Welcome to We Make Systems Sexy! Hi there, Ashley here with We Make Systems Sexy. Today we’re going to discuss how to run a business that works without your constant oversight. How does that sound? Maybe you’re asking yourself, how in the world can I build a business that runs without me?
We’re going to break it down in a way that makes sense because, first of all, you might be thinking, “Why would I want to? I love my business. I built this baby. I love everything about my business”, but aren’t there times where you just want to step away for a day or a week or take a sabbatical and travel some?
What would happen if you did that? Would your business thrive? Would it burn to the ground? Would it possibly survive? What would happen?
I know it can be challenging to think about actually removing yourself from the day-to-day operations of your business and even the thought of doing so might stress you out, but that’s exactly why I want to have this discussion today about how it actually is possible to make it happen.
Maybe you’re thinking “Yeah, but I don’t really want to be out of the day-to-day. I truly love my business.”
Newsflash: You can still love your business and work to build that business without being the person your business completely depends upon. So let’s discuss what that actually means in order for you to scale and grow your business even more.
You shouldn’t be the person doing all of the day-to-day tasks. You really should step into that visionary role. Be thinking about how to grow the business, how to support the team members that you already have, how to support the clients that you have, and expand and grow.
But how can you do that when you’re involved in even the tiniest of details that you truly don’t need to be involved in?
The key is making yourself repeatable and replaceable.
“I don’t wanna be replaceable. I wanna be the head of this company. I wanna be the face of my company.” Maybe that’s what you’re saying to yourself. We don’t mean that somebody’s going to come in to replace you, but you need to make yourself replaceable.
I’m not trying to scare you here. It’s actually a positive thing, it’s good for your business. Businesses that rely so heavily on the owner for daily operations are setting themselves up for failure. You really need your business to work for you rather than vice versa. This means you would set yourself up to have a disaster recovery plan, as it were.
How can we do that?
I know I talk all the time about ClickUp and SOPs (standard operating procedures) and their importance within your business, and yet I’m not over-exaggerating when I talk about those tools. The first thing that really is important is documenting what’s being done. Creating those SOPs, not just having the SOPs, but implementing them, having your team members be able to implement them.
Having your team members be replaceable, not because we’re not trying to encourage team members to be replaced, but if one role in the company is only ever dependent on one person in the company and they get sick or they take a vacation or they decide to pursue another opportunity…Where does that leave you in your business?
In a very vulnerable state.
It’s so important that you start documenting what you’re doing from day one. I’ve talked about this a million times because I know how it will save you. You don’t have to think about optimizing what you’re doing at the moment but start to document what you’re doing right now, from the smallest task to bigger tasks to client onboarding, and client delivery, to how to add a team member to the Slack channel. All of it.
Document those things so that you’re not the only person who knows how to do them and so that your key team members aren’t the only people who know them as well. We don’t want our businesses to also be dependent on just key team members because what if something happens? It’s just the question that we have to ask ourselves to be realistic about what can possibly happen.
And because of this, we have to create a repeatable support system infrastructure in order to have these daily operations run without us there and without being afraid that everything’s just going to completely blow up.
Have you ever reflected on how you know you need SOPs built out but you just don’t have the time to do it yourself? That’s the thing that always gets pushed to the back burner. If you have thought that way, you are not alone. And I’m here to tell you that we would love to help you work through your SOPs. We offer the SOP Manual in a Day VIP day to clients looking to panic-proof their business.
Basically, we come in and help you identify the top processes that need to be documented. We help you understand how to keep them in the same location, in a cohesive way so that team members and any additional hires that you have coming on board will easily find and be able to access them. These SOPs will be easy to digest, easy to find, and easy to use.
Then we train your key team members on how to keep that process going as well. If you’re saying, “Hey, I have way more SOPs than can be tackled in a day”, don’t worry. We can help you do that, too. We do offer custom SOP Manual packages because every situation is unique and we understand that.
