Business Building Phase 3: Your Systems
What do Starbucks and McDonald’s have in common?
It’s not that they’re both restaurants.
It’s not that they’re both franchises… although, if you guessed this, you’d be on the right track.
Think about it for a second. McDonald’s, a restaurant notorious for mostly using teenagers to run their business, is able to hire someone, put them through a short training, and the employee is able to deliver an experience and product that is consistent with all the other McDonald’s restaurants around the world.
Starbucks, similarly, delivers the same coffee experience and product quality whether you’re in Seattle, Denver, or Dallas.
How is that? How do seemingly independent business locations, under one banner, create a consistent product and experience no matter the location, regardless of the people they hire?
If you said they both have INCREDIBLE systems, give yourself a sparkly gold star!
As I continue my 5-part blog series – The 5 Phases of Business Building – I’m going to tackle a part of the business most owners rarely think about. In fact, I’d venture a pretty safe guess that if you’re a solopreneur or just getting your business off the ground you probably think establishing and documenting processes and systems is something that can wait until your business is bigger or more established. After all, you’re the one who’s doing it all anyway. Am I right?
If you think about this in the context of home construction, much like I’ve been discussing the last two weeks, you’ll realize just how important systems like the electrical wiring, plumbing, cable and wifi really are. I know you probably don’t spend much time thinking about these either – unless of course they’re not working. But if they’re faulty, they’re unsafe… or at minimum a costly annoyance, right? The same is true for your business… not just from a business health perspective, but also from an ease of operations perspective.
When I first got started in the online business world, I was constantly Googling and YouTubing things in an attempt to figure out how to do it. I would do this over and over again, and it felt like I was constantly reinventing the wheel. It was exhausting. But once I started documenting tasks and identifying who in my business was best suited to do this, things got a lot easier. From there, I developed a monthly operating rhythm that has allowed me to increase efficiency and leverage my time better.
Systems, as my husband often says, save you stress, time, energy, and money. They ensure your clients have a consistent experience and keep you from having to reinvent the wheel every time you need to get something done. They enable you to grow and scale the business by allowing you to replicate and expand what you do. Think working ON the business versus just working IN the business, as well as outsourcing tasks that aren’t in your zone of genius. And lastly, systems ultimately allow you to take a vacation, free you up in the event of an emergency, or sell your business when you no longer want it, or your circumstances change (and they inevitably will at some point in the future).
Here’s a hard truth: your business is worthless if it can’t run without you. And the easiest way to figure this out is to ask yourself the following question: Do I HAVE a business or AM I the business? If it’s the latter… it’s time to get some systems in place.
What kinds of systems should you have?
As we work through this, I want you to think about the businesses I mentioned earlier – McDonald’s, Starbucks, and even Amazon. All of these businesses have made it relatively simple for someone to step into any role in the business and be successful. How is that? They’ve created easy to follow steps for their employees and managers. They’ve streamlined business operations and documented every detail and possible contingency and made it simple. And you need to do the same in your business.
What kind of systems does my business need?
There are 4 major system types that cover virtually every aspect of your business. Once you get these locked down and repeatable, you’re going to see your business shift in a massive way.
Marketing – Your business needs a marketing system to consistently bring in new leads. For my business, that’s my 5C Client Attraction system.
Sales – A process that allows you to consistently nurture your leads, make offers to them, and convert them into paying customers.
Service/Fulfillment – This system allows you to consistently deliver the promised product/service your customers paid for.
Business Operations/Back Office – This set of systems allows you to manage your business (e.g. accounting, metrics analysis, human resources, customer support, etc.) based on the operating rhythm you’ve created to keep yourself on track.
What if I don’t have systems in my business?
First, take a deep breath. Building systems is a work in progress, much like building a house. It takes time to figure out what you do well, how, and why. So, if you don’t have systems now, it’s not too late. I created a simple guide to see where your systems may need an upgrade and how to get started; it’ll get you started on the right foot.
How do I create systems in my business?
I want you to think big picture for a second. Right now, your business may be just you, but it won’t always be that way. So, here are the 3 D’s of system development:
DREAM
Think long term and big picture. Imagine if your business was five or ten times bigger than it is now. What roles would you need in order for your business to operate smoothly? Over the years, I’ve identified several key roles in my business – Strategy and Idea Generation, Operations, Finances, Marketing, Product Design… and then decided whether I was suited for these tasks, based on my strengths, weaknesses, zone of genius, and desire to do them. When you know the roles/jobs that must be done, you can start crafting the actual systems for each of them, which will ultimately allow you to bring additional people onto your team in a seamless and efficient way.
DEFINE
With the roles clearly identified in your business, now it’s time to define what those roles do, the frequency, and the way in which they get done. Really think about the steps a person in that role would need to go through on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Start listing them out. For example, your bookkeeper will need to go through the expenses on a regular basis, code those expenses, generate reports to help you understand the trends in your spending… these activities are the heart of your system.
This is the “know how” of your business, and it’s essential to have this laid out, so someone else can step in when the time is right.
DOCUMENT
With those activities on paper, start making some checklists. Each checklist should give step-by-step instructions for how to do each activity. In some cases, you’ll have to get into the weeds to document the subprocesses that go with them, but for now, start small and document the high-level steps. As you work through the tasks each time, have that document open and make note of what is done and try to repeat it the exact same way the next time you do it. Make adjustments as you find new, more efficient ways of doing those tasks.
I have done this for pretty much every activity I do in my business: blog post creation, lead magnet production, my weekly newsletter, client onboarding, etc. By documenting my processes, I can easily outsource the tasks that aren’t the best use of my time but still need doing.
That is the power of having healthy, documented systems. They free you up to focus your time and attention where it’s most needed. And as the CEO of your business, this is essential! You won’t always be the only one doing the work unless your business IS you. When you started this business, it was with the intention of doing it on your terms. Systems are THE best way to make that happen. So, go evaluate your systems and start developing or refining them. I guarantee it’ll revolutionize your business and free you up to be the CEO you really want to be!
Read the other articles in The Phases of Business Building Series:
