Dec

Systemizing Your Business: The First Step

With Kim Morris, Systems Expert, and Business Improvement Coach

Systems Insider Ezine Issue # 6

A Message from Kim: Evaluating Your Year in 2010
Quick Tip: The Power of Focus: Strategy No. 1
Kim Recommends: The Systemize Your Success Teleseries
What's Coming Up: The 5 Step DRIVE System
Feature Article: Systemizing Your Business: The First Step To Strategic Systemization
Connect With Me On Facebook
Follow Me On Twitter
Join My Network on Linked In
Subscribe To My You Tube Channel

As we head into 2011, and leave behind 2010, I always find it good to reflect on my year and what I have achieve, and also what I have learnt along the way. I also like to think about what it is that really inspires me and motivates me to keep going. Over the years, I have found a technique that works really well to do this "year in review" evaluation.

First of all think about the things that went well for you in 2010
Next think about the things that didn't go so well for you and what you learnt from it
Then think about what you want to do more of in 2011
Then think about what you want to do less of in 2011
Finally think about what you will stop doing in 2011 to make you business even better

This technique works best when you write down your answers, so get out your favourite notebook and think about how your journey this year, and what you can be doing in 2011 to make it even more rewarding.

Over the next several newsletters, I will be sharing with you some techniques to better utilize the power of focus in your business.

In this newsletters, strategy number 1 for increasing your focus is to create habits that will lead you to your ideal future. If you persist in developing a new behaviour, eventually it becomes automatic. Negative habits breed negative consequences and successful habits create positive rewards. Use this 3 step method to help you create better habits.

Clearly identify your bad or unproductive habits – Is there something that you do in your business, just because you've always done it. It may be something as spending too long on social networks each day when you know you should be working on developing your nest new product!
Define your new successful habit – usually this is the opposite of your bad or unproductive habit. Think about the benefits of the new successful habit and the more vividly you can describe the benefits the more likely you are to take action
Create a 3 part action plan – this is where the rubber meets the road. Identify three specific actions you are going to implement to turn your bad or unproductive habit into a successful habit

If you're looking for some inspiration on how you can systemise your business this holiday season, then you may be interested in The Systemize Your Success Teleseries that I conducted earlier in the year. In this teleseries, I interviewed 7 of the internet's top business women and asked them how they had created systems in their business.

There are so many insightful and revealing tips, techniques and strategies that these ladies gave away. In fact, many have actually turned their knowledge of creating systems in highly leveraged products. Do you think you could do the same? Of course you can, if you have the right advice and guidance. Get It Here

There is some great content covered in these interviews some of the internet's leading women entrepreneurs spilling the beans on their Marketing Systems, to Outsourcing Systems, to, PR Systems, to Event Organisation Systems, to Teleseminar Launch Systems. Here is the link again.

Systemize Your Success Teleseries

Stay tuned in the new year for my brand new signature system that I'll be launching. It is a 5 step system that will help small business owners to systemize their business. This program is for businesses that are growing and need systems now to cater for rapid expansion. My system will help you to work out what systems you need to create and will hep you to create a structured plan of how to create them.

The unique thing about my system is that you don't have to do all of the work yourself. Sure there will be some things that you have to do to systemise your business, because it is your business after all, but I have developed a unique twist on things where you can have a System Champion to coordinate and help implement systems and processes.

Your System Champion could already be existing in your business, or you may need to hire them if you don't have someone that can take on the role of creating systems and process. If you haven't seen my video on what a systems champion is, you might want to take a look at it here:

I'll also be offering additional services to help you find your System Champion, great for if you don't already have someone in your business who could take on that role, as well as Virtual Project Management to help you rapidly systemize your business. Note: that the Virtual Project Management Systems is a fast paced rapid implementation approach to creating systems and things will happen very quickly!

The First Step To Systemizing Your Business

What does systemizing your business really mean? Lots of people talk about it, and lots of people say they want it, but do they really know what it truly means? Well, in this article I'm going to break it down in terms of what it really means and then explain to you the first step that needs to happen to be well on your way to creating a streamlined, efficient business operation.

Systemizing your business is about taking an objective look at what you currently have in place, what you need to have in place to deliver on your business promises and creating a plan to bridge the gap between the two. The end result is that systemizing you business means that you have create logical sequences of events that fit together to form a system, and there will be many different systems in your business that all work independently, but also rely on each other of your business to function as a whole.

Think of systemizing your business this way: your business in itself is the "Master System" and within your master system, you are creating core subsystems which may be Marketing, Sales, Product Development, Management, Financial etc. Within each of your core subsystems, are many different processes that will link together and rely on each other to drive the performance of the overall system.

So where do you even begin? The essential first step to systemizing you business is fivefold and I will cover each briefly here:

Identify where your main issues and challenges are in your business. These are you biggest pain points and likely causing you frustrating to the point of keeping you up at night. Issues and challenges tend not to be too specific and are more overarching statements.

Now you know where you main issues and challenges lie, you need to prepare a "fix-it" list of everything that isn't working in your business. This is a more detailed list that your issues and challenges and should be as specific as possible.

This is where you'll synthesize the information you've collected and "chunk it up". Use your main issues and challenges as the headings and put the fix it items under them. By the way, its a given that in any systemization process, you will include the customer lifecycle process to see where it can be streamlined, and tis will be your priority systems for review.

Still in our current state phase, where you want to focus next is mapping out the customer lifecycle since this is the most important area and the lifeblood of your business. You want to be able to see exactly what is happening with your customers. So, start from the beginning , maybe with a customer enquiry, through to sale, through to follow up, map out with some sticky notes on a wall, the end to end process of what currently happens in sequence. Don't worry about identifying the problem areas as this comes later and can easily distract you from getting a clear picture of where you currently are.

Next,map out the roles and responsibilities of each person in your business, including yourself as the business owner. This is essential to clearing up lines of responsibility, accountability and it can help to set expectations later on for who will do what. A good way to approach this is to think about what you do on a daily basis, weekly, fortnightly and monthly basis. If you have employees or contractors working for you, get them to map out their own role in terms what they do and any decisions they make.

You've now completed step one of systemizing your business. This important step of analysing the current state of your business first will set you in good stead for being clear on what you will need to focus on, and knowing where your main pain points are, having a list of everything that needs fixing, and having mapped out your customer lifecycle will set the foundation for strategic systemization. Because you've taken the time to identify what the problems, issues, and current reality is, you'll be able to much more easily develop solutions that will improve your business and make it more efficient and streamlined.

Categories : Newsletter Archive