To grow your businesses, having well-thought-out systems is super important.
Running around and working hard might work for one or two businesses, but once you hit three or four, it’s like trying to stop a leak with your finger. And when you aim for ten or twenty, doing it all by yourself becomes impossible.
If you dream of having five, ten, or more businesses, here’s the trick: When you open your very first business, make it as systemized as possible. Create a setup where the income grows smoothly even when you’re not there.
Now, how do you go about systemizing things?
Breaking Down the Success Factors
The first step is to break down what makes your business successful. It’s about turning everything into a clear and repeatable process—this is what we call a system. Identify the key elements for direct growth in a service-oriented business:
- Attracting customers (increase)
- Repeat customers (increase)
- Hiring staff (increase)
- Lowering turnover (decrease)
Turning these into rules or systems means that your business can keep growing even when you’re not around.
Building Piece by Piece on Principles
Systems are built based on principles. It’s like saying, “If this happens, then that happens.” Everything in your business has a cause and effect. The first step is to articulate these relationships, treating each one as a piece.
For example, let’s say you’ve figured out a pattern for repeat customers. Now, create a manual with that pattern and ask, “How can other employees reproduce this?” Once others can replicate it, you’ve got a piece in place.
Repeat this process, creating many pieces based on principles. Then, carefully assemble them, making sure there are no issues.
Assembling Pieces Until Automation
Following this method, once your system is in place, go ahead and automate wherever possible. There are two types of automation: “human automation” and “system automation.”
Figure out how to turn rules into a way of doing things. Combine these systems, and if it’s possible to delegate to people or systems, that’s the goal.
By elevating your system to this level of automation, you can manage five, ten, or more locations with almost zero management costs.
Start with Articulating Success Factors
Begin by expressing what you do in a way that your employees can replicate. Take the example of repeat customers: Understand why your customers come back. Maybe your service design matches what your customers need.
Once you articulate this, turning it into a manual and checking its replicability is easy. Keep doing this, and over time, your system will take shape, ready for automation.
