The Internet has changed the way people think about companies, especially regarding owning a small business. Millions of people have tried to start an online business, with many finding success. While there are several reasons one might fail to get their online business off the ground, one of the main reasons is that the owner needed help to systemize the company and utilize the available resources.
People who have found success with their online business know that they need a great idea and the resources to cultivate a customer base for that great idea. They also understand that the same daily activities in a brick-and-mortar business apply to an online business. They know they will need to take the necessary steps to either learn those skills or outsource them to trusted and reliable sources.
Online business systemization is about combining the vision with the practicalities of the business world to become successful. The process of systemization is no great mystery. Learning how to effectively systemize your business and position yourself to run a successful online business that makes a profit consistently is possible.
What is Systemization
When they hear the word “systemization,” many online business owners turn to the idea of an endless array of meetings that create a ton of action items that must be followed up on at the next meeting so even more action items can be created. In short, people believe that systemization is nothing more than an ongoing, convoluted series of processes that only make running a business more complicated. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Systemizing your business doesn’t have to be complicated. Having a systemized business doesn’t mean that you’ll be caught up in so many policies and procedures that you lose all ability to work on anything productive, and it’s not about filling time or creating the illusion of being busy. Systemization is not about creating a machine and being dominated by that machine.
True systemization is about creating a stable functioning procedure that knows what needs to be done, as a way to do it, and gets the job done. When you have a truly systemized business, you free up more time to focus on more critical aspects of your business, like marketing, strategy, and product creation.
When your company is systemized correctly, the procedures make sense and have a purpose. With systemization, everyone in the business knows what to do and when to do it. There are no endless meetings to deal with, no complicated policies to follow, and no time wasted spinning the wheels.
True business systemization frees you, while a lack of systemization creates endless work and stifles your ability to succeed. This isn’t to say that all the processes within an adequately systemized business will be fun. However, when organized properly, the tasks can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, leaving the rest of the day to work on something more interesting, like converting more prospects to buying customers, creating a new product line, or writing new sales copy.
Why You Need to Systemize Your Online Business
There are many benefits that you can gain by systemizing your online business. With a sound system, people in your organization clearly understand the work they need to perform and what is expected of them. Without policies, there are many unanswered questions, and quality and service can’t be guaranteed. Now that you understand why it’s good to have a systemized business let’s explore the benefits you can gain.
Reduce Costs
Managing your email inbox or reading through piles of mail isn’t the most efficient use of your time. As a business owner, your time would be better spent analyzing new business opportunities or developing new product lines. Delegating many of the day-to-day tasks required to run a business can free up your time so you can focus your energy on the activities that will allow you to grow your business and increase revenues.
Without clearly documented business procedures, you can’t delegate daily tasks that consume most of your time. By recording your processes, you can easily delegate tasks knowing that they will be done correctly, allowing you to free up your time to oversee more projects, which brings in more revenue for your growing business.
Increase Efficiency
Documenting procedures allows you to discover any unnecessary steps that you may be taking. When you record your systems, you provide yourself with the opportunity to improve the process, which can result in cutting costs and freeing up your valuable time to grow your business. It can also help you complete tasks with fewer mistakes. Taking the time to document new procedures and re-document existing procedures can provide you with opportunities to make the daily tasks more efficient and free up your time to focus on growing business revenue.
Improve Performance
Businesses that lack procedures often have employees with their own way of handling tasks. While this can make your employees happy, it can also lead to inefficiencies. Not having documented procedures can lead your team to complete the same function in different ways. Recording the best way to perform the task will allow everyone to become more efficient in their jobs and improve their performance.
Improve Communication
Miscommunication is one of the biggest killers of time and profit in a business. When no documented procedures are in place, internal and external communication becomes a huge issue. When you have written guidelines, there are fewer arguments over how things should be done.
Scale Your Business
Having procedures in place for training new staff will reduce the stress your current staff endures when training new team members. Following documented hiring procedures will allow you to hire the right people for each job, and they’ll be able to follow guidelines without requiring additional assistance.
When new hires receive better training, they can become more productive at their jobs. They can be trained in a way that reduces the number of mistakes being made and improve their overall performance. When your employees perform better, you can gain more sales and have fewer errors, ultimately cutting costs.
Measure Your Progress
While the money coming into your business is one way to measure your progress, being able to measure your marketing efforts or the development process of new products will provide you with a better picture of the health of your company. If your business is organized and has clear documentation of your procedures in place, you can quickly check on these things and other areas of concern and obtain real-time data on how they are doing.
Meet Deadlines
With a basic plan in place for each day, the daily activities needed to keep your business operating can begin to build up, eventually creating a bottleneck and bringing other essential tasks to a halt. For example, if you aren’t posting your Accounts Receivables and Payables on a regular schedule, you can find yourself with much work when it comes time to pay your employees or calculate taxes for the current quarter. Having an organized, well-documented system ensures you won’t run into situations where you have to drop other tasks to play catch up.
Free up More Time
When your business is systematic in its functions and operation, it frees up your time, so you can focus on the activities that will help your business grow. Instead of spending the afternoon responding to emails, you can work on your marketing efforts or promote your business at local events. Business systemization allows you to spend time on those endeavors without worrying that your company operations have halted because you’re away from the office.
Take Time Off
Taking time off from the business is one of the main benefits of a systemized business. When your business is systematically organized, you can take a vacation knowing that your company will still be able to run, even in your absence.
Now that you’ve been shown the many benefits of having a systemized online business, it’s time to take a moment to evaluate your circumstance and make a list of what you want to accomplish with your online business. Write everything down, no matter how small, vague, or inconsequential it may seem.
One of the easiest ways to become burned out before your business even has a chance to succeed is trying to master everything yourself and doing it all. No matter how good you are, this line of thinking is unrealistic. Developing a logical and workable business system will allow you to build and run a successful online business.