Scale with systems

Has the vision for your business gotten lost in the chaos of day-to-day responsibilities? 📋

Are you ready for growth but have NO TIME to make it happen? ⏳

If you feel like you're drowning in tasks with no shore in sight, we're here to throw you a life raft.

Systems. Processes. Workflows.

🏊‍♀️These are essential to keeping your head above water and can transform every aspect of your business:

🔹 Operations

🔹 Teams

🔹 Finance

🔹 Sales/Marketing

🔹 CEO

As an entrepreneur, it can be challenging to scale when you struggle to find the time. But if you create time in your schedule to establish systems, you can actually increase your productivity which will help you stay on track to reach your goals.

If you are overwhelmed with the clients you have or want to grow your business but feel like you're at capacity, you need to get systems in place.

Here's how to start:

GOALS

Define your goals for each process you need to establish. What is the purpose? What do you hope to accomplish? How will you measure the success of the system? 

Let's use onboarding clients as an example. The purpose of establishing an onboarding process is to streamline onboarding for yourself and your clients. You hope to create a smooth process that gives a great first impression and reduces the time you spend onboarding internally. Success will be determined by client feedback about the process and less time spent on the related tasks.

PLAN

Once your goals are clear, you'll want to map out all the steps necessary to complete the process. This will establish a repeatable workflow you'll document in the next step. 

Thinking about our onboarding process, here is what that might look like:

• Send an intake form

• Send proposal, contract, and invoice

• Send welcome packet

• Send client gift

• Create client portal

DOCUMENT

The next time you start one of the tasks on your new workflow list, document what you're doing. We like using Loom to record our screen. Then, you or your team can turn that video into an SOP (standard operating procedure). Keep doing this with different tasks, and soon you'll have an operating manual. This is vital for scaling with ease.

ASSIGN

Your SOP should spell out the What, When, Where, and Why. It's time for you to assign the Who. Determine who on your team will be responsible for each task and another person to be the backup. If you don't have these people in place yet, it will help you determine who you need to hire.

EVALUATE

It's important to evaluate your processes periodically. Is the process working? Did you miss something? Have things changed? Make any necessary changes and get back to business!

Taking the time to get systems established will pay off in several ways:

You'll be able to scale because you can delegate confidently and increase productivity.

Your client experience will be consistent because there are clear guidelines that your whole team will follow.

You'll find more time in your day because your team won't be asking you the same questions. They'll have SOPs to reference. And training new employees will be a breeze.

Now, it's time to get started!

We recommend tackling one of these systems first:

COMMUNICATION

How will you communicate with your team or clients? Document your processes for things like texts, Gmail, Slack, and Voxer.

HIRING

Systematize the process of searching, screening, and hiring. If you want a done-for-you service, we recommend connecting with Sharon Ozuna. She’s a hiring guru.

SCHEDULING

The right tools can show availability and make it easier for clients (and team members) to schedule appointments with you. Calendly and Acuity are great places to start.

ACCOUNTING

Document your bookkeeping and get things cleaned up in the process. This will make handing off your bookkeeping easier when the time comes. (We're available if the time is now!)

MEETINGS

Create a system for documenting meeting notes, creating actionable steps, and following up on open tasks. We love using a ClickUp template for this!

There you have it! Whew! I know it seems like a lot. But if you block time off in your schedule to sit down and work through this process a little at a time, you'll start to feel the momentum build. And when you see how much easier your business runs with systems in place, you'll be looking for more areas to tackle next!

Here are all the resources we mentioned above for easy access:

Slack Voxer Sharon Ozuna Calendly Acuity ClickUp

P.S. Bookmark this blog and follow us on socials for all things accounting - We promise to make it less confusing than determining if Ross and Rachel were on a break! ✨