1. “I am wearing too many hats and don't have any capacity to take on more, but the business needs more from me.”

2. “My team cannot do the job as well as I do it, and it is just easier for me to do it myself.”

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The Solution? Systemizing Our Business

The ActionCOACH definition of systems is “saving yourself time, energy & money.” About 80% of the activities in every business are routine. So instead of having everyone do those routine tasks when they get the chance or when they remember, we want to standardize them by systemizing them. We can systemize them by either creating a well-detailed process for our employees to follow. That then frees everyone up to focus the human touch on the 20% of activities that are not routine. Not only will systematizing the business make things run more efficiently and effectively, it also helps our team to do their job as well as (if not better than) us. The reason for this is they have a system to follow instead of all the information being in our heads. So let's explore the 9 steps to build a systemized company.

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Create An Inspiring Vision And Write It Out

We need to develop a purpose for our company that is bigger than making us money. What is the company’s “why?” It should be the greater good that our company does for the world. Said differently, what is it that inspires us to jump out of bed every day to come to work that will also inspire and enroll our employees? This should be something that is lived every day, not just written on a wall and forgotten.

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Develop A Mission That Explains How We Will Deliver Our Vision

Next, we need a mission, which is the roadmap to our vision. It is more specific to our industry and our company and provides more clarity of how, on a day-to-day basis, we will execute our vision.  

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Write Out The Culture We Want For Our Company

When we think about the ideal culture we want for our company, think about values that are important to us, values that are important to the business succeeding, values that are important to our customers, and values that are important to our team. We should create a list of values that we can share with our team to keep everyone working towards the ideal culture.

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Detail The Goals For the Company

We need to have clarity of what we want our company to look like - what is the ultimate goal we are working toward? Remember - our goals should be SMART. Therefore, they must be timely. Once we create our goals, we must determine the time frame to reach them. From there, we need to break this down into 5-year goals, 3-year goals, 1-year goals, quarterly and monthly, weekly and daily. We can learn more about goal-setting in one of our recent articles.

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Determine Key Milestones In Achieving Goals

We should set up a regular cadence of checking in with our team (weekly or bi-weekly) to see how they are tracking against expectations. We should praise them for the things they are doing well and of course, correct them on the things they need to improve. At a company level, we should review our business on a monthly basis at a minimum to see how we are tracking against our goals.

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Create A Company Organization Chart

This details the position of everyone in the company, who they report to, and who is their subordinate. It cuts out the chaos by having a hierarchy of communication with us, as business owners, being at the top. It is important to write out what the organization chart will look like for our company when it is finished. Over time, we will remove our name from that role and replace it with a future employee we hire. Yes, someone will eventually replace us, not in the role of the business owner, but as manager. This frees us up from having to deal with the day-to-day tasks and allows us to focus on big picture items and possibly create new companies or ventures.

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Every Position Must Have A Job Description (Contract)

Each role within our future organization chart should have a job description so that we have clarity on what that job does and how it fits into the overall plan.  

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Every Position Needs Key Performance Indicators

Every role in the company must have key performance indicators (KPIs). These are measurable goals that show if the employee is meeting expectations or not. These key performance indicators should tie directly to the achievement of company goals.

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Training Is Key

Each process, procedure, and task within the company should have some type of training system or manual developed for it. It must be documented and kept at an accessible place in your business. That way, after we initially train employees, they have this reference to refer to when they forget something.  

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Acting as your coach, my question to you is:

What step forward are you going to commit to implementing this week in order to put this tip into action?

I suggest your next step be to talk to me directly. Trust me, we’ve been through this process and are still going through this process as our team and business continue to grow. We have a lot of excellent resources that can be beneficial to you for this task. Schedule a complimentary coaching session so that we can talk more!