Simple Systems Enable Business Growth

This is a very basic blog post, but it is really important to think about if you are trying to grow your business.  

One of the problems business owners and managers have is that they tend to keep their system of organization in their own heads, especially when the business is very small.  I am as guilty of that as anyone. If you do that, it's a drain on your mind power. 

One of the keys to a successful business is to create simple systems for your everyday routine things.  Examples:  Paying bills.  Invoicing.  Quoting.  Quote follow-ups.  Payroll.  

Another term for simple systems is Standard Operating Procedures. Whatever you call it, it is important to establish these routines early.  Try to do them the same way, and at the same time, every day.

Early in my business life, I kind of operated in a "fly by the seat of your pants" style.  Ginger, one of our first employees, came in one day with an expandable file folder  and announced that this would be the way we would organize our accounts payable.  I remember thinking "what the world do we need to do this for?"  (Note:  This was before computers were common.  Physical organization of paperwork was a big thing to make an office run efficiently.)

In a couple of weeks, I realized that I was wrong and Ginger was right.  The expandable file folder created a real simple way to keep track of one thing, our accounts payable.  Ginger could go to that one file folder, work a few minutes with it, and be confident she had finished her day's work with accounts payable.  It beat the heck out of what I had been doing, which was rummaging through a big pile of papers and deciding every day what I should do.  

Yes, it was more efficient, but probably just as important, it took less thinking power.  It was more automatic and more structured.  The other benefit, which I didn't fully understand at the time, was that a new or part-time person could come in and grasp the system quickly.  That kind of flexibility is very important for a small business.

Both words, simple and systems, are important.  Systems cause the routine things to be done the same way, which makes everything more efficient and consistent. Simple allows you to grow, because more people can be taught a simple process, especially if it isn’t part of their everyday job. 

If you are a very small company, everyone has lots of tasks that aren't part of every day, so they benefit greatly by having systems and routines that help make sure everything gets done. Plus, new employees and part-time employees contribute faster with simple systems.  

Do an informal time study of your day and think about it.  Is there a way you could create a simple system that would ease your burden?  It doesn't have to be a fully integrated computer system.  It can be one small thing.