Systems are critical to building a business that will one day set you free. If someone holds information critical to your business and they don’t show up for work tomorrow, you have a problem…especially if that person is you. So you need to build a business on a foundation of systems that show others what to do. Here’s a six step process for creating an effective system.
1. State desired outcome
2. Create solution
3. Test it
4. Refine it
5. Document it
6. Train others
You start with your desired outcome. For example, let’s say that you want everyone in the company to answer the phone the same way to create the best first impression. You will need to create a solution for this, which in this case is a script you’d like everyone to follow. You write the script. You distribute it to all staff. To test it you let others answer the phone and check they say the right thing. You make any changes if you feel necessary and once happy with it you put the script into your company manual. Then you train everyone who comes into the company on how to answer the phone.
Simple as!
From the desk of liber8yourbusiness. Business Mentors and experts in small business exit strategies. Based in Wellington, New Zealand.