Using Systems to Scale Your Business
After graduating from college, I happened to end up working for a small IT engineering company even though my degree was not in technology. This shaped my future corporate career for the next 11 years.
If I didn’t know, I learned. If we needed a tool, I googled and experimented. Working in and around IT people for so long taught me that if you think “it would be nice if…” there is a good chance it already exists at some level. Tools / systems are always being created and while the current version may not be the best, it will probably be better than your manual process.
Fear of Technology
I see uniquely crafted product based business owners struggle when adding systems to their business. They don’t have a team of people to help and they have to make time to research, pick, and setup a system that will hopefully help them. I see this go wrong in two ways:
They start adding all the tools in hopes it will help but now they have information in 3 different places and not enough knowledge to utilize each one efficiently
They don’t start at all. Keeping it in their head or in a notebook seems like the easier path than to stop and learn and setup a system that may or may not be right for them.
Both of these strategies need a little adjustment. While it would be nice if small business had access to the resources of larger companies, we don’t. You’ll either need to set the time aside and choose a system to learn and setup, or you’ll need to hire help.
Allow Technology to Support You
The first few years of your business are similar to your teenage years. You’re experimenting to find your voice, acne and hormones make things a little ugly at times, and you keep imagining the future but it never seems to come fast enough. Find tools to help you through this awkward time of your business.
Find a system for the five areas of your business you should systemize first are sales, inventory, work, customers, and documentation. Then automate between all your systems as much as possible. If automation isn’t already built in, use a tool like Zapier to connect them.
Integrating systems into your business is the only way to grow and scale your company. Delegating work, reviewing inventory, or having multiple people edit documents is easily achieved when you have systems in place to help. Don’t allow fear of a technical stumble keep you from being the owner you were meant to be.
Synopsis
Don’t fear technology as it can help you work faster and make more money. The more streamlined your business, the better. Please reach out for a free consult call if you are interested in help organizing and/or setting up a system to track and manage your to-do list.
