Now that we’re on the same page as to why systems are so important for your business (you can click here for a refresher), let’s get to how you can actually identify the systems you should create in your business.
How to identify what systems you should have in your business
First things first: take inventory.
Take Inventory
Taking inventory for your business can be helpful in many situations, including (but not limited to):
- When you’re hiring a team member;
- When you’re looking to cut tasks and projects that aren’t necessary; and
- When you’re creating systems in your business.
But let’s focus on when you’re creating systems in your business.
It’s sad, but true that many of us spend our days “working hard” – sometimes for 8, 9 even 10 hours – but if someone were to ask us, “What did you accomplish today?”, we’d struggle to be able to tell them.
Taking inventory shows us, without a doubt, what it is we’re actually doing day in and day out for our business.
A 3-step inventory exercise
Here’s how simple this exercise is:
1. Find a small notebook, a sheet of paper – anything you can carry around with you.
2. For 1 week, take it with you everywhere you go, and write down everything it is you’re doing for your business each day.
Don’t get too stuck in the weeds of this – you don’t have to be SUPER detailed. The purpose is to understand what it is you’re working on, and of the things you’re working on, how often you’re working on them.
Your list might include things like:
- Check email
- Engaged on Facebook
- Post to my social media channels
- Record my podcast
- Write a blog post
- Moderate my Facebook group
- Read a blog article from another site
- Research competitors
This is of course not all-inclusive, but it gives you an idea of what some of the items on your list might include.
3. Categorize the list of tasks and projects you’ve just recorded.
By categorizing your inventory list you’re making it much easier to determine which of your tasks or projects should have a system created around it first.
One way to categorize your list would be by frequency, meaning you would break up your tasks and projects in terms of those you do:
- daily,
- weekly,
- bi-weekly,
- monthly, and
- 1-time tasks / projects
I find this categorization technique to be the best for systems specifically because again, it’s going to help when it comes time to prioritizing the systems we want to create first based on their importance (aka impact).
Next up: Prioritizing your list
We’ll spend some time later on this Season talking about the systems every business should have, but for now, taking inventory is the first step in identifying the systems that YOU, as an individual business owner, should be focusing on for your business.
Up next, we’re going to be diving into how you can prioritize the systems you’ve just identified, so that you have a clear place to start when it comes to implementing your first of many systems!
