Firstly, what is business systemisation? Business systemisation is the process of analysing your business, standardising processes, creating operating procedures for your entire business and then following them. There are three main types of systems within a business;
To keep this article general for all businesses I will be focussing on the soft systems of a business as the hard and information systems will depend on your business trade. You may now be thinking; “this seems to be a lot of work” or “why should I spend my time systemising my business?” Well there are many benefits; some of which I have already experienced in our business and some that we are still aiming towards. Hopefully you will resonate with some, if not all, of them in your business.
Hopefully the attraction of stepping back from the daily running of the business and increasing your business value and profits has got you on the edge of your seat. But where and how do you start this process? With this 5 Step Process:
Risk vs Reward Systemising your business is, unfortunately, no 5-minute task, so for a period you may be taken away from the direct profit making activities of your business. However, you should not let this short term loss stop you from the longer term benefit. Without systemising your business, you may get stuck working IN the business rather than ON the business which could stunt your business growth, make you miss big opportunities and could render your business less able to react to change. You may also fear a member of your staff taking or someone stealing your entire business’ operating procedures and setting up in competition with you. To counter this risk, it is best not to have one master operating procedure for your entire business but instead have a framework document which refers to different annexes, checklists and processes. Staff will only then be able to access the documents relevant to their work, with staff who gain trust and grow with your company being able to view more of the operating procedures, but maybe still not the entire manual. This will depend on the staff you hire and the type of business you are in. The best time to systemise your business, if you have not done so already, is now! The sooner you begin the easier it will become. There will definitely be some upfront increased effort and time spent on doing this, but if you can leverage this work (using staff or hiring a company to do this) or set some time aside to do this, you will start seeing the benefits sooner. Thank you for reading and I hope that this has been of benefit and given you the drive to grow your business through systemisation. I have briefly covered the aspects of systemising your business and have not driven into all of the detail required at each stage, whilst weaving in some real life experiences. If you would like some further reading on this subject, I can recommend ‘Work the System – by Sam Carpenter’, ‘The E-Myth – by Michael Gerber’ and ‘Built to Sell – by John Warrillow’. Alternatively, if you have any questions, would like to know about training or would just like to get in touch, please email me at stephen@turnerinvest.co.uk. Thanks again, Stephen Turner
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AuthorsTurner Invest Directors Catherine & Stephen Turner Archives
January 2020
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