February’s Weekly Spark’s theme is The Importance of Systems and the last weekly Spark was Do You Have The Systems You Need?.
Today’s topic is Identifying Your Systems.
No matter what business you are in you follow systems. One key element to business success is having solid repeatable systems in place that allow you to be consistent and more efficient.
All the elements of a business can be broken down to into systems. Knowing this, and maximizing it, can serve us well as business owners. In fact, the more systems you put in place, the more business you’ll be able to handle.
The first step to improving your systems and therefore your business results is to identify them.
What are the most important areas of your business? Have you identified and captured your systems?
In the video below I share the 9 areas that all businesses share. Using these areas you can start to identify the top 2 or 3 systems that you want to create and capture for your business.
What are the top 2 or 3 systems that you’d like to implement in your business? What difference will it make?
I love to see entrepreneurs follow their passions, serve more people and create the lifestyle of their dreams.
- When Life (or business) Give You Lemons 🍋 Made Lemonade - November 15, 2022
- The Power of Great Questions! - August 9, 2021
- Get Sh!t Done – The Power of Accountability! - August 4, 2021
Thanks for a highly informative post Heather!
You have pointed out and shared some extremely powerful and important, proven business building fundamentals.
In fact, in your four different examples (of successfully applying) the various systems, you offered a very practical progression of events.
Going first with merely compiling your receipts in shoe box, to eventually compiling them each day or week and then passing that information to the professional for the eventual implementation.
And with each improvement of how you implement your customized system, your efficiency and sales revenues improve. Really solid points! Thanks!
Excellent article, Heather, and video. I also use systems in place for efficiency. Thank you for sharing these great tips!
Robin: Thank you for stopping by. That the secret systems result in efficiency, saving and ultimately increase revenue.
Takara – The engineer in me LOVES systems as well. 😉 Great point is the sooner they are in place the sooner you can teach them to someone else and allow yourself to work on growing your business.
Thanks for your comment.
Systems are so important. But they do need to work for the person. That’s the kicker – not one system fits everyone. So once you find a system that works for you – keep it! For me, I have enjoyed being able to automate parts of my business – such as email drips and campaigns. That has saved me a lot of time.
A. Lynn – I agree, each business has to develop their own systems. Your example of email drips and campaigns are great examples of systems being put in place. Not only do they save you time, they create a consistent message to your audience and they can become measurable.
Thanks for sharing you own experience.
I am definitely a systems person and try to implement at least one new one automated one every year. From start to finish, it has to create profits in the end. Love that part!
Martha – Great comment. I love the idea of targeting one system per hear to automate with the goal of creating profits in the end. Perfect example! Thanks for sharing.
I think my networks are my systems. Weekly meetings in various business environments seem to help growing my business.
Simona – That is great, networking is one system. What is your system when you networking? Do you have targets? For example meeting X new people and following up with at least X person after the event? A system might be to follow up via email with people of interest with in 24 hours of the event asking a specific question to engage them.
I resist systems. Mentally, I think I have them, but not formalized. My top area right now is marketing. I want to think about it some more. I have eliminated some platforms so I know what I will focus on. Perhaps structure is what I need. We will see.
Roslyn – Many business owners resist system and yet it is one of the most powerful things. The interesting part is that you probably do have system in place but as you said not formalized. As pointed out by other comments if you formalize them then you can improve them and you can teach them to someone else.
Thanks for sharing.
Great information here! Thanks for sharing these very helpful tips!
Kungphoo – Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you found the information useful.
Great article, Heather. Systems are definitely the key to success. I have mine in place and always tweaking it to make it even better. Thanks so much for sharing.
Alexandra – That is great to hear. Tweaking them is so important. Thanks for commenting.
I do have systems in place for efficiency and checks and balance, but there is always room for improvement
Veronica – Having systems in place is the first step. The second is really looking at those systems with a critical eye to see how you can improve them.
When I was working in the corporate world I remember capturing systems into written procedures, by doing that it became obvious that just because a systems was in place didn’t mean it was the best. Taking a critical look at our systems and just doing small changes can make a huge difference. I recently had a client make one small change on her sales system and the next day she started to tripled her sales.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing.
I do have systems in place for efficiency and checks and balance, but there is always room for improvement
Watched your video and I would say that learning how to market my product is one system that needs improving and of course generating sales.
Diana – Marketing is so important and creating systems as you develop your marketing plan will be really helpful. For example if one of your marketing platform is Facebook it is important to create a system around it. A system might be creating all your posts on Monday, enter them into an automated system and review comments 2 daily at 9 am and 3 pm.
That what I mean by simple, repeatable systems that can save you time and have an impact on your business.
Thank you for commenting.
I would say that focusing on systems is the way to go. When you’re growing your business and if you’re doing any type of guess work, you can kill your business in a hurry. That is why having a system and implementing them is so important where you can work on building your business versus working “in” your business. Great post Heather!
Nate – Great comment and so true. If funny so many business owners don’t realize how important systems are. They think it is for larger business.
Thanks for commenting.
Hey there Heather,
reading your article and watching the vid i´m actually thinking of my 2 businesses.
One being blogger/internet marketer, and the other one my online taxi booking module.
Now for the blogging part I would say I can handle this pretty self by my own and in case i would need something I would outsource it. But these are the main 3 systems there: marketing , sales and researc and development.
For my other taxi business also research and development would be important for looking for affiliates for our company to put banners on their site. Human resources to look for people as the company grows. And Customer service for the people who book with us. We are stil small but I m sure these three business systems will be necesary sooner or later in order to grow
Thx for sharing
Kind regards
David
David: Great comment and observation. Different systems become important when you grow your business. For example as you mention in your online taxi booking business Human Resources and Customer Service will become important. I’ve many business get in trouble with growth because they do not address these areas. They start to grow, hire and then run in to major management problems. In the worst case they can end up with serious legal problems.
Thank you for your comment.
Sales and marketing are the two biggest systems that I use.
Lisa – Sales and marketing are often the most important system that people focus on. The more we can improve our systems is those 2 areas the more business we’ll be able to get.
Thanks for sharing,
Thank your for all of the helpful tips. Systems are the key to success.
Adrienne – Absolutely, systems are a key to success. The trick is not to make them too complicated. Thank you for commenting.
Thank you for all your helpful tips Heather 🙂
Sophie – I’m glad you found them useful. Thanks for stopping by.