Business Isn’t Freedom, Systems Are.

“Own your own business”, they said “escape the 9–5”, “hustle”, they said. And I listened to all of those pieces of advice which definitely got me out of the “rat race” but also put me in another type of race, where now instead of having one boss, I have 500. Taking care of clients, babysitting employees, covering when they’re out, hiring, managing, marketing, and so much more. Small business owners are bombarded with a huge amount of responsibility, and those who are willing to hustle, I believe are at risk of succumbing to the “busy-ness” of business.

In all of the entrepreneurship books I’ve read, I rarely hear talk about establishing systems as they relate to small business (I guess they aren’t sexy enough), though thanks to a mentor it was something that became a priority for me during a lockdown period in 2020. While we were experiencing growth earlier in the year, I used that lull to really hone in on our systems and standard operating procedures, creating video trainings for staff and re-evaluating our processes. The result was 100% growth within 6 months, and in the process I cut my own work hours by about 50%.

Systems are a mindset

There’s a lot of mindset talk, but I believe that truly being able to establish a “systematized” mind set, where everything you do, you start to brainstorm how a system could make it better.

For example, if clients are calling every day , what system can we establish to ensure that we serve them promptly without dropping the ball? Answer, train our clients to text us, which puts everything in writing, saves time, and ensures satisfaction.

It’s not the solution, but the fact that we are seeking it that allows us to continue growing in efficiency, to be able to focus on growth rather than maintenance.

I believe that business systems are the foundation of freedom in business. Yes, it takes a lot to get a business of the ground, so I understand why there is so much literature on the subject, however, no one really tells you what to do once you get there. Many business owners end up making a lateral move into another “job” with similar pay, hours, and a ton more responsibility than they would have had if they had just kept their day job.

Growth Over Everything

In my opinion, the only purpose of having a business, or being a business owner, is to grow your business. If I wanted to manage a business, I would get a job. I want to hire managers, and scale up so I can then have higher level managers overseeing operations, and then oversee the growth of the whole system. So all of our internal systems are established for growth. We have to have a heavy focus on customer acquisition and retention. We prioritize our follow up, customer experience, and outbound reach through a combination of automation and scheduled messaging.

And on the subject of automation, I think it’s over-valued in small business. The beauty of a small business is that it can be nimble. Automation isn’t nimble, it’s rigid, and I believe that in order to experience growth, small businesses need to be very adaptive to their customers. Our main automation is focused around being responsive to inquiries about our services quickly, because this adds to our bottom line. When it comes to our clients, however, that’s where we put our nose to the grindstone to provide an over-the-top experience that results in increased reputation, reviews, and referrals (the 3 R’s).

Automation Only Goes So Far

Sure, automation is great when you have an infinitely scalable business, but not everyone does, and it’s very likely that your small business is not Google or Amazon. That doesn’t mean you can’t pivot later and start something more scalable, but wouldn’t it be better to embrace the entity you are now, and grow it to it’s own highest potential, then pivot or start a new enterprise?

Automation definitely serves a purpose and frees us up to focus on important, rather than urgent tasks. It fulfills a huge need for us, but there’s a danger of going with the “all-in-one” services that are supposed to take care of everything for you from scheduling, to billing, and more. Automation only works well when it’s established intentionally.

With a minimal time investment, it’s possible to, for instance, establish an automation to add contacts to your VoIP and text them as soon as they complete a form on your website. Then, being able to correspond with multiple leads at the same time, you can decide who is worth getting on the phone with.

One of my biggest frustrations is when I can’t get ahold of a business, and we have established a system where no one will ever have that problem with us! However, automation isn’t the answer to everything, because it’s robotic. Our big selling point is an individualized personal touch to everything we do. After we send an initial automated message, a real person hops on and has a personal interaction. In fact, we encourage each staff to have their own communication style to really enhance the personal connection which goes a very long way with conversion.

Scaling High Touch

Which brings me to this question I’ve been asking myself. Can we scale high touch? Logic tells me no, otherwise, why would every big company have a phone service that literally turns you away from ever speaking with someone?

But, there are definitely solutions to creating a personalized experience, and instead of the cold tone of an automated message, creating the “hey, old friend!” feeling to a business, which in my opinion is the way business should be run and a surefire way to build a loyal following.

One solution that was recommended to me recently is a service called Mailbox Power, where you can easily mail personalized gifts and cards to clients, prospects, or VIP’s. This is an example of a high touch system that could be established requiring minimum time and maximum impact on clients. And there are other simple ways, such as scheduling birthday texts, appointment reminders, and more. Systems that are easy to understand and follow are the most effective, and you should create them yourself.

If this article provided some value to you, I would appreciate you giving it some claps, and that will indicate to me I should write more on this subject. I believe that business systems and automation are the ticket to freedom for small business owners and I am obsessed with developing them for my company!