Feeling Overwhelmed? How To Set Up Systems In Your Small Business
If you’re planning to grow your business to six figures and beyond, you’ll need to have systems in place for things like marketing, sales, and delivering client work.
“Systems” are a set of processes, tools, and strategies that work together to achieve a goal. They’re often driven by documents called Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which ensure consistency and improve productivity.
In short, systems help you get more done in less time.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re a one-woman show or if you employ a full-time staff—you need systems to scale!
But how do you do it? Where do you even begin? Here are a few tips on how to set up systems in your small business:
1. Start with your core business processes
If you try to do everything at once, you’ll end up burning out. So take a few moments to jot down what the most important processes are in your business. These are often your daily tasks and your income-producing activities.
2: Break them down, step by step
Once you have a list of core processes, take notes on what you do for each process. Include the process itself (the sequence of actions), any tools or software you use, and the people responsible. This will become your SOP for that process.
3: Review and evaluate your current processes
Once you’ve completed writing out a process, take some time to review each step and see if there are any redundancies or areas for improvement.
Can you reorder the steps to make it more efficient? Maybe a checklist or template would be helpful to make things run more smoothly. Are there any apps or software that could automate certain steps?
4: Make improvements
Make any changes that will streamline the process and update your documentation as needed. This is an ongoing process! Set up some key performance indicators (KPIs) with measurable outcomes to help you determine if the changes you made are working in your favor.
5: Rinse and repeat
Continue to document, evaluate, and refine every process in your business. If it’s a process you repeat at all, it’s up for grabs.
Even if it’s something like a product launch—which may only be done on rare occasions—having a documented system in place will help you get through it faster without reinventing the wheel.
The bottom line
Documenting these systems can be time-consuming. It will definitely take some refinement and tweaking along the way. But once you’ve nailed down your processes, your business will run much more smoothly and you’ll be better equipped to grow beyond your wildest dreams.