Without systems your business is managing you

Systems will dramatically increase your business's productivity and profits. Most importantly, it allows your business to work without you. Our definition of a business is: A commercial, profitable enterprise that works without its owner. This may be 180 degrees from what you've been taught in the past, but think about it - why build a job for yourself when you can build an income stream that keeps on growing whether you are involved or not. Wouldn't you like to say to your staff: "You guys look after things, I am taking three months off?" Simply put, systems allow you to extricate yourself from the business so you can strategise further growth, pursue other ventures or play golf.

So let's look at some of the scenarios that are standing in most business owners' way.

Sharing company tasks

Almost every business owner I have met works overtime. That's because their business doesn't work - they do. They don't assign new tasks to their employees because they retain everything about the business and 'how to do it' in their heads. They believe they can do the job quicker and more efficiently.

Business growth will be limited if the business owner personally has to train every new employee. Without systems, most owners can't even remember the things they taught the last employee when they started and the things they taught them all along the way? Often, uninspired employees are retained in the business rather than having to devote the time to hiring and training - again.

As a business owner, you presumably did not start a business to become a slave to it. There's only so much that you can add to your to-do list before your time and your health run out.

Systemising your business

If you recognise yourself in these scenarios, then you will forever work 'IN' your business instead of 'ON' your business. So what is the answer to freeing yourself from your business? Systems and learning to DIVIDE to grow your business. We call it DIVIDE to MULTIPLY. The essence of dividing to multiply is systemising your business.

What made the industrial age in the 19th century so exciting and so successful? They had to introduce systems to cope with the speed with which their factories began producing products. Henry Ford discovered that if he introduced a systemised production line in his factory, he could produce cars even faster. Industrialists knew the power of the systems approach and they made good use of it.

Go back to when you started your business, you probably built it in your mind. If you had drawn a picture of it - imagine what it would look like finished. That's right - you have got to finish a business at some stage so you can profit handsomely from the sale of it one day. If you don't finish it - you will be left with only a job and you can't sell a job. Look at Bill Gates, he made a lot of money selling software, but he became the richest man in the world by selling shares in his business.

Take a moment to imagine a business that you didn't have to work in. Would the business still function efficiently? Would all the systems and people integrate to achieve the result you and your customers or clients want? Of course it would with the proper systems in place.

The four major areas to systemise your business are:

1. People and Education Systems
2. Operations and Distribution Systems
3. Improvement Testing and Measuring Systems
4. IT Systems and Technology

So start by identifying which areas to systemise and you will ultimately transform your business from a job to a growing enterprise that makes you a leader in your field. All you need are the right systems to run your business and the right people to run your systems.