Most of my clients already run established businesses. They come to coaching to improve the business, themselves and their team.
Through our business coaching programmes, one-to-one or group business coaching in Liverpool, we take owners and their teams through a set of ActionCOACH processes. They build profit, lift team morale and grow knowledge. Most importantly, they make it clear what everyone is working towards.
One of the main ones is the 9 steps to systemising a business. It has one clear goal for the owner:
Save Your Self Time Energy Money = SYSTEM
Here’s how it breaks down.
The 9 steps to systemising a business
Step 1. Define the vision
Where are you going? Why do you do what you do? Where do you want to end up?
Maybe the vision is to build a profitable business and sell it. Maybe it’s to grow a family business. Either way, it should be aspirational. It should land with you and your team, so they buy into it and work towards it.
Step 2. Set your mission
With the vision set, work out how you’ll get there. What will you do, and for whom? The mission is the road map to the vision.
Step 3. Write a culture statement
A great business has a great team behind it. The team is great because the culture is clear and consistent. It defines how people act, behave and work together.
A culture statement, or “rules of the game”, writes that culture down.
Step 4. Set SMART goals
Everyone in the team should know exactly what the business goals are, and what their own goals are.
Both must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, a Result and Time-scaled.
Step 5. Draw the organisation chart
An organisation chart makes each person’s role clear: who they’re accountable to and what they’re accountable for. List each team member’s roles and responsibilities.
To begin with, the same one or two names may appear in most of the boxes. That’s normal. Part of systemising the business is building the processes and systems for each of those roles.
Step 6. Write positional contracts
This takes the organisation chart to the next level. A positional contract sets out the key specifics of each role: the activities and tasks it’s responsible for.
Draw two organisation charts. One for the business as it is now, and one for how it will be in the future.
Step 7. Set key performance indicators (KPIs)
Give each role a set of KPIs. They define what’s expected and what the role has to achieve.
Link them to the overall SMART goals for the business. Make sure each one can be tracked and monitored.
Step 8. Build your how-to systems
This is usually the biggest job in systemising the business. Start by listing every routine task for every position.
Then write the how-to for each one: a manual, a video or a checklist. These procedures train staff, keep the standard consistent and make the team and the business efficient.
Step 9. Put management systems in place
With all the systems and processes in place, the business runs efficiently and can operate without you.
One of the last steps is an overarching management system that sets out the day-to-day running of the business.
Want to systemise your business?
Systemising is a core part of how we work with owners in our business coaching programmes. The first step is a free review of where your business is now, and which of the nine steps would make the biggest difference first. Book Your Free Business Review.
