It’s interesting…

Just this morning in the LAB Community Forum, one of our members asked a great question. It was this:

What would you do differently if you were to go back in time with the knowledge and experiences that you have now?

And what it brought to mind is something that I’ve been coming head to head with in the last few weeks here at the Blog Marketing Academy. It is something I’ve even talked about before. Something that might seem even boring and abstract at first. Something that might SEEM as if it isn’t applicable until your business is bigger.

That “something” is SYSTEMS.

I have now been operating online for about 20 years. That’s a long time. And it would be easy to think I’m a veteran.. got it all figured out, blah blah blah. But, that’s just not true. Plus, there’s the thing where even when you KNOW something is the right thing to do, you don’t do it. It is like the “guru’s curse” or the “coach’s curse”. Great at diagnosing others, but not so great at doing it yourself.

And that’s sort of what has happened in my own business regarding systems.

It is one of those things that I know, but haven’t fully applied in my own business. And, were I to go back in time with what I know now, a higher priority on systems is something I would definitely do differently.

So, what the hell do I mean by “systems”?

Well, having processes for things. Standard operating procedures. Checklists.

It’s the kind of thing that could easily be dismissed as only being needed for big companies with teams of employees. But, no… it applies just as much to a solo entrepreneur, too.

When you’re in those early phases, much of what you’re doing is trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing. Right? 🙂 You don’t always know what to do. You have to go out and look. Maybe take online courses. Do trial and error. All that is normal.

But, when you find that something is working, what do you do? Just keep it in your head?

That’s what most of us do. Very little about HOW our businesses run exists outside our little heads. And, then the way things are done will be subject to your whims, your moods, getting distracted by shinier objects, etc. When something works and we don’t take the time to SYSTEMATIZE it outside our heads, that is a recipe for bouncing back off it and forsaking any benefits from what you just learned. You’re liable to forget.

There’s also this…

If all the “how to” is stuck inside your head, what have you really built?

This last weekend, I was catching up on a little financial planning. And I was re-calculating net worth. Not to get deep into that, but obviously part of net worth is the value of any business you own. For me, part of my net worth is the value of Blog Marketing Academy as a business.

It doesn’t matter what that number is, but the MINDSET of actually looking at one’s business as an asset can be eye-opening. A house, for instance, is an asset and it exists separately from you. Shouldn’t a business be the same way?

If you look at your business as a sellable asset, then it can change your perception of what it is you’re building. It brings with it the expectation that what you’re building can outlast you. That it can go on if you were to hand it over to somebody else.

But, to do that, you cannot have everything stuck inside your head. It is simply VALUELESS that way.

So… systems.

Make everything that you do that works something that somebody else could come in there and do. Even if you don’t intend to hire anybody any time soon, you still take the time to create those standard operating procedures.

The fact that I haven’t taken this seriously enough has capped my own business growth. Not fun to admit, but it is what it is.

And so now, this is something we’re spending a lot more time on.

I’ve been creating processes. Writing them up and putting them in Google Drive. And we’re also creating checklists for certain standard procedures. We’re orienting all of it around our basic company structure, complete with 7 divisions and every function outlined. And, any task which requires being “touched” by multiple divisions has items on the checklist for routing.

For instance, an Office Hours session for THE LAB is a process. We have a checklist for it now. It starts with a department in my company called Production Services, where everything is prepped in advance of the Office Hours. Then, it routes to me… who actually DOES the Office Hours. Then, right after the session is done, I check off my portion and route back to Production Services… who then takes over and handles recordings, processing and posting into THE LAB.

It might sound a little… bureaucratic. But, it isn’t. It is quite efficient. And the main point is…

I’m creating a business which exists outside of my head. A business which is designed to allow expansion without ME being a bottleneck.

I wish I had taken this seriously much earlier.

And my recommendation to you, even if you’re just starting out, is to take this seriously. This isn’t just stuff applicable to established businesses. This is stuff you do SO THAT you can establish your business predictably. And SO THAT once you get there, you stay that way and don’t keep constraining things because of whatever might be happening with you personally.

Keep in mind that if you’re starting up a blog and trying to build a business online… that you’re building a REAL ASSET. It takes some times, yes. But, any asset can exist independently of you as the founder. It needs to be separate.

And it begins with… SYSTEMS.

– David Risley
Founder, Blog Marketing Academy