How to start creating systems and processes for your business
What do the workflows in your business look like?
If you’re like many small business owners, the structures you have in place to manage your tasks are vague or nonexistent.
I get it. When it’s just you running your business it can seem like a waste of time and money to invest in automation or document your processes when you can do everything on your own, with each step (somewhat) organized in your mind.
But, as we covered in our last blog post outlining the importance of creating systems and processes in your business, not only will these structures save you time and money in the long run, they’ll also prepare you for growth.
To recap, here’s a quick overview on the difference between systems, processes and tools.
Systems: a group of related processes that encompass an entire area or department of your business.
Processes: processes outline a specific group of steps that need to be followed in order to complete a given task.
Tools: the software or other products (notebook, planner, whiteboard, etc.) used to support you as you complete each given task within your processes. Not every system will require a tool, but often systems and processes can be made easier or more efficient with the introduction of a tool.
Here’s how to start creating these systems and processes for your business.
KISS - keep it simple, superstar (but don’t skip documentation)
Pretend you lead a whole organization and have people in every role. The responsible person is based on roles, not names.
In your org chart today, there may be one name on every role, but that could change 10 years from now.
As you grow, document your processes so you have easy access to the information new folks need to get started working with you.
Identify repeatable tasks and map out the steps it takes
Be as detailed as possible while mapping out each of these processes, then simplify.
Writing everything out gives you better insight as to where you can make changes to reduce the time required and streamline the work.
Your time is incredibly valuable and if there are tasks that could easily be duplicated or repeated by an automation tool or through delegation, it’s worth figuring out.
Document who’s responsible for each step in the process.
While this will likely change over time, documenting responsibility allows you to more clearly see what roles and tasks you may want to hire or delegate for. It also helps you understand what it takes to do the work.
Start by acknowledging the areas where the work isn’t in your zone of genius and/or is time consuming for you, and begin to delegate accordingly. If you really love a task outside your genius zone and it’s not getting in the way of your growth, don’t be too quick to let it go. On the other hand, if you hate something and procrastinate doing it beyond the last minute every time, without fail? Well, that’s a sign.
This step also allows you to better organize your business and implement project management tools like project briefs to plan, schedule and communicate tasks, goals, and KPIs.
Estimate the time required for each task.
What are the most time-consuming systems and processes in your business? What data do you have to support these tasks? Do they really need to get done? Do they need to be done by you? Are they really supporting the growth and vision of your company?
These are the types of questions you want to be asking yourself to see where you can eliminate or delegate different tasks.
For example, if a task like graphic design isn’t in your zone of genius and is therefore taking you 2-3 hours when you could hire someone to complete it in 30 minutes, your time and energy is better spent somewhere else.
Or, if you’re spending hours each week creating content for social media, but that work isn’t converting into clients because your target audience would be better served via email, you can find an opportunity to completely remove this item from your to-do list. Remember, you don’t need to show up everywhere!
When you’re clear on approximately how long different processes take to complete, you can also implement better productivity systems in your business.
This includes finding ways to reduce the time tasks take by setting up automations or integrating new tools into your workflows.
And even if you can’t reduce the time required, you’re at least aware of the costs associated with hiring the task out or spending your own time and energy on it.
Reduce your mental load with lists and automation when possible.
There are a lot of automation and scheduling tools that can support you in many of the day-to-day tasks of your business.
Again, you don’t need to try and automate everything you do. This is about you taking steps that make sense to focus your time and energy on high-value work than on easily repeatable tasks.
While automation can’t always provide the exact attention to detail or human touch that customers want, you can personalize these automations based on your business and how you operate so that you maintain that sense of integrity.
Review and revise as needed.
Your systems, processes, and tools won’t remain static forever. In fact, they shouldn’t.
There needs to be a consistent review and revision of your systems and processes so that you can address any weaknesses, and give your business room to evolve.
Whenever a task appears to be taking longer than necessary or business goals aren’t being met, it’s up to you to consider:
Is there a better way to do this?
Is the process or the tool the problem?
Is it how you’ve set yourself up?
Where are you getting stuck?
From there you’ll be able to further streamline your business operations and make changes that will continue to support your future growth.
Integrating marketing systems in your business
Let’s take a look at how this might apply to some of the marketing processes in your business.
With the intention of gaining new leads and scaling your business, you might implement any number of marketing strategies:
Creating and posting content on social media
Paid ads on Google or Facebook
Blog writing
Etc.
Create a list of all of the marketing activities and tactics you’re currently using. What are the systems you have in place to manage these?
For example, to create content each month, you might:
Brainstorm and capture ideas
Write out the captions for each platform you want to post on
Create graphics or find stock images for each post
Create a content calendar to show when you’re going to post each idea
Post manually each day
These are repeatable tasks in that you need to be consistently showing up on social media if you want to grow and create an authentic connection with your audience, and because the steps should remain relatively consistent month after month.
In the beginning, you may be responsible for each of these tasks, but especially if these tasks are time consuming or energy draining for you there’s also the potential to delegate here!
Consider,
Could you give a list of your content ideas to a virtual assistant or graphic designer and have them create the graphics and/or write the captions for you?
What tools would support you in this process? Consider Airtable to help you keep track of your content ideas or Canva to support you in creating graphics.
Where could some of these steps be automated? For example, software like CoSchedule, Hootsuite, and Buffer allow you to batch create and schedule your content for the month so you don’t need to be posting daily.
Finally of course, you need to review and revise what you’re doing. Consider setting a calendar reminder every quarter to take a look at your processes.
Ask yourself questions like,
How is your content performing? Have you noticed a correlation between high engagement on posts and clients booking consult calls?
Are you attracting the right audiences with the content you’re creating?
Are the platforms you’re showing up on still effective? Do you need to be showing up more or less often?
In getting really clear with the systems, processes, and tools that would be most effective for your business, and beginning to outsource or automate some of these tasks, you’ll be able to get back to more of the tasks that truly need your time.
You’ll free up more time and energy to focus on the creative and visionary tasks in your business.
And you’ll be able to devote more time to work on your business rather than in it, which will result in more of the growth and success you’re looking for down the road.