What systems do I need in my business?

As business owners, there is tremendous value in having systems in your business.  Someone asked me today  “What systems should I focus on for my business?”

The answer depends on the stage your business is in, what your business goals are, and where you have the biggest gap.

If you are struggling to bring in consistent revenues and want more sales (or more predictable sales), you need to have a system for business development.  A business development system should give you a methodology to tie in your marketing and sales efforts to your revenue  goals.  It should bring clarity about what to market, where to market, and how to market to achieve a desired target, financially or otherwise.  Your biz dev system should let you know what’s working and what’s not, and enable you to know exactly what to focus on to bring more business in.  Every successful business has a business development system that is a well-oiled engine , and it is usually the first system I work on with my clients.

Once you have figured out how to build business and are profitable, you may find that you are now dealing with having too much business (a good problem).  Entrepreneurs at this stage often have to deal with being able to manage time effectively, and ensuring that quality of their service and product is consistent.  At this phase, it makes sense to take a look at your operations (how you deliver your service, or how you make your product and deliver it) to see if there are ways to make processes more effective.  You might need to delegate tasks to staff or outsource to contractors, so you can focus on the more important tasks in your business.  At this stage, it’s all about having a system for managing your time and having efficient administrative and operational systems in place.

Owners that have moved beyond building profitability, and have also created a business that they can sustain without working crazy hours, should then think next about how to scale.  How will you replicate your offerings to service a wider market?  You may consider different expansion options such as going into new markets or offering new products, or leveraging franchising or licensing as a means to grow.  Of course, in a mature business, sometimes the focus is on maximizing value through creating systems so that the company can be positioned for a sale.

Here are three questions that you can ask yourself to determine what to focus on:

1. What stage of business are you in? (striving for profitability?  sustainability? or scalability?)
2. What are your business and financial goals?
3. What systems do you need to achieve those goals?
4. What are the biggest gaps you need to fill to reach those goals?

The answers to your questions should give you a glimpse on your next steps.

I’m curious to know: what systems are you working on in your business?