As promised in my previous post, yesterday I would talk about why systems are important in businesses and why most of them fail, so keep on reading.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Starting a business, building it, and growing excites me! I feel that one should be passionate about it and also born to do it.
This is a subject for another post.
Most entrepreneurs aren't really entrepreneurs, meaning that some of them had a job, wanted a business because they thought that they could do better than what they had or did, and started a business. They have the knowledge of how to do the technical work but don't have the necessary skills of running a business.
Some people their businesses can't function without them because they are the main driver of their business meaning that the business heavily depends on them. These business owners know that it is important to have systems so that when they are absent their business can run on its own, but something holds them back from having them or some of them never heard of systemizing.
In my business, I was the only person running it but because I want to start multiple other companies and want the freedom to teach others about business, I choose to expand, grow, scale my business and systemize it so all processes are automated and it can run on its own.
Every business should be system-dependent not dependent on you! So the question you need to ask yourself is are you building an asset or are you just buying yourself a job? Nicely said!
I've met people who said that they want to keep their business small, don't want to expand, and want to be in charge. They just want to live free & be free to travel, eat, do what they like and set their own hours to work.
Others and then I mean more than 50% of people get into business because they want freedom, they want to be in control of their own destiny, they want more choices in life, they want to create a better lifestyle for themselves & their families, they want to serve.
You know, there really is nothing wrong with having a small business but if you dive deep into why someone starts a business it is to be free; have freedom, be free. The other reason is that you want to create wealth! Freedom & creating wealth means Growing & Expanding because if you stay still and are not growing, you're dying.
Wanting to remain small means that your company or business will stay still, won't grow, and eventually, **DIE!! **By playing small you are giving up the freedom you wanted to have in the first place.
The only way you can get freedom is by having other people working together with you to help build your vision. Your business should work for you and help you accomplish your professional-, financial and personal goals.
And the only way you could build a business that functions on its own is by building the business with the intention to sell.
Now hear me out!! "Building with the intention to sell" I don't mean that you must or have to sell the business, but you need to structure it in a way that someday when you've decided to sell someone else could step in and take over.
This makes your business more
- **VALUABLE! **It has a set way of doing certain things
- **SCALABLE! **
- **CONSISTENT! **It allows you to deliver a consistent experience to your customers
- **EFFICIENT! **Your employees or anyone at the company can be more productive
Because if you think about it, if you build your business in a way that is SELLABLE, it will only make it more scalable. In my previous post I have talked about Scaling, so make sure to read that too.
There are some things/ problems in business we can't predict and that is VERY VERY normal but if you find yourself constantly solving the same problem over and over again you might have a lack of business systems.
Ask yourself!
'How can I SOLVE a specific problem FOREVER? Not once but FOREVER!!
The answer is creating a different result.
Thinking different too and asking yourself a different set of questions instead of the same every time.
Now finally unto systems!
What are systems?
What are they? or what is it?
SYSTEMS ARE THE BEST PRACTICES THAT HAVE THE HIGHEST CHANCE OF BRINGING ABOUT A PARTICULAR RESULT THAT YOU WANT CONSISTENTLY. Here you have a more formal definition; systems are documents that outline how things need to be done to achieve a specific business goal.
Think of it as a recipe; having the same flavor or product every time you make it or when someone else does it you would still want it to be/ taste the same.
All you will need to do to start building some systems are identify those steps and break them down into things that can be written down, illustrated, documented so that it can produce those results over and over
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Here are 3 types of systems at THE MOST basic level:
- Hard systems
What does something look like? ( visuals like a logo, a certain theme, decoration, a uniform...) - Soft systems
What does something sound like? for example, greeting a customer, handling complaints, the way you're selling, how you communicate with your prospects, and your closing script - Information systems
These are standardized processes and reports
What systems are you lacking in your business?
Drop in the comments what you think about this topic.
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Inspired by #DanLok