How to Systemize the Business So You Can Work Less

If a large part of your day as a business owner is spent doing low-level tasks or hand-holding your team through basic procedures, you could benefit from some systemic intervention.

There are four areas that business owners should systemize:

• People and Education
• Delivery and Distribution
• Testing and Measuring
• Systems and Technology

These are the areas that require the most consistency and efficiency in our business because most of these involve other people.

Approach all of these areas with careful planning, clear communication, and team involvement when systemizing your business to improve efficiency and problem-solving. 

Why Are Systems Important to Your Business?

They save so much time! 

By systematizing each section of how the business runs, from how the phone is answered by the first point of contact, to how the management team performs planning and strategy, look for ways to simplify and systematize the business to enable consistency and predictability.

What we’ll see when we do this is fewer mistakes happening from the team that you have to correct and the team becomes more comfortable working independently without your guidance.

These results are multiplied when we document all the systems and procedures within the business. Starting from the bottom up, the owner gets team members to document how they complete routine tasks, starting with Daily, Weekly, and Monthly tasks. 

What Tasks Should I Systemize in My Business?

You may have implemented systems in the past, but then found yourself reverting to your old ways.

To create systems that work, we must properly evaluate our activities to find an adequate solution

To begin, you must narrow the field. Start by asking a few questions.

• ​What do I do every day, week and month?
• How often do I do that?
• How long does it take to do each task?
• What would be considered a good day of activity in tasks?
• How do I carry out each of the tasks?
• Why do I do it the way that I do? What happens if I don’t?

Once you have an idea of your processes and key tasks, you do the same exercise with everyone in your team. 

When documenting these procedures and when looking for ways to eliminate redundancy, simplify steps and improve execution, there are more questions that must be addressed.

• What are the most important processes in this organization?
• Which of these processes should be improved for efficiency’s sake or to better serve our customers?
• In what ways does our organizational structure cause inefficiency, lack of accountability, poor communication, delays, poor customer service, and/or lack of clarity of roles?
• How can we improve our structure?
• What are the most important systems and technology in the organization?
• Which of these should be the highest priority to improve?

Here are a few ways to document your input on systems.

• Flowcharts
• Documents
• Checklists
• Videos
• Audios
• Photographs
• Computer Systems

What systems should you dissect, retool, or refine? All of them. Start with each of these areas.

Now not only are your team doing everything the same exact way, with fewer mistakes, but now when you bring on new employees, the time you spend training them is significantly decreased.

Are you ready to systematize the routine and humanize the exception? This is a huge task that can greatly benefit from the guidance of a professional. Schedule a complimentary business strategy session with one of our coaches.

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