Entrepreneurship is an exciting and rewarding lifestyle, but it can come with a cost.
“I feel like there is no such thing as weekends as an entrepreneur…the responsibilities never end.”
“Vacations use to be a break from work but now I have to bring it with me.”
“I haven’t fully unplugged in months.”
Can you relate?
Until I created functional systems and processes in my business, I felt like a hamster on a wheel. Running and bustling through each day with intensity and never getting a break. I would check one task off my list while simultaneously adding two or three more. It was craziness!
The average American worker is spending 14 hours a week JUST DOING EMAILS!
Imagine if you could create a system to streamline and automate that process so you could get the same work done in just 4 hours a week or less…
The following steps take some energy and thought to implement properly, but once they are set up, they will dramatically improve the efficiency of your business.
Not only that, but systems enable you to focus on what you LOVE in your business and also give you the freedom to unplug once in a while.
Here are 3 steps to implementing systems in your business:
- Identify. Look for areas that are frustrating, take a lot of time, or are outside of your competency/skill realm.
- Create processes. On paper, write down how these processes run currently in sequential order. Often this will show you immediately where time is being wasted, inefficient patterns, and where unnecessary bottlenecks are being created. Fine-tune the process until you have a numbered step process that is as simple and efficient as possible. Then determine whether this is a process you will run or one you will outsource.
- Execute. Implement your processes immediately. There may be some trial and error, but you should be able to quickly polish the processes until things are running smoothly. You can take time weekly, monthly or quarterly to re-evaluate your processes and continue to improve them.
Investing time to create these processes may be scary at first, but will literally save you hundreds of hours down the road.