Our businesses demand a lot from us – especially our time. If you’re a solopreneur or budding entrepreneur, you’re likely running a pretty lean ship. Maybe it’s just you or you and one other. Depending on the day, you’re the bookkeeper, social media manager, marketing strategist, or operations manager. Creating business systems frees up your time to work in your business – doing what you actually do, like coaching.
You can create a business system for every aspect of your business.
A system is a way of setting ordinary tasks on autopilot. It prevents you from reinventing the wheel each time you do the task. And it reminds you of what you might have otherwise forgotten.
In any service business there are three main categories of work: operations, sales and marketing, and finances and budgeting. Operations is the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes your business go round. Operations includes goal setting, business planning, project management, maintenance, meetings, etc. Maintenance includes website updates, social media audits, and systems maintenance – both business systems like what we’re going to start creating now, and hardware and software maintenance.
The sales and marketing category includes all the ways you find new clients or customers. This can include social media posts, blogs, email newsletters, print advertising, guest blogs or podcasts, or anything else you do. For example, if you’re a massage therapist, you might set up a massage chair at a local event. Conversely, if you’re an online Facebook coach, you might host a 5-day Facebook challenge.
Finally, budgeting and finance is the necessary evil to staying in business. When the money runs out, the doors close. Within in this category, individual tasks might include weekly and monthly budgeting, financial reconciliation, tax preparation, paying vendors and subscriptions, and sales forecasting.
These are all just examples of where you can create systems. So, let’s get started.
Identify where you can create a business system.
Use the brain-dumping method to discover all it is that you do daily, weekly, and monthly. Take out a sheet of paper and list the activities you do every day. For example, check email, post to social, share posts on Facebook, reconcile bank statements, and order supplies. I recommend spending about 10 minutes just getting everything you can think of down on paper. This will give you a starting place. Keep the list by your desk for several weeks and continue to add to it.
Once you have your list, pick five. No need to overwhelm yourself. Just pick the five things you do most often. Once you have your top five, document the process.
Write down every step in the process.
Consider the following: the process or step-by-step approach to completing the task, the tools you use to complete the task, who completes the task, and the strategies for completion.
Example 1: Instagram Mini Guide
The Process
- Identify the topic based on the blog post of the week
- Draft an outline
- Write the mini guide
- Find an appropriate title
- Find graphics for the title page
- Input graphics into the Canva mini guide template and change the tile
- Input content onto the pages of the mini guide
- Download
- Save images to cell phone
- Post to Instagram
The Tools
- Canva.com to create the graphics
- Unsplash or Pixabay to find suitable images/graphics
- MS Word to create the post
- Hootsuite (unless I post instantly)
Who
- Yours truly
The Strategy
- Maintain theme consistency throughout the week and month
- Use SEO best practices
- Use hashtag strategy
- Shout out to influencer or someone in a complementary niche
Example #2: Daily Emails
The Process
- Check email
- Triage emails
- Respond to emails
The Tools
- Gmail
Who
- Me again!
The Strategy
- Decrease frequency to three times per day
- Increase efficiency using triage
- Respond now
- Respond later (flag)
- Delete or move to spam
Develop a cheat sheet.
Once you’ve identified the step-by-step process for the tasks you do most frequently, put together a cheat sheet. Remember, the purpose of business systems is so that we don’t have to think every time we do something. Create an automated system.
Here’s the cheat sheet I created to for my Instagram Mini Guides.
Notice that it’s short but includes all the steps. You may also notice that use templates that have already been created using Canva so I’m not reinventing the wheel every time. This is another vital step. As you get to know me, you’ll learn I’m a HUGE believer in templates!
So, what’s next in creating systems?
Using them. If you’re like me, you might print and keep your systems on your bulletin board. You can also file them on your computer. Or use a program like Dubsado or Evernote to store your systems. Do what works for you.
OK, now it’s your turn. You’ve got this!
