How to Create Systems for Your Business
Having the right systems for your business is the difference between you running your business or your business running you.
But how exactly does one go about creating business systems?
In today’s lesson we dive in on how to organize, systemize, and leverage your business so you can properly scale without the usual growing pains that accompany rapid expansion.
Before we dive into the content, it’s also worth noting that while these 3 steps are the best ways to create and design business systems, they are not the full picture to the story. There are 4 other steps that we’ll dive into at a later date around Documentation, Training, Enforcement, and Iteration of business systems that will round out the picture of how to truly ensure implementing change in your business goes smoothly.
Step 1: Start With The End in Mind
This is good advice for anything you’re trying to accomplish in life, but it’s amazing how often we get bogged down by the details, the minutia, and the ins-and-outs of any particular “how” we’re trying to implement in our business without first asking “why”.
At Better Than Rich, this is a constant theme we’re always bringing our clients back to: Just why exactly are you doing what you’re doing?
In the context of business systems the question becomes: What’s your desired outcome from implementing this new system or program in your business?
You may think that the reasons for implementation are obvious, but there’s usually a number of complex outcomes you’re trying to accomplish from implementing a new business system or improving an existing one.
Let’s say you’re looking to improve the sales training process for your business. The desired outcome is obvious, no? Increased revenues.
But there are actually a number of additional outcomes you likely have as well. For instance…
Improved Customer Experience Through the Sales Process
Increased Customer Retention / Lifetime Value
Increased Customer Referrals
Increased Employee Retention
Decreased Recruiting Costs
Decreased Customer Service / Administrative Costs
Increased Employee Morale
Enhanced Corporate Culture
Seeding Future Leadership Development
Etc. Etc. Etc.
So while on the surface the desired outcome is clear, without having the secondary outcomes in mind during the design process, your perspective will be too myopic for your system to be sufficiently designed.
You must start with the end in mind by first understanding all the desired outcomes and then see if you can’t prioritize at least the top 3. From there, you’ll be ready for our next step.
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Step 2: Imagine Your Dream Scenario
Having your intentions clearly outlined, it’s now time to begin the design process.
If you had access to unlimited resources, personnel, technology, etc. how would you accomplish these outcomes?
Now I know what you’re saying….But Andrew, I don’t have access to unlimited resources. In fact, quite the opposite!
But now is not the time for measured prudence. We’ll get pragmatic in Step 3.
For now we’re brainstorming, we’re whiteboarding, we’re ideating. There’s no right or wrong answer. There’s no bad idea.
If you really could have any way you wanted it, how would you do it? What would be ideal?
One important aspect of the design process to keep in mind is to ideate upon what the experience will look like not only during the “event” (i.e. the training, the appointment, the customer service phone call, etc.) but also before and after.
In the example above, what should the employee’s experience be before they even show up to training. Should they receive a questionnaire asking them about what they’re looking to get out of the job? What does the handoff from HR to Training look like? (What I call ‘Cascading Systems’) Should they arrive with their favorite candy bar and a company t-shirt in their waiting on their chair?
And what about after? What will the ongoing training process look like? Whom should they go to for questions? What about refresher training or training upon new products, services, or feature updates? How will you look to develop their skillsets and business acumen?
Once you’ve given yourself permission to get creative and dream up your ideal scenario, it’s time to take our third and final step to make it actionable.
Step 3: Determine a Timeline for Rollout
Now that you’ve designed the system the way you’d like, it’s time to make the plan practical and look at what’s feasible in terms of rolling out the plan.
This is a crucial point where a lot of business owners make mistakes. Instead of thinking about how to rollout the ideal system in a systematic way, they attempt to change everything at once.
We’ve all been there. The boss walks in on Monday morning and tells you to forget everything you’ve ever learned up until this point and that we’re now doing things differently, but it never works because changing everything at once is asking too much of your people and throws things into internal chaos.
Instead, you need to look at your plan and determine a measured timeline and plan for rollout.
What aspects of the plan could you implement this week?
What would need to wait until next quarter?
How long will it take to train your staff on the new policies?
What technologies don’t make sense to invest in until you’ve hit $1M in revenue?
Etc.
These “editing questions” are dependent on your business and whatever particular constraints you may have (i.e. personnel, financial, industry regulations, etc.) but they need to be asked so you can avoid the chaos.
Once the plan is devised, it’s then time to document the processes, policies, and procedures that will be followed, to train the staff, and then to keep a vigilant eye that all is going according to plan.
If you do, you’ll soon find yourself scaling with a whole lot less suffering.
Exercise and Question of the Day:
-Rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how well organized and systemized your business currently is.
-Which areas of your business are calling for greatest organization and systemization?
