A big barrier to growth in a business is the fact that many business owners are, by nature, control freaks. They started the business, and live secure in the knowledge that nobody can do it quite like they can. I put my own hand in the air to this. Guilty.
The problem is that this becomes a huge limiting factor to growing the business. There’s a limit to how big a business can get if you’re running round doing absolutely everything.
The answer to your problem is quite simple. Systems.
Let’s take a simple one, like answering the telephone to a new customer or client. You know what you need to do and to find out to get the relationship off to a good start and make a good first impression. This comes from experience built up over many years. You just know it. An employee coming in and taking that phone call won’t be able to do it as well as you, right?
Probably not. But what if you created a system for the employee to follow? Say, a one-page script or plan, which covers the structure of the conversation, the questions that need to be asked, and the follow-up steps that need to be rearranged. All coming from your experience, all just the way you want it done, but you’re not personally involved anymore.
Your system has freed you. Freed you to concentrate on other things in your business.
Michael Gerber, who I wrote about in my last post on whether you have a business or a job, said this:
“What is a system? It’s a process for predictably achieving a goal based on specific, orderly, repeatable principles and practices…systems permit ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results. However, without a system, even extraordinary people find it difficult to predictably achieve even ordinary results.”
Have a think for just a minute. If you could create 2 systems for parts of your business which would free up you and your time, what would they be?