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Are your business systems serving you? Are they able to scale with you? Perhaps you don’t have any clear systems at all. We dive deep into systems vs processes and 4 must-have business systems to grow and scale your business.

Join the Decide to Thrive workshop designed to help you future-proof your business.

Like it or not, systems are the backbone of our businesses and the sooner we implement them, the better.

In this episode, I'm going to break down for you the difference between a process versus a system, and what you actually need to prioritise when putting them in place in your business.

I will also share the four systems that are absolutely critical to grow and scale your business.

So, if you're ready to get your systems in check and learn how to be truly supported in your business, this episode is for you.

new season, new systems

I feel like September is this fresh start, a mini New Year and that's why I really wanted to talk about systems - it's a great time to be doing this work and it’s something I see many don't prioritise in their business.

This is usually for a few reasons.

They don't know where to start with systems
They don't feel confident in knowing what systems they need
They don’t feel like they have enough time (even though they know systems would make things a whole lot easier)

If you don't prioritise systems, and you grow quickly, your business can’t always handle that growth. You can come to a breaking point where it cannot support the number of clients, enquiries, leads, orders or sales.

Unfortunately, a lot of people will step away from their business because this belief will come up that ‘it’s just too hard’. You might even miss how easy things were, say six months ago. We can end up sabotaging ourselves and pulling back thinking the problem is number of clients and size of the business when really, the issue is… you don't have the systems to support that business.

What is a system?

So I think the first question we need to start with is… what is a system?

There are two big ideas here. One is a system and one is a process.

People get confused between these two terms. So let me break them down for you:

A process is any sort of procedure or series of steps that you follow if something is triggered.
For example; a new client enrols, there might be a process for sending them a contract. We go into Google Drive, we find the template, we duplicate it, we add their name, download it as a PDF, upload it to HelloSign send it away, there might be a process for that for sending someone a contract.
A process is individual and localised to one specific task. However, in a business, it's likely you’ll see many different processes come together to serve a larger system.

And that’s the difference between a process versus a system. A process is task-specific, a system is much larger and outcome specific.

For example, maybe that sending of the contract was the sending a contract process, but there's a larger system to onboard a new client, and that process is a part of that system.

This might look like sending a welcome email, then sending them a contract, then sending them a payment link, then sending them a welcome gift, getting them on to an onboarding call, whatever that might be. That collection of processes is your onboarding system, your client experience system.

It’s really important to know the difference between the two because sometimes, systems feel so overwhelming, because… how the heck do I document all of this? Well like the saying goes: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

You start with all of the different individual pieces or processes, you put those together, and you have your system!

Systems are empowering

I knew that if I did not have systems in place I would burn out. I would not be able to support my growth, I would not be able to be present with my family, and I would pull back.

I believe that your business can work. However, you want it to work.

If you are really spiritual and your business runs solely on energy and manifestation, that’s amazing and it is going to work for you - if you work for it.

If your business is all about marketing, and you're going to go super hard on bro marketing tactics, okay, that will work for you - if you work for it.

There's a universal truth between the people who are all about energy and the people who are all about strategy. Regardless of what you are leading with on the outside, if you do not have the systems on the inside, your business will break, you will come to resent it, you will pull back and you will shrink.

Your business will run you instead of the other way around. And that is not what I am here for.

I'm here to empower women to build a business to support their lives and their families. And in order to do that, we need systems.

function over form

We really need to prioritise function over form.

I see a lot of people who take a CEO day or shut their business down for a month because they want to organise their Google Drive folder or create the most beautiful Asana, ClickUp, or Trello board.

Even with the most beautiful, detailed system in the entire world, if you don't actually use it, and it's not functional, then it's not going to make a difference for your business.

It's extremely important we prioritise function over form. This is a big thing that we talk about in the Busy-to-Boss Academy.

I always get questions from clients as to what's the right tool, or what's the best project management software, and my answer is always the same:

The tool will not fix your problems. The tool will not work unless you have the systems in place. You need the systems in order to use the tool.

A bit of tough love, I know, but it really isn't about how pretty the system is, it’s about whether you actually use it for how you need to use it. The tool isn't usually the problem. That execution piece is key.

How do I build a system?

Whether you realise it or not, you are probably already executing some of these processes - they’re just not documented.

I’d encourage you to pay attention over the next two weeks to the different things happening in your business.

How much time is it taking?
What are the steps that you are following?

We often do this on autopilot without realising and the problem is, if you don't have that awareness of what's actually going on, and you can't articulate what the problem is, you will never be able to create a solution.

