I have been talking about how to start and scale your business for years.
For those who are hungry to find more routes to passive income, and those brave enough to place their business achievements into someone else’s hands, read on to find out how I managed it with multiple businesses.
Most CEOs never systemise their companies for a range of reasons.
Some just love working with their company too much. Others never find a team strong enough to trust with the day-to-day running of their successful business.
And, let’s be honest: others are just too controlling and paranoid to let go, even if their teams are good enough to trust.
Every successful person that I have met goes through the painful transition of trying to handover the work they’ve always done, and not being happy at the results that others get for them.
After all, no one does your thing as well as you, right?
They spend much frustrating time in the no man’s land between trying to delegate and micro managing. Most self employed people end up taking the work back themselves because no one can do it as well as them.
Translate: Couldn’t let go. Couldn’t train. Couldn’t communicate. Worse – couldn’t lead.
However, the benefits of having a truly automated business are enormous. While the idea of having someone else do your job may seem horrifying at first, in the long term you will be protecting your own interests. A fully systemised business means that whatever happens in your own life and whatever happens to the market, you will have well-trained team members ready to ensure that your company continues to run as smoothly as possible. When you employ new staff, a systemised business with a systemised role and an operating manual will mean that your new employee has a step-by-step guide to doing their job the way that you want it to be done.
Why systemise?
Systemising a business also creates more opportunities for passive income, meaning greater freedom for you to spend your time doing the things you love and less time on the more menial, less lucrative, less fulfilling tasks.
Many of the property millionaires, celebrities and highly successful business people I train and mentor battle this constantly. Convincing them that they need to [personally] do less to get richer is very hard for them to get their heads around; it upsets their beliefs and upbringing.
After all, they have gotten where they are by working hard, right?
Well yes, but if they want to achieve more, don’t they need to do something different? Something they’ve not done before?
Has what they’ve done and achieved already blocked all other opportunities?
Outsourcing and embracing the fact that you aren’t capable to doing everything is a revelation. You can strengthen your weaknesses, but focusing on what you are best at is essential, as is outsourcing all other weaknesses that aren’t necessary for you to be good at your job.
Once you embrace the philosophy of leveraging whenever it suits you, you will find that your company runs more smoothly, the work being done is completed more efficiently and to a higher standard, and that you can spend more time concentrating on the tasks that bring you in the most money.
You may even find that – shock! Horror! – you have more spare time to do the things you enjoy.
Could it be that no matter what level we’re at, what we’re doing is keeping us there, and our next level awaits in what we’re n o t doing?
Build Your Strengths, Leverage Your Weaknesses
Put into its simplest form, a healthy mindset for both an entrepreneur and a human being is accepting what currently is, recognising what would be beneficial and possible to alter, and working towards improving those things. This is not always an easy state of self-development to achieve, and few people find the balance between their strengths and weaknesses or even take the time to identify them. However, if you wish to learn how to be truly financially successful, it is essential.
Take a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet, split it down the middle, and write your professional strengths on one side and your weaknesses on the other.
This is surprisingly liberating, as long as you are completely honest with yourself, but most people will struggle with one side of the sheet. Spend some time on this until you have a fairly thorough breakdown of what you believe that you can and can’t do. Here is your foundation for growth.
Systemise your business in 5 simple steps
Step 1. Make a note of what you do as you do it in bullet point form and transfer it to a mindmap
Step 2. Send it each Tuesday to a virtual or personal assistant to type up and order in your manuals with clear page refs & indexes, & send back to you Fri 3pm to check (Search on Google: ‘Virtual Assistant {Your Location}’ or go to a local business networking meeting)
Step 3. Anything you say record on an App or dictaphone (sales, marketing, scripts, processes, right down to how to log in) & send the audio file to PA/VA tues for Friday completion(Use dictation function on phone; you can even do it in email on iPhone using the ‘mic’ icon)
Step 4. Read the manual(s) once a month as if you know nothing about the role; could anyone step in and do this role following this manual? Then feedback tweaks to VA ensuring they keep it organised with clear contents & page no. refs
Step 5. Then as you grow you instruct your various team members to do the same, where managers manage down, and your PA can be responsible for yours
The important key to this that everyone seems to agree with but rarely do, is start NOW not when you are preparing for hiring or sale (as it will take much longer, be much harder, disrupt existing business functions and probably hit sales)
You think you can succeed alone? Think again
I used to think you make your own success; your drive, hard work, making your own luck. That you can be ‘self-made’
I was wrong. Very wrong
You can not do everything. You can’t be everywhere. You can’t correct all your faults. No one can
You need great people. Great friends. A great team. An extended network. Smart advisors & partners. Support & community
A B team beats an A player every time. A team of A players can carry you to great heights & you can achieve miracles & mastery with a great team that you lead/inspire or at least find your own part to play & value to add within it.
If you would like to learn more about doing less but getting more done, as well as how to outsource everything you do not want to do, you can find my bestselling book Life Leverage here
If you would like to read more about self-development accepting yourself, you may be interested in this blog
