Are you a business owner who has spent years trying to work out the secret of business? Perhaps you’ve attended seminars, read books and magazines or listened to CDs on the subject of business systems and improvement. Afterward you return to your business and get swamped by the never ending stream of events that throw up pressures and challenges every day and never actually get to implement the ideas you saw and heard.
What are business systems?
One of the most often repeated words of advice is to ‘systemise’ your business. This is probably the most important project to complete in your business to ensure short and long term success…and it’s simple, yet most business owners avoid it and then miss the secret that systems contain.
Quite simply systemisation starts with documenting how you do what you do. This task may be referred to as completing a systems manual, operations manual or polices and procedures manual. Whatever you call it, the purpose is to capture the collective intelligence or ‘know how’ of everyone in the business. The why, what, when, where, who and how of your business. Your business system!
What are the most important business systems?
The top three critical systems are
1. Your Sales System – This system describes how your business finds prospects, presents, quotes and closes your sales
2. Your deliver or fulfilment system – This details how your product or service is delivered to your customers
3. Customer service systems – This shows how your business stays in contact with your customers over time
An example sales system would look like this…
Step 1. The system starts with an inquiry by a potential customer or by a sales person prospecting
Step 2. Meet with customer and assess their needs
Step 3. Present your product or service solution
Step 4. Create and deliver a proposal with a quote or invoice
Step 5. Follow up the contact and ask for the sale
Step 6. Acceptance by the customer
Step 7. Sale processed
Step 8. Payment received, system ends
Very simplistic and generic, but this is the start. This example system is one of probably 10-20 that exist in your business. Others include
- Advertising and marketing systems
- Accounts payable, receivable and payroll systems
- Recruiting, hiring, inducting, training and performance systems
- Customer service systems
- Production, warehousing, inventory and logistics systems
- Safety and quality systems
- Administration, reception and record keeping systems
How do you start systemising?
To get the ball rolling, start a document in Word for your sales system and write down the simple steps that show how your company does this. Now expand on each of the steps with a paragraph or two of the critical elements involved so that it starts to become individual to your company. Write it as you would say it as if you had just hired a new sales person.
For each step identify in bullet points the instructional documents that may be needed for extra detail; i.e. “How to arrange a meeting with a customer” would be a instructional document that may be required in order to train new employees.
After that write the instructions in detail, once completed you may have 5-20 pages which explain all of the actions required and the rules and guidelines which govern the decisions made along the way. Typically when one system ends another starts, in the case of sales the next system is your product/service delivery or fulfilment system.
How to measure the effectiveness of your systems?
When a system is working you’ll know it! No customer complaints, no late delivery, no staff complaining about things or each other…just harmony and productivity in action and all targets being met.
To test your systems try
· Asking two different staff members to explain a system and compare those against your own interpretation
· Interview your customers to determine their satisfaction
· Ask your customers to explain their experience with your business, good & bad!
At each step in any system you will be able to analyse the effectiveness by looking at the inputs and outputs of a step and measuring the result. In many cases you will have to determine what your goals are for certain steps first in order to determine if the system is delivering upon those targets.
In the sales system for instance, how many new customer proposals end up as sales. If you have set a standard or goal already you will be able to consistently measure the result and determine if the system requires changing.
Developing your systems?
Once you have a library of documented systems you will be able to focus your attention on any particular area so as to review and update it to ensure that the system delivers upon you goals.
So now you’re well on the way to being a market leader in your industry through the implementation of systems. It’s time to reap the personal benefits on offer that are inextricably linked to business benefits. Once you have documented the systems that you are personally managing and involved with it is possible to remove yourself from each responsibility methodically and meticulously without creating a chaos in your business.
Once you are spending less time doing the actual work of the business you are free to do the most important work of all. Commonly referred to as working on it, not in it! Which leaves you time to focus on things like: business purpose and cultural development; strategy development and planning; market identification, measurement and product development; development of your team and its collective skills; innovation and improvement; financial planning and investment.
Why develop systems?
Consider that a systemised business with an up to date operations manual will experience…
- Higher productivity through staff not carrying out tasks incorrectly or needing to continually ask for confirmation or clarity
- Greater customer satisfaction and confidence resulting in higher average sale process and increased repeat business
- Better accountability of staff through easier measurement of their performance against the systems
- Ease of movement of staff in, out and around the business
- Less reliance upon key individuals, most of all the owner, as a result of systems being in place and available for training and up-skilling others
- Greater control over the flow of information throughout the business leading to less double handling resulting in a reduction of errors
Beware of the traps of systemisation
The literal task of writing documents, creating folders, files, forms and checklists, manuals and all others contents of a system. You may find yourself quickly developing another problem of just how to organise and deliver the contents in a logical way to the people who will benefit most, your staff. There are many tools available to assist you to control the development of your systems manual, such as software applications. This can and will be a low cost undertaking provided you research the tools and plan the project effectively.
Making a plan of just how this whole project will look at the start is critical. Research the available tools and expertise required to evaluate your intended method before jumping in too far.
As a reader you are invited to evaluate TKO (Turn-Key-Operation) business modeller software. This tool is specifically designed for businesses of all sizes and industries to create, edit, review and publish your complete business system. TKO will easily and effectively enable you to create a manual with policies and procedures, job descriptions, organisational charts, to do lists and training systems. It also has the ability to output manuals for the entire business, single department or an individual in several formats including HTML web manual, PDF or printed.
All the best with your system development and may your business deliver you the life you deserve.
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