It is not our brilliance, our ability to communicate, our marketing savvy, our talent, or our ideas that will determine our business success in the end.
It’s our systems.
The top reason businesses fail isn’t because their idea stinks. It’s because they have cash flow problems¹.
And you know what leads to cash flow problems? Systems failure.
What exactly is a system, you might ask? In this context, it’s a series of steps that lead to a result.
An example would be all of the things that need to happen each week in order to get a blog posted here on katenorthrup.com. The individual tasks and the order in which they’re done is our blog posting system.
I was not born a natural system creator or follower. In fact, I spent many years addicted to the chaos and adrenaline rush created by flying by the seat of my pants (and the accompanying rushing). I also wasted a TON of time and energy by reinventing the wheel all the time.
It became clear to me, though, when I went into business with my husband Mike, that my avoidance of systems was unconsciously keeping me small.
Once I understood what systems were and why I needed them, and then followed the steps below to implement them, everything changed for the better. We went from chugging along making good money but working way more than we needed to to crossing the 7-figure mark, hiring a rockstar team, and cutting our hours by more than half.
[Want a behind-the-scenes tour of how we run our company for peak efficiency and impact? Check out our brand-new program, The Ultimate Online Business Playbook, a group coaching experience to grow your business and uplevel your bottom line. Registration is open through 9/13.
My husband is a Virgo and it’s Virgo season, so the steps below are an homage to all things having to do with organization and sacred structure.
Without systems, our precious time and energy is leaky. We feel drained. We never feel like we’re getting anything done. We don’t have the kind of impact or income we desire.
Want to shore up your time, energy, and income potential by getting some sexy systems of your own?
Check out the steps below.
5 Steps to Build a System that Works
1. Identify a repeated event in your business that has multiple steps required to get it done (e.g., getting a podcast episode published, delivering a workshop, onboarding a new client, etc.).
2. List all of the things that need to happen in order to get the desired result. This is where you need to get into the minutiae and list every finite step (e.g., 1. Schedule podcast recording date, 2. Record podcast, 3. Save audio file to Dropbox, 4. Edit podcast audio. 5. Type show notes, etc.).
3. Identify who will do each one of the steps.
4. Record the steps and who does each one somewhere official like a master systems Google Doc or using a software like Sweetprocess.com.
5. Follow the system.
I’m pretty sure systems will save the world. We all have a finite amount of time and energy. There’s no need to waste these resources on disorganization. We all have important work to do to contribute to the greater good. Systems keep us at our best and allow us to focus our precious resources on the stuff that moves the needle instead of wasting it on the minutiae.
Systemize the minutiae so that your brilliance is available for what matters.
Ready to get your systems set up so you can free your brilliance to increase your income and impact? Check out our new program, The Ultimate Online Business Playbook, where, among other things, we’ll share the systems we use to streamline our company and help you set up systems that make sense for you. Registration closes tomorrow, 9/13, so check it out now.
OVER TO YOU:
What’s a repeated event in your business that you need to create a system around? Share it in the comments below!
Works Cited
Leadem, Rose. “5 Reasons Why Businesses Fail (Infographic).” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 1 July 2017, www.entrepreneur.com/article/296491.
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