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Pete: Shouldn't the system work you? That was the title on a billboard for an advertisement
for a mainframe computer back in the '80's. Can you remember mainframe computers? If you
can, you probably have a similar age to myself. But a mainframe computer was a huge
computer that probably did about the same as this iPhone that ran people's businesses for them
or did a lot of the workload. And as a recent computer science graduate, I was into systems big
time and I carried through the use of systems into my companies. And I'm not talking
necessarily about computer systems, although clearly they play a part, I'm talking about
procedures and systems for doing things. Why is that important? Why do you need systems?
Well try running a reasonably sized company without systems and pretty soon you realize that
things fall to bits because unless you have systems the stuff that happens in your company and
the stuff that you sell, at some stage, you know I'm very big on this concept of selling
companies, lives in the staff or, in your head, even worse because then you have to with the
business when you sell it rather than in sets of procedures and systems that can be replicated
and scaled and ultimately sold.
There are other reasons why you need systems as well but not being close to the level of detail
in the systems in our companies for a while, I wanted to talk to someone who was an expert and
Kerry Orr is just such a lady. So I interviewed Kerry and the result of that interview you're
going to listen to in a moment, gives you some reasons why perhaps you should be systemizing
your business. And, again, I'm not talking here about techie computer stuff, I'm talking about
fairly common sense stuff. But the problem with common sense is it's in short supply.
So have a listen to Kerry and I'm sure that you're going to find some reasons to systemize your
companies with - that you haven't thought of so far. And, ultimately, this is about money so
get the systems right and you can sell it and make it cash. Let me know what you think.
Well, hi, this is Pete and today I have on the line, Kerry, who is from the Systems Coach
company and Kerry's down in Spain. Very nice too, we're sitting here in what's supposed to be
London summer, it's not particularly good out there. Kerry's down in Spain and she's going to
tell us today a little bit today about the value of systemizing your business and give us a few
tips as to how we can systemize our businesses. So without further adieu, Kerry, are you there?
Kerry: Hi, Pete, how are you?
Pete: Hi, good. I want to say we're a little bit jealous I think with you being down in the
Spanish sunshine and rainy London here. But I'd like to kick off really with the obvious
question, why systemize your business?
What's the benefit to me as a business owner of doing that?
Kerry: Well, there are three main reasons to have systems in your business. The three reasons
are service, cost and growth.
Service, because your customers like consistency. They like to know what they're getting,
when they're getting it, how they're getting it and they like to make sure that they're getting
the same deal, the same service every single time.
Cost because systems help you to plug the gap, to help you stop leaving money on the table.
They help you streamline and make sure that all the actions you take within your business are
focused on your end result. They're focused on getting you maximum profit.
And growth, because systems enable your business to grow because they enable you to test and
measure, enable to sell your business if you wanted to as well.
Pete: Okay, so it's very important, isn't it, that we have everything well organized because
otherwise we won't be able to sell it because we won't understand what we're selling to the end
buyer. Is that the logic behind this?
Kerry: Exactly. If you - exactly, if a buyer comes along to your business, they want to know
the who, why, what, where, how, and if you've got documented systems and processes within
your business it just makes it a lot easier for them to see exactly they're getting and what they
can expect to achieve from the purchase of your business.
Pete: Right. So it makes it a lot safer for the purchasers to buy because they're buying a
machine effective, a well documented machine as opposed to a coalition of people. Right.
Now I must admit I'm a -
Kerry: A well oiled machine.
Pete: I'm a real fan of this stuff and we are very systemized and I find particularly when you
recruit people, it's great because you say, "This is your job. This is what you do. Here's the
manual" and you find that it makes transitioning staff in and out a lot easier because they're
like McDonald's isn't it? It's a way of doing it which is documented, everybody understands it.
Kerry: That's right. McDonald's has, I would say, probably the ultimate system because
wherever you go and whichever part of the world you go, you know exactly what you're getting
from McDonalds and they do it the same way. Systems can help your business become
predictable, profitable and presentable.
And definitely, with regard, you mentioned about team working. Without a doubt one of the
great benefits, they help you can delegate more effective, they help you enjoy better teamwork
and bring on new teams - new staff much faster.
Pete: It's a lot of good stuff for good results of being systemized but my guess is some people
are just a little bit, frightened maybe is the wrong word, but it sounds quite hard and a lot of
work to do so, could you maybe just give us a few tips? If we're starting with a business which
is grown organically and there are most things that grow organically get a little bit messy and
out of hand. Can you give us a way of trimming that down and
give us tips to how to start systemizing?
Kerry: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that this is it. There are quite a few people that look
forward to systemizing their business, seems like a big massive process and it needn't be. I
would say to people is certainly to keep it simple. Start from the top down. Many people start
facing the systemizing and they'll start with the tiny little top that they do start with but
actually if you start from the top down, you look at your business as a whole, as a big picture.
And then you chunk it down in sections. Now the way that I do it is I chunk it down into five
core areas of business.