4 Systems I swear by

Scheduler

You need a system to handle all things scheduling. So I’m talking about client experience, customer experience, and onboarding. I use tools like HelloSign and Acuity to help me with this.

Acuity scheduling

You can create ‘gift packages’ inside Acuity which will literally change your life. Gift packages are basically a collection of calls. So for example, if you sign up for my six-month one-on-one coaching package, you get 6 60-minute private coaching calls. So you sign up for this gift package, you get a code. When you go in to schedule your calls, you use that code and it automatically books it. Game changer.

There's so much more within Acuity to help you, from custom reminders, emails, cancellation emails, and follow-up emails. Instead of me having to chase clients down Acuity can handle all of that for me. Could a team member have done that? Yes, but that probably would have been a waste of resources. If a piece of software can do it. Let the software do it.

HelloSign

I also use HelloSign to send out contracts to my clients. I have contract templates for my coaching programmes we duplicate them, switch out their names, upload to HelloSign send away, and that's the process for that.

2. Content System

Your content is how you connect with your people, it builds true, deep relationships with your audience.

I have people who buy from me now who have been following me for years. I have people who don't buy from me, who have been following me for five years, but they recommend me to other people, and they helped me grow my business.

A common problem with people’s content strategy is leaving no room for human error. What to do if you’re feeling sick that day or uninspired?

There's a balance. Using moments of inspiration and leaning on systems that support me. So it's not solely based on my energy, it's not solely based on my inspiration.

I believe that my energy can drive my business, but I don't believe that it can ever hold it back. I am not going to let myself be in a position where my business would keep me small, where my energy would keep my business small, my energy can drive me forward. But my energy cannot hold me back.

So if that's the case, then I need something holding me up. And that's what a content planning system ultimately looks like.

So for you, maybe you sit down once a week, and you plan and write out your content.
Or maybe you write one post a day, but you sit down once a week to plan it out. So you're not starting from scratch every single day.

Take time to identify the inefficiencies and some tweaks, improvements, or upgrades that can be put in place to make that easier, better, stronger, and more effective.

A few things you could add to your content system right now:

Repurposing - Take the content that you have already created, reshare it or turn it into more content. I.e. a blog into three social media posts.
Repeat and reshare your content often - Don't just put out a podcast once. Promote it two or three times don't just do one live stream drive traffic back to that over and over again. All you have to do is reshare the video and you have another piece of content.

You can also have a process within that system that says, every time I write a piece of content, it goes into my content bank.

3. Payment System

This one is key.

I see a lot of people who just say, PayPal me when it comes to systems.

So let's talk about susceptibility:

You need a contract
You need to be legally protected
You should avoid sending an invoice every time you need a client to pay their next instalment

Whereas if you had a system where there was an automatic charging of payment plans, the system, Stripe, PayPal, whatever it is automatic charges all of the payment plan installations, that is going to save you so much time.

4. System around Sales

Really think about how you bring leads into your business.
How do you nurture that relationship to a point of a sales conversation?
How can you get to a point where that client or customer is at a sales point decision and they choose to invest in your business? Then the next system that would trigger after that is, of course, onboarding. Something really cool that you'll notice about systems is that they tend to build and trigger off of each other.

Thinking about that customer acquisition, nurturing that customer, and then converting that customer is really key to making sales feel easy.

I hear people say all the time, “I hate launches, launching never works for me.” Okay, well, you probably just haven't found a way of launching that works for you. It’s the same with systems. “Oh, I hate systems. They're rubbish. They're so hard.” No systems aren't rubbish. You just don't have any in place to see the benefits.

We often make up stories around something being hard or restrictive. And it's really important that you get to a point where you have discernment and figure out what's actually going on. Do I actually not like this? Or do I not feel confident in this area?

So many feel icky around sales, but sales is an act of service. You’re here to help people.

Having a sales process doesn't need to be difficult. You just need to have a process because when you do, you feel supported and you say okay, I know exactly what to do here. And that’s powerful!

Let’s Summarise!

To recap, these are the four systems I recommend having in your first business, regardless of size.

Scheduling & Customer Experience
Content
Payments
Sales

Now, you will, of course, have systems and processes beyond those. But these are really the four that I would nail down and get these super, super tight because when you do, everything is going to feel so much easier in your business.

And so some of the big takeaways that I hope you will hold on to:

It is about using the system and not how pretty it looks.
Any repeatable task should be a process. Anything you do more than once period. Otherwise, you are losing time and money in your business.
You can literally make a decision right now that today is the day that changes. You don't have to continue to struggle with this. This doesn't need to be something that's hard. You also just get to reframe and redefine what a system is for you.