As a solopreneur or entrepreneur you’re beyond busy, so it’s important that your business learn like a well-oiled machine. The way to have it running like that is to create systems with processes to help streamline things and to support you.
Within most businesses you’ll find filing, accounting, marketing and client management systems. Each of those systems has processes within it that are performed on a regular basis to keep things running. In addition to the systems that I mentioned, you’ll need others that will support you running your business including a time management system.
Look at the systems that you currently have in place and ask determine what’s working and what’s not working. Of the things that aren’t working, review the system processes and change them accordingly so that you end up with something that works for you. You want processes in place that get the job done without extra energy or effort or disruption. There may be systems that you have to add as well. Look at the things that you do all the time and create systems around them. If you don’t have anything in place at all, it’s time to get cracking. Start with the basic systems that I mentioned above and add other systems that you need.
To give you a couple of practical examples, your filing system should consist of action, reference and archive files. Action files are files that you use on a regular basis, such as vendor and client files. Reference files contain information that you use occasionally for information and archives consists of last years’ files and go back as far as necessary. I would recommend checking with your accountant to see how long you have to keep financial files. Usually archives are kept in a different location than your other files, but they don’t have to be.
Another example is your time management system. That system starts with the right time management tool and includes your master task list, daily to-do list and supportive habits like planning, prioritizing, goal setting and even saying “no”. If technology is a fit for your time management personality, there are other tools that you might incorporate to support you.
As a regular practice, review your systems to see if they’re still supporting you as much as they should. When things change in your business, it may call for changes to be made to the systems you have in place.
Having effective systems for all areas of your business results in less wasted time and money, fewer mistakes, mishaps and avoids negatively impacting your bottom line.
In my next post I’ll reveal Key #3.