Many business owners believe that for something to be done ‘right’ they must do it themselves. The truth is, if you’re the only person who can do a task, there’s something wrong with the way your business is built, and you have fallen into a trap. You must keep pushing yourself to evolve through this trap. I still occasionally fall into it myself.
When systemising businesses, it’s a common misconception that the business owner will need to be the one creating the systems because they know how they want things done. One of the many problems with this way of thinking is that we all know systems are critical… but they’re
never urgent. So, like all ‘non-urgent’ tasks, no one ever gets to them.
In this video, David Jenyns explains why the business owner is typically the worst person to document systems.
Timestamps:
0:09 – Myth: The business owner needs to create business systems
00:26 – All business owners are incredibly time poor
00:40 – Identifying who has the knowledge in the business
1:12 – The “I have to do it myself” trap
1:39 – Finding the easiest way to systemise
2:00 – Grab your copy of SYSTEMology today
Transcription:
The second myth is that you, as a business owner, you’re the one who’s got to create the system. You gotta do it. So straight away we all sit there going “I haven’t got time, I haven’t got this, I haven’t got that”.
So why is that a myth?
This is a huge hurdle and it’s actually what stops the business owner from systemising. Well, stop me for starters. The thing is business owners are busy. All business owners are incredibly time poor. So to try and cram another thing onto their to–do list, especially something that isn’t necessarily urgent, means that they’ll never get around to it.
So what we need to do is find out who within the organisation has that knowledge on how to do each of those steps within the critical client flow. And then we need to work with them to create the system. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Let’s just capture what’s getting done and let’s take it off the responsibility of the business owner.
Sometimes the business owner will need to be involved, but let’s try and make it as easy for them as possible. As opposed to the business owner’s ego stepping in thinking “I need to be the one that does this, I need to architect everything”. Because that’s actually what got the business owner into the problem that they’re in right now. And also maybe too by having someone else doing these developing systems, it’s easier for the business owner then to provide input to something that’s mapped out. But also maybe fresh eyes will come up with a better way of doing it.
I would have thought as you’re going through the system again, we all get the whole thing if we get a bit set in our ways of doing that. Maybe it’s a fresh input that’s of benefit.
I’m solving a very specific problem for a very specific person. You have a target audience that is clear what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to. And you’re now at a point where this is kind of working. My dream is to free all business owners worldwide from the daily operations of running their business.
Then once the business gets to a certain size, that’s when it needs to be handed over to someone to grow it through to the next level. Something that I really recognize is this system component and it’s so important and it is the answer, the secret to break through to that next stage.
