Do You Need a Business System?
BusinessDictionary.com defines a business system as:
Methodical procedure or process, used as a delivery mechanism for providing goods or services to customers in a well defined market.
What does the definition really mean?
Let’s look at each part:
- Methodical procedure or process – A step-by-step sequence of actions. You have a defined set of steps you follow each time you do something for a customer.
- Used as a deliver mechanism for providing goods or services – Simply, the way you do something so that you get paid.
- To customers in a well defined market – You know to whom you are trying to sell your goods or services.
Many of us first think of starting a business as a solution to some situation in our lives. Maybe we lost a job or got re-located, or maybe we started a family and would like more time with our kids. It could be that we just don’t like our boss anymore. And some of us saw that we could fill a need for customers and take control of our own fortunes by not working for someone else’s business anymore.
There are as many reasons for starting businesses and many businesses types. However, there are few business systems. I have seen and experienced lots of businesses, which lack a system, including some of my own.
How often have you heard something like, “Mr. Smith is the business; without him, the business would cease to exist”?
And how often have you thought or heard someone else saying, “I just can’t trust anyone else to get it all done the right way”?
If you went into business making some product or offering some service that you just happen to love or know lots about, you might not have thought at the beginning (or even now) that you also need to have a business system.
Plan for Success, Not Failure
The idea is to plan for success. Too often, we worry about failure and what will happen if it doesn’t all work out. The real problems begin when we have terrific success but we wear all of the hats in our business and can’t keep up with the demand for our product or service.
So, instead of worrying about failure, start planning for success. It’s time to get the business out of your head and into a concrete system.
The Internet and the use of computers and other technology have brought unlimited resources for building some kind of system. You don’t have to jump into anything too huge, but you do have to jump in.
Think about such things as:
- Do I have a concrete formula for pricing?
- Can someone else pick up where I’ve left off if suddenly I can’t work?
- Am I able to show someone else what I do in a way that they can understand?
- Is it possible to organize client information so that it is not just “floating around” in my head?
- Are my sources, such as vendors, organized with contact information, pricing, and the other necessary details so that someone else could see how to order what my business needs?
- Can I take some time off from my business and still keep the money coming in? Or does the business stop and stagnate and possibly lose momentum if I don’t show up to work today?
Think as an Entrepreneur Thinks
Have you considered that it might be possible to set up your business in such a way that you can show other people how to run it, and then you can spend your time doing all of those things you thought you’d be able to do once you stopped working for someone else?
Have you considered that you can train someone else, if you have a solid system for fulfilling the demands of the business, and then spend your time building another business?
It is possible to think like an entrepreneur rather than someone who just created their own J.O.B. It just takes a little planning.
