Today, I want to give you 3 helpful starting points for systemising your business.

Now, Onto This Week’s Tips…

Are you feeling overwhelmed trying to work on everything in your business all at once?

• Sales

• Marketing

• Networking

• Client fulfillment

• Content creation

• etc.

Just to name a few things you might be juggling right now. I definitely know the feeling.

You might also hear business experts tell you to solve these problems by creating a systems and processes for how you do everything in your business.

I disagree with this advice a little bit.

Just because you run a small business, doesn’t mean you need to build systems for everything you do in your business. There is a time and place for that.

It comes down to the stage of business growth you’re in.

Let just focus on the first two stages.

Zero to $5k in revenue a month

This is not the time to think about systems.

In this early stage of your coaching or consulting business, not having systems isn’t your biggest problem to solve (nor the best investment of your time and effort).

At this point, lots of things feel like an experiment. You truly don’t have consistent processes on how you do anything.

The focus should be on finding leads and turning them into clients, to build up consistent revenue streams from your services.

This means keeping your tool stack super simple.

• A place to track your tasks and client work.

• A calendar to manage your calls, appointments and time block plan your working hours.

• A simple notes app to keep track of your learnings, notes and thought leadership ideas that you can share as content (especially important if you’re running an online-first business)

That’s it really.

This means using free and easy tools like google calendar for calendar events and then a simple tool like Apple Notes or Google Keep for everything else.

Sure, you can use Notion as a basic note taking tool if you want. This also dips your toes in the water to start learning how the the tool works if you really want to.

But!

Resist the temptation of building complex processes or systems in Notion!

$5 to 10k revenue a month

This is the sweet spot where system thinking starts to make sense.

If you’re consistently making $5k to 10k a month in revenue, and are still working solo (part time or full time), chances are you actually have processes around client onboarding, client fulfillment, task management, content creation, finding and follow up with leads etc.

But you might feel these processes are inconsistent or inefficient, causing you to waste time, feel stressed or overwhelmed by the workload of juggling everything in the business.

You might even start to feel short on time, especially if you’re coaching or consulting on the side.

You might already be thinking about putting in place some of these systems even.

I get it, there are a lot of things in your business that can be systemised or turned into a more streamlined process.

It’s hard to know where or how to start.

3 Quick Tips to Get Started Systemising

1. Start documenting what and how you do things in your business

To turn things you do regularly into efficient systems in your business, you have to get clear on what and how exactly do you things.

Simple documentation serves two big purposes:

1. It makes you stop to review what you’re doing and gives you more clarity on your processes—Is there room for improvement? How can I improve it? Should I stop or start doing X?

2. If and when you do hire some help down the track (e.g. virtual assistant, contractors to help with client fulfillment), you’re already ahead of the pack by having some documentation as a starting point for training the new hires—Documentation is essential when you start working in teams, because you need a common language on how to get things done efficiently.

Don’t go crazy though.

I don’t mean document what you do and how you do everything in your business in minute detail.

Pick a few things that are truly critical to your business, and start jotting down your processes along the way as you do the work.

(If you’re in need for some inspiration, check out a few of these starter systems)

2. Don’t create a system for everything, all at once

This sound obvious, I know.

But as a recovering perfectionist, I know how hard it is to not set out to make the “perfect” system where everything fits neatly together and works together like a well-oiled machine.

Instead, I encourage you to focus on your biggest, most painful process you know could be better or more streamlined.

Consider these questions:

• What’s something you do more than 3 times?

• What’s something you’re worried about dropping the ball on?

• What’s something you feel a lot of friction doing, but is really important for the business?

For example, do you get a good number of leads from sharing your thought leadership on social media or through your newsletter, but feel like it’s such a heavy lift to create content?

Then maybe that’s the first system you create for your business.

Keep your systems simple (done is better than perfect!).

(If you need help getting started with systems, happy to hop on a call to chat)

3. Pick tools that you enjoy using

I know, I know, we shouldn’t be focusing on the fancy apps and tools as much as we do on the internet.

I’ll be the first to say tools should serve a purpose and function.

But you also have to enjoy the tools you use, so that you’ll actually want to open it up, and use it to help you be productive with your work.

For example, here are a few things I enjoy about Notion:

• I can find exactly what I need in under 5 seconds.

• I enjoy moving around in the Notion workspace I created.

• The flexibility, customisability and the clean calm interface.

• It’s un-distracting and calm (at least that’s how I designed my workspace).

But if you ask me, I don’t think Notion is the right tool for everyone, it comes down to what you want to get out of your digital tools.

I create this free guide to help people pick the “perfect” tool for them. While it was created to help pick the right writing tool for you, you can use the framework to pick the right digital tool to manage your business too.

That’s all for this week!

I’ve got a lot more to say about designing systems and processes to help you be efficient and productive (without overwhelm and overload).

But we’ll stop here today 🙂

One more thing, if you’re struggling to work out if it’s time to systemise (and if Notion is the right for you), reply and I’ll help you work it out!

See you next week,

Janice CK

📌 Note Worthy

The Vasa – Define Your Done (Greg McKeown)

What does done look like? It’s the simplest, point blank question we should be asking ourselves. Whether it’s getting our day started, working with a client on a project or researching flights and accommodation for your next vacation.

This question helps you to focus on what’s essential and important (so you don’t waste time and effort).

McKeown is a master of this, and this short 23 minute episode is worth a listen.

→ Check out the episode

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