Life happens. Whether you are going to have a baby, there is a death or illness in the family, or some other unexpected issue that will pull you away from your business, life does indeed happen.
So it’s really important to have systems in place for your business.
Without systems in your business, you are the business. This means:
- The business needs you to get things done.
- This makes it difficult for you to scale up.
- It also makes it difficult for you to take time off.
With systems, you can step back, delegate and your business will still run without you.
What do I mean by “systems”. Systems are the procedures you have in place to keep your business running. Think of it as standard operating procedures you give your employees as checklists so they can implement it, even without training.
Systems should be set up for the activities that you use to run your business.
If any activity is required to get things done in your business, it should have a system.
Getting systems in place may seem like a daunting task at first, but believe me, it’s better to have them in place BEFORE something happens, that way your business can keep on functioning while you deal with real life situations.
Where to start.
- Write down what roles are required to get things done in your business.
- Write down the tasks that these roles need to perform.
- Document the procedures, create checklists or videos that show how these tasks can be done.
- Specify the tools and software that are required and how they are useful.
- Identify the handover points between tasks done by different roles. Document these as part of the systems.
- Test the systems and refine them as needed.
- Explore opportunities for automation.
Loom is a great tool to use for explaining systems. We use this tool at Life By Design and think it is a great way to show your team processes. You can make short explanatory videos for processes you follow in your day to day work. That way, if someone needs to step in for a day or two, there are instructions to follow.
You might also want to consider hiring someone to help you get everything in place. They can be your processes’ guinea pig if needed, help type up processes and give insight on instructions that need to be clarified.
So, not only are systems imperative for you to personally be able to step away from your business from time to time, but they also prime your business for sale or to scale up. Getting systems in place has GOOD benefits.
Life By Design Virtual Solutions is a team of experts when it comes to building systems and standardization of your business. Reach out with any questions, we would be happy to help.