.
Picture this…
Running a big, beautiful business that doesn’t suck your time and energy - and finally being able to create the life you’ve always wanted for you and your loved ones. Imagine running a business that allows you to be a loving partner or parent, without working 70+ hour weeks, skipping family pizza night to handle ‘just one more email’.
The sad truth is, that most business owners are chained to their business and neglecting their work-life balance. They’re compromising on their professional and personal freedom - and failing to achieve their business targets as a result. If you’re one of them, what are you missing? Why are you just picturing the life you imagined when you first started your business - and not living it?
To grow your business sustainably, you need to create systems, processes, and procedures, and then most importantly, document them. Systems do many things, but two of the most significant are that:
1. Systems leverage best practices and will run your business more efficiently, help it grow quicker, and allow it to make more money!
- If you have for example a sales team and 3 of 5 of your reps are exceeding your quota each month while two are barely hanging on, you have a systems issue. If the methods used by your top performers were properly documented in an easily accessible manner, others on your team will have a better shot at succeeding. Then if a few more months continue without improvement, you as the owner now have a tangible talking point to review the underperforming rep against. If they did follow the process, then you might need to improve it or create an alternate method for their need.
- Either way, you are working with a framework that can be seen and understood - not an ambiguous conversation that includes negative finger-pointing. Positive reinforcement that is focused on the system on not the employee or boss's opinion, will always produce a better result. Leverage your documented methods to improve your training and culture - this is just one of the many benefits for investing the time to document.
2. Systems release you from the day-to-day operations so that you don't have to answer the same questions to your staff each day. This gives you the freedom to work “on” the business rather than “in” it.
- Whether you have 5 employees or 50, each day that your team starts without a plan will usually go the same way: Everyone shows up, and whatever the day presents them with dictates their next 8 hours. This should not be the case. If you have an understood and repeatable system for every facet of your company, YOU rule the day. Anything that is going to occur more than once should be documented, starting with the simple tasks that can be delegated to someone else.
- How does your retail shop open up for business each day? Was anything forgotten by the new guy? Then you onboarded another new employee today... is Manager Jerry saying things the same way as you would, to make the person feel welcome? Better yet, why are you having him say the same things over and over... record it, improve it, record it again and save yourself hundreds of hours over the coming years!
So to answer the posed question... Systems are missing in your company. Every business problem can be traced back to a broken or missing process that needs to be fixed. Every one. Think about that nugget during your day today and you will soon understand the power of developing a systematized culture.
As a certified SYSTEMologist, I’m here to share the tried-and-tested SYSTEMology framework - a 7-step process that can take any business owner from an in-the-weeds technician to a time-free visionary leader.
Interested in finding out more? I’d love to meet with you for a ‘discovery call’ so that I can understand some of your daily pain points. Then I can explain my supportive approach will give you more time in your day, enable your team to make fewer errors, and increase your ability to scale WITH profit in your business.
