What does it mean to have "systems" in your business?

11/19/19 • 15 min

Breaking Down Your Business | Small Business | Business Owners | Entrepreneurship | Leadership

What’s In This Episode:

What are "systems" anyway? To Jill, it means organizing what you need to do in a process that's easily replicable. And, Brad adds, they should happen without you touching them.

"The very best systems are actually automation." - Brad

Jill has systems has for onboarding leaders for her Founding Exchanges while Brad has one for his invoicing - there's even a system for how these podcasts get published. Systems are useful because they get things off of your plate, and they get done in a way that the quality is good (and if they're not good, then you know something isn't being followed or that something needs to change in the system).

"A system has to be functioning." - Jill

Systems can just be a checklist, a Google doc, a video... whatever is the most helpful to you and your team. But systems are great because it leads to more consistent performance and decreases the need for you, as the business owner, to check up all the time. Plus, the more you get into it, the more fun it is. And it frees up your time, which is something every business owner can appreciate. Also, if someone quits, systems make it so much easier to transition.

What "systems" do you have in your business - and if you don't have them, how can you get started?

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What’s In This Episode:

What are "systems" anyway? To Jill, it means organizing what you need to do in a process that's easily replicable. And, Brad adds, they should happen without you touching them.

"The very best systems are actually automation." - Brad

"A system has to be functioning." - Jill

What "systems" do you have in your business - and if you don't have them, how can you get started?

Sponsor:

Previous Episode

Who does what in your business

What’s In This Episode:

Business owners wear too many hats. Systems turn the insanity into sanity. They help you (theoretically) to make sure everything gets done on time.

"From a business owner's standpoint, what is your job?" - Brad

As a business owner, what is it that you do? Business owners have to:

sell. No one is going to sell as effectively as the business owner does.
recruit and train. You need to be responsible for who's in the business.
own the brand. What does the brand mean and is it consistent?
do strategy. Where is the business going?

Anything that you don't do should be the responsibility of someone else. That's where systems come in.

"You don't own it because it's the scariest role to take on." - Jill

What are you handing off in your business for someone else to do so that you have room to breathe? And are the materials your team needs easily accessible to them? Brad recommends getting a pack of notecards with one task that's written on each that needs to get done in order for your business to succeed. With your team or by yourself, arrange those cards by skill or tool. Each of the piles you end up with is a job.While you may need to do these tasks yourself, eventually you might be able to outsource to a VA (learn how to hire a VA here).

Who takes care of what in your business?

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Next Episode

When systems go wrong...

What’s In This Episode:

Systems are great, we said. You'll love them, we said. ... except when they go wrong.

"It's almost always user error." - Brad

Sometimes systems can go wrong - especially where automation is concerned, says Jill. Brad has a system with an automation that's connected to a Google form and somehow, he accidentally sent the same email to the same person a couple of times. Sometimes the software changes, but you don't know. The point is - there are a million things that could go wrong.

"Be more forgiving of yourself when a system goes awry." - Jill

But at the end of the day, isn't maintaining your system less work than not having them at all? Brad thinks so. Plus, it never hurts to audit your systems, especially automated emails: Check that the links still work and that the flow is what you think it is.

Ever had a system go wrong?

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