So you have organizing, marketing, selling, delivering and accounting. And everything you do
within your business comes under one of those five core areas. From there you can look at the
individual systems that then go up to make each one of those core areas. And then once you
have your individual systems, so for example, under marketing you might have social media
marketing as an individual system. And then within social media marketing you can then start
looking at individual processes and then the tasks that actually make up those processes. So if
you start from the top down it becomes a lot easier to do and
always concentrate on one section at a time.
Pete: Okay, and how do you that? On a white board or a bit of paper? What's the mechanism
by which you do that?
Kerry: There are various different ways of doing it. If you're working with teams then white
boards, # 8:20 if you like is a very effective, simple way to do it and if you need everybody to
see it straight away. I do know people that use paper and post it notes, I often use that myself
sometimes. It's entirely how you work. There is software as well that you can buy which will
actually help you to systemize your business. It will help you to document exactly what you do
and how you do it.
Pete: Right. This sounds really good. The thing here is just start and don't try and get it
perfect. I know when we started doing this years ago it was, oh blimey, we don't know where
to start. There's no right place to just start and then get something done. There's nothing more
scary than a blank piece of paper, is there?
Kerry: Exactly that and you've hit nail on the head. It's just a case of start. Look at the very
top of your business and then start by looking at one core area and literally just to get started.
And it doesn't have to be right, it doesn't have to perfect. The whole point of systems is it's
continuous improvement. So you look at your systems, you document everything you have
right now as it is and then you can look at ways to improve it and where are those gaps. And as
you start documenting it, you start to realize straight away exactly where those gaps are and
where you can start to put better efficiencies and improvements into place.
Pete: Do you have an opinion on whether it's worth going for such things as ISO standards, etc.
which force a lot of this documentation, don't they?
Kerry: I think for a lot of companies it's beneficial. It does depend on the size of your
company and the reasons why you're doing because if you're doing it because it helps with
your suppliers, a lot of, sorry, your clients. A lot of clients actually like you to have those
standards in place and, absolutely yes, it's a good idea. I think the thing is, once you're
systemized, actually putting ISO into place becomes so very much easier because you already
have everything you need.
Pete: That's a good point, isn't it? Because if you get your own house in order then the ISO
process and an external audit becomes so much easier.
Kerry: It does.
Pete: I think it's a good thing, I really do. I know that people, particularly when they're
starting out, have limited resources in terms of time as much as money, but at what stage in a
business growth should you start thinking about doing this stuff, Kerry?
Kerry: Well, I'm a firm believer that you start as you need to go and it may seem strange to a
single business owner who's just starting to maybe - who's just starting out. I still think that
you really do need to have your very basic ideas of processes in place at least because then
systems grow. They grow with your business and they help your business to grow. So when
once you have, and just starting a business, if you put your very basic systems and processes
and place at that point, when you first bring somebody along it's much easier to say to them,
"This is what we do. This is how we do it. This is how I want it done and this is the end result.
This is what I'm aiming to achieve" and once people can see this on paper it becomes so much
easier for them to actually be passionate about your business and what it is you want to achieve.
They actually become proactive in working for your business
rather than reactive and it's really important.
Pete: Yeah, it makes it more solid, more real and also you can measure your performance
against the processes and the standards that you've put in place. I think it's a good thing.
Kerry: Absolutely.
Pete: To people who are starting out, the time to do it is before you've got the mess, before
you've made a mess of it, start off and do it properly from the beginning, so that's great. Well,
I'm sure a lot people will be thinking I want to do some of this but maybe I'm not quite sure
where to start. Maybe don't have the confidence, it's not something - it's not formerly the way
that my brain works. So how can you help people, Kerry? What would be the process that you
would take them through if they'd like to get contact with you after the call?
Kerry: If people want to get in contact with me personally after the call then the best way to do
that is via my website which is www.thesystemssuperwoman.com.
Pete: www.thesystemssuperwoman.com, love it.
Kerry: And basically so this - yeah, www.thesystemssuperwoman.com, and basically what I
do is I would, in the first instance, I would come in and after an initial chat via Skype, I'm
actually based in Spain, so usually my initial chats with people are via Skype. And then what I
would do is I would come into your business, spend a day with the business owner, with the top
level staff of the business and we'd literally just dissect your business. I say "dissect" but we
just look at it as a whole business and we dissect it down and then I would come back with my
recommendations on your critical systems, where it is that you need to concentrate on first,
where the biggest gaps are if you like.
Pete: Okay, perfect. Well, all right, well I'll stick underneath the video a link to the site but I
think really, we've been on the phone the best part of 10 minutes already. Time really flies,
doesn't it? So we should not take up too much more of busy people's day but hopefully people
will take something away from this and I fully endorse what you say. Start early and systemize
well because that way you can grow without many of the growing pains that prevent some
businesses actually getting past the start up phase. So thanks very much for your time, Kerry, I
really appreciate you taking some time out and sharing that with us today.
Kerry: No problem at all. No problem at all, Pete.
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