How To Start Creating Your Systems From Scratch

Creating the right systems and processes is key to building a business that can be scaled.

When your business is broken down into processes, every key task that keeps it running becomes predictable, delegatable, measurable, improvable, scalable, automatable and sellable. 

One of the common misconceptions most business owners have when creating systems is thinking that the system needs to be perfect from the start.

Because of this “perfectionist” mindset, procrastination often sets in and they delay doing it. Or, they keep trying to fine-tune every single detail, which takes up a lot of time.

A simple way to get started is just to do a brain dump. Don’t worry about making it perfect or how proficient it is to begin with.

Whenever we onboard a new client, the first thing we do is book them in for a session with one of our specialists to detail what their usual processes are. Only after this can we streamline, automate and optimise their systems.

In order to do a thorough analysis for a client, we ask the following questions.

Sales:

1. Where do the leads come from?
2. How are quotes and other sales enablements issued and tracked? 
3. Are all your follow ups automated? 
4. What information is important to capture? 
5. How are you reaching your target market? 
   

Onboarding:

1. What do you usually do when you onboard a client? 
2. What information do you need from them before your team can implement their details into the system? 
3. How do you usually get access and store client information? 
4. Do you use email or Slack? 
5. Do you use an automated process or does someone have to manually request this information?
   

Setting up a project: 

1. How do you usually set up a project from scratch? 
2. What information do you need prior to set up? 
3. Are there things you need to prepare beforehand? 
4. Where do you compile the information? 
5. How are they compiled?
   

Once we have a detailed picture of your business, we can start to piece everything together and reform the process.

How to start analysing your own processes

Open up a document and quickly note down all the steps you normally make, within each area of your business. Perhaps follow the questions above to help you cover all the key areas. Alternatively, you can create a video or audio recording detailing your processes and then get a team member or VA (Virtual Assistant) to transcribe it later.

Remember, the goal is just to do a quick brain dump, you can start to streamline and optimise the processes later. Don’t overthink the process, keep it simple!

Can’t set aside 30mins? Try 10 mins. Once you start, you will realise how easy it is and continuing will not seem tedious.

What to do if you don’t have a fixed process or SOP?

When it comes to any of the creative processes, it can be difficult to create an SOP because a lot of decisions or workflows depend on contexts. (“it depends on...”)

There are two solutions to this.

One, if it depends on the context or certain conditions, then create a logic map of the various “If-And-But-Then” scenarios.

For example, IF this happens, AND this happens, BUT this happens, THEN do this.

The more scenarios you can come up with, the better you will be at creating the logic map.

Don’t worry about putting the information into a system, framework or diagram at first, simply document the information. 

One of the principles we adopted from Toyota is called, “Automation with a human touch”.

There will always be situations which don't fit into your SOP. In these cases, your experience and intuition will mean you interpret and respond to the situation differently from usual. 

These are usually situations that are outside of our control. As a general rule, we create the system in such a way that at least 80-90% of the entire process is systemised, leaving 10-20% to human judgement. The 10-20% tend to be “black swan” events that are difficult to plan for.

While your team is still learning the processes, get them to follow the SOP as much as possible. When they experience situations that require their human judgement, ask them to report to their team leader or senior manager to ensure that they are making the right decision.

Inspired to upgrade your company processes? If you would like to speak with one of our specialists,  book in a 30 minute discovery call with us today.