It is quite odd that most business owners and entrepreneurs are not actually business builders by nature. Yet, building a business is your primary role when you start and try to grow a business.
Most business owners started their business because they were good at something… their products and services. Or they were visionaries creating something brand new. But it was still about the product or service.
That was true for us. We were really good at systems, technology and projects. We thought if our stuff was great, everything else would take care of itself.
But we weren’t great at building a business; because we didn’t even realize THAT was our primary job for the first few years. So we limited our growth potential. Ignorance is not bliss.
But that changed about half way in to our 14 years. And here is what I discovered.
Your business is a system of systems.
Understanding The “System”
According to Google a system is defined as:
A set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular.
A set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method.
Just like every business has a culture, every business has systems; good and bad.
Some of the questions are:
- Do they serve you and your business?
- Do they ensure your customers are happy every single time?
- Do they ensure your team is not only highly engaged but high performing and aligned with your culture?
- Did you build them consciously or are they just the default and perhaps random way you do things?
- Are you proud of them?
- Are they efficient and making your business grow at the rate you want?
Strategic and Tactical
The systems that you use to perform your long-term planning and execution are your strategic systems.
Look at the definition again.
Connected things. Complex whole. Principle or procedures. Organized scheme or method.
Great strategies consider a lot of interconnected things. They consider the complex whole. They are a plan for getting things done. Getting results. Achieving your goals. Making your vision doable.
You want to maximize the benefits of all your tactics by conserving resources or ensuring that all your tactics or short-term focused work gets as much strategic benefit as possible.
This is the mark of great strategy with excellent tactical execution.
But the reality is that it is hard to keep track of how all the various parts of your business interact with the market and your customers. If you are too close to your business you may not see the forest for the trees. There are two possible solutions to get better at this:
- Use a robust system to work on your strategic plan and execution,
- Get some help from people who are good at seeing the big picture; seeing the systems.
Or why not do both?
Your Working On The Business System
When you systematize your business, it does not constrain you and make you a slave; it actually frees you to do the work that really matters. This is because keeping repetitive systems and checklists in your head drains your brain of energy and the ability to do other things.
Energy that could be better used for:
- Working on your business to make your key systems better,
- Automating or delegating the work you no longer need to do,
- Training and developing your people,
- The creative and innovative work,
- Finding and serving your customers.
Those five things are enough for most business owners to grapple with.
So why take the time to do all this and to also learn about, create, invent and maintain the system and best practices for working on your business from scratch?
Everything you do that could be better spent working on those 5 things is actually a waste.
So you need a system for working on your business systems. You can do it yourself. But you probably won’t get to it.
And even more importantly, without a system, you probably won’t work enough on your business. You won’t get to the things that matter most, because there is just too much to do.
That is why we created the Manifast Business Success System. We have built the framework, best practices, education, tools and systems to free you from that part; allowing you to focus on growing your business.
And it all starts with creating and executing your strategic plan.
Think of how much faster you would grow your business, and how much your stress would be reduced if you could get from vision to execution; more quickly and effectively.
How much would that be worth to you?
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