If you…
- have an overflowing email inbox
- have folders on your hard drive full of spreadsheets
- type or copy and paste the same information over and over
- are thinking of hiring a part time admin person
- aren’t sure where the next sales or leads are coming from or what to do about it right now
…then you probably need a better system.
Good systems create freedom
Without a good system, your business can take up all your time on busy, admin related tasks. That can lead to worry, stress and burnout. It also means you’re losing money, because everything takes longer than it should.
And ironically, a bad system can make this worse. You can spend even more time just trying to get it to work properly. Or fixing it when it goes wrong. Or stressing about it losing information.
A good system sets you free to have more time off, or spend more time working on improving the business or getting more sales.
Does this sound like you?
“We’ve got a system but I don’t think we’re using it very well…”
Many small to medium business implement a CRM, or email marketing software, or a job management tool, and they don’t use it well. It’s too fiddly or complicated, so the team just goes back to email, paper, phone calls… And the expensive system makes things worse, not better. A good system is one that everyone uses because it clearly makes life easier – it’s a pleasure, not a chore.
“I don’t know what my business numbers are.”
If key information is on paper or adrift in a sea of emails it’s impossible to know how your business is performing at any given moment. Nasty surprises can creep in. A good system means you have a dashboard where your finger is constantly on the pulse of your business. You know the key numbers to do with sales, profit, delivery times, customer satisfaction – whatever matters most to you. If you don’t have that, you could have with a better system.
“My team does a lot of stuff manually, it’s slow but at least we know it works.”
Knowing that something works is really important, but relying on error-prone humans is not the best way! In today’s world there is so much that can be automated, removing human error and making everything more efficient. It’s great for the team too, because they can focus on the meaningful, important stuff rather than the mundane busywork that doesn’t need creativity and would be done much better by software.