this week is all about systems & processes…

Systems and processes are what help our businesses run, and when implemented properly, they will save you time, help you grow and scale your business, and create freedom.

Business Systems

What is a Business System?

A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements organized to meet a particular set of business objectives. the overall “thing”, or a core element, you’re looking to have and/or implement in your business. A system helps you run your business.

Your entire business is a system and within the system that is your business, there are multiple other systems that help make up your business. What you do on a daily basis from the things you create along with the things you do at every stage to make your business run successfully are all systems. Including accounting, marketing, customer service etc 

Some Examples of Business Systems

• Marketing

• Sales

• Operations

• HR

• Accounting

Within most core business systems marketing, accounting, customer service etc there are lots of smaller actions which take place - systems within a system.

For example, your customer services may have systems including, answering email and phone enquiries, managing customer records, sending out orders, customer communication, dealing with complaints, refunds etc. Each of these smaller systems should have a process built around them, certain steps you take every single time you do them for brand consistency and to help the system and therefore your business run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

business processes

Each of these systems require a certain number of steps to be taken in order for it to work, all those steps come together to make up a process. Well thought out processes help you run systems and therefore your business most efficiently.

What is a Business Process?

A series of ordered activities that convert inputs into higher-value outputs all the things you do in order to make any given system work most efficiently.

When setting up your business processes consider if there are any processes that could be automated or delegated or batched for maximum efficiency. For example is there software you can use to store your customer information, can you create draft email responses that you can quickly and easily customise, can you set aside a specific time each day to answer enquiries to ensure efficiency as well as good customer service, can you post your orders all at once one day a week (make sure it is written in your terms and conditions), use finance software with automatic credit control, set up direct debits with clients for payments etc.

habits

Within our businesses and our lives, it is important to have systems in place, which take us towards achieving our goals. Habits can play an important part, we can create habits that then turn into systems.

We have spoken before about the book ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear it is a book that we highly recommend everyone reads. It focuses on shifting your mindset from short-term thinking to creating long-term sustainable practices in your life. We want to challenge you to take things slow and think about how to approach your creative business in a sustainable way. Picking a few things to work on at a time and being consistent with that. 

There is power in focusing on one thing at a time and mastering that thing until it becomes an automated process in your life. This is how you grow and see the results of your labour. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. 

Whether it’s losing weight, building a business, writing a book, winning a championship, or achieving any other goal, we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about. 

Meanwhile, improving 1 percent isn’t particularly notable – sometimes it isn’t even noticeable – but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. 

Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win, or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.” – Atomic Habit, James Clear Pg.15

Within our businesses and our lives, it is important to have systems in place, which take us towards achieving our goals. 

These exercises will help you develop systems and processes to help your business run efficiently save you time, help you grow and scale your business, and create freedom. They will also help you develop personal habits and create systems in your personal and professional life.

define your business systems exercise

design your business process exercise

personal & professional habits & processes exercise

The aim of this exercise is to break down the goals that you have, turn them into habits, and then create a process around the habit so that you can keep doing it consistently.

week 12 book

This week’s book is The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

In finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed, and the endpoint is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified.
In infinite games, like business or politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers in an infinite game; there is only ahead and behind.
The more Simon started to understand the difference between finite and infinite games, the more he began to see infinite games all around us. He started to see that many of the struggles that organizations face exist simply because their leaders were playing with a finite mindset in an infinite game. These organizations tend to lag behind in innovation, discretionary effort, morale and ultimately performance.
The leaders who embrace an infinite mindset, in stark contrast, build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Their people trust each other and their leaders. They have the resilience to thrive in an ever-changing world, while their competitors fall by the wayside. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead the rest of us into the future.

week 12 podcast

This week’s podcast is Dare to Lead by Brene Brown who has conversations with change-catalysts, culture-shifters and more than a few troublemakers who are innovating, creating, and daring to lead.