The 6 Business Systems You Need
When I sold my first website in 1999, I wish I knew this then.
When I was running a 140+ acre farm remotely, I wish I knew this then.
I ran a milk distribution company here in Lahore for 5+ years before shutting it down without any fanfare.
I wish I knew about these systems then.
If I simply analyze my own experiments and adventures in starting businesses, I can see this pattern.
The businesses that did well, by God’s Grace, had some form of these systems already in place.
So I share these systems with you. I also want to share a quick summary of each, so you can SEE yourself implementing them in your side business or online brand.
These are not “good to have”. These are essential.
The six business systems are:
- Leadership. Who is running the business? How are they mentally, physically, spiritually? How is the communication between the teams? All manners of “people development” has to start from the founder, from the top. And in many cases, if you’re a solopreneur like me, this means just you. The primary output of this system is higher energy, productivity and clarity for you.
- Value creation. This system tells you which product to create, how to present it to the market, and how to ensure that the product is going to be beyond expectations of the client. The primary output of this system is an offer that solves a real problem of the market.
- Marketing. This system is designed to generate leads for the business. That’s also it’s primary output.
- Sales. This system is designed to generate sales from the leads. Primary output of this system is more clients.
- Operations. This system is designed to deliver the product and ensure that client requests are met. The primary output for this system is “customer satisfaction”.
- Finance. This system is designed to ensure your business has a positive cash flow. The primary output for this system is “operational cash flow” or in simpler terms, “have money available after paying for all due expenses”.
What Systems Do
A quick note on what systems really do.
A system consists of Input being put through a Process, that produces an Output.
All systems operate in a certain, well-defined environment. This also helps us adjust the input and the output of the system. That is for a different email or lesson, but for now, remember that each output is an input for some other system.
A business system can be seen as a Business Operating System. That OS contains these six systems.
These six systems work together to produce a healthy, profitable, meaningful, long-term business for you. Don’t you want that, right?
Each System Feeds Another
A business operating system has these six systems, and they all feed each other.
- The Value Creation system gives you the offer.
- You take that offer and plug it into the Marketing system, and that should give you a list of leads (people interesting in buying).
- That list of leads is an output of the Marketing system, but it now acts as an input for the Sales system.
- The process of the Sales system may be to make calls to the lead list, or send emails or do a personal visit etc. And the output is the sales.
And so on. Each system is connected to at least one other system.
Here’s an interesting question for you: there is one system that directly affects all other systems. Can you tell me which one it is?
This question become more important than one thinks.
Once you identify this “master” system, you can build that system knowing that it will uplift all other systems. So which one do you think it is?
Take it from a coach
By God’s ultimate Grace, I have been coaching entrepreneurs and CEO’s since last year. I am surprised at how well the experience has been. Alhumdulillah. Not just me of course, but for the clients.
One CEO, leading a company of 80+ people, hired me as his coach. His primary reason was to fully understand marketing and branding for his growing business.
After a few sessions, it was evident that to grow any business, the person who has to grow first is the CEO himself.
You can’t build a business until you also start building yourself.
Our subsequent sessions all focused on building Leadership skills like productivity, clarity, energy and team building.
That is what I mean when I say that the most important “system” you can work on, at all times, is you yourself.
There are many reasons to invest in yourself as we discussed in previous articles. Running a successful business that gives you the money, the freedom and the mobility that you want, is just one of the reasons.
So yes, Leadership is one area that affects all other systems in your business.
InshAllah till we meet again
