In many respects, systemising your business begins with a shift in mindset. That is, taking a step back from your business, and looking at your business from an outside in approach, or an elevated looking down approach.
What this means is that if you are to get back more time in your workday and you want to stop your business sucking the life out of you, you absolutely must know what your high value and strategic activities are, versus your low value but important activities.
High value strategic activities are the money generating and profit getting activities that you must do if your business is to be successful.
Low value, but important activities are those that must be done to keep your business ticking over. The benefit of this exercise is that you are creating a picture of what your role "should" look like in your business.
You are creating the "End State" of what you should be doing in your business. You then have a start point (where you are now and all the routine tasks and activities that you are currently doing) and an end point (where you need to be for your business to thrive so that you have more time and more fun doing what you set out to do)
Clearly knowing the distinction between high value and low value work will allow you to objectively see where your time is currently being spent in relation to where it actually needs to be spent. From here, it can often be easier to make the shift from "this is what I need to do each day in my business to keep it going", to "this is what I should do in my business each day to make it the business I always wanted".
Once you know what you should be doing and the results and benefits it will bring, it becomes much easier to let go of the things that are weighing you down, the things you don't want to be doing anymore and the things that are just no fun.
So, to start to free up your time, the first thing you need to do is work out what your high value strategic activities are - what are the things that only you can do that will determine the success or failure of your business.
Next, identify all the low value activities you are currently doing and honestly ask yourself "If I had a step by step procedure on how to do this, and I could clearly state my expectations around this task, could it be done by someone else"
If the answer is "Yes", then it needs to be off your plate. You need to document it as soon as possible. Once you have it documented, that task is able to be performed by someone else, freeing up your time to focus on the high value strategic work you identified in step one.
The wrap up: Even if your business is just you at the moment, it is never too early to start identifying what your high value strategic activities are versus where you are currently investing your time on low value but important work.
The key is to invest your time in your business in a way that is meaningful to you and produces tangible results and outcomes. Choosing where to invest your time becomes so much easier when you have procedures for your routine tasks and activities because it means you just need to oversee these instead of actually do them.
Clear expectations around these tasks and activities and communicating these to the person performing them, along with the documented procedure will contribute to topping up your time tank and give you more capacity for working as the owner of your business rather than an employee of your business.
Kim Morris is a Systems Expert and Business Efficiency Optimiser. Kim provides simple systems and solutions for service based business owners to help them systemise and streamline so they have more time and more fun in their business. For you FREE Systems Development Blueprint with bonus templates and action plan visit http://entrepreneursystems.com/
0 comments