6 Systems Every Online Business Owner Needs
If you follow me on social media you’ve probably seen me talk a lot about my business planning systems, my analytics system, and possibly my file management system.
But there are also six other systems you should have running in the background of your business.
These six systems are a big part of how you can successfully go from wearing all the hats, to running your business like the CEO you dream of being.
So I created this quick video to walk you through all six essential systems your business needs, and what you should include in each one.
These are the systems that will allow you to streamline your business activities, delegate work to team members with confidence, and spend more time focused on the parts of your business you love.
When you have these things written down, it makes it so that you can more easily train somebody else to do these parts of your business for you, while clearly communicating your expectations for how it’s done, and to what standard.
System #1:Your Brand Kit
You should have one place where you keep everything related to your brand. That includes things like all of your logo files, your professional head shots, information about your fonts and your colors – including color hex codes.
Your brand kit also might include media kit, with a short media bio, and anything else you want to be able to send out quickly if somebody requests information about you for a publication.
Basically, you want to have everything that you reach for on a regular basis for your brand in one place, so it’s easy to find, and easy to share with team members and collaborators.
Your brand kit should also include a guide, or a standard operating procedure, for how those things are used. A written standard operating procedure for how those things are used, so that when you give this stuff to somebody else to create things for you or to create things about you, they can easily do it to your specifications so that things stay on brand.
System #2: Client Management
If you work with clients, you should have a system set up for exactly how you manage those clients from beginning to end. From the moment that you receive their inquiry to, the moment that you off-board them when you’re done with the contract.
This standard operating procedure should include a written list of how you move that client from one phase to the next.
So it should include information about how you handle your client inquiries, maybe canned responses for how you respond to inquiry emails.
It could include a welcome packet or a welcome email template for once somebody’s signed their contract.
It should include a written procedure for how you onboard your client, if there’s certain information that you need to get from them, or a list of things that you need to send them.
Depending on your service, this will probably also include a written system or a written strategy for how you deliver your service. (This really cuts down on having to recreate the wheel every time you offer your services!)
And you should also include any legal templates that you need for your clients.
System #3: Product Management
For my product business owners, you need a system that outlines the production and delivery of your products.
Again, that could include any legal templates, plus your process for setting it up in your shop.
If you work with physical products, it might include information about inventory management.
Whatever your product is, this system should detail from the beginning to the end how you manage the process for each of your products.
System #4: Content Management
If you are a business online in 2022, you are most likely doing content marketing, so you need a content management system.
That’s going to include things like your content calendar, and your content bank, so that you can go back and see what you’ve already created and repurpose it.
It will definitely include your content creation workflow, so that you remember what you do in what order, and what days things are due by.
And you should include your social media workflow, so that you know what gets posted when, and how you want things posted.
System #5: Business Review
This is something that I talk about a lot.
You absolutely must have a system for tracking your analytics, analyzing your progress towards your goals, and using those numbers to set further goals for the future.
You need a system in place that helps you track certain things weekly, certain things monthly, and then you review certain things more on a quarterly or even annual basis.
I explain all of this in a lot more detail inside my program, 30-Min Metrics™, including exactly what to track on a weekly and monthly basis. Plus, my template runs a whole bunch of the calculations
for you.
So if this isn’t something that you’re already doing, or you want an easier way to do it, definitely check out 30-Min Metrics™.
System #6: Administration
This includes anything else that needs to happen to keep your business running.
So it might include things like your website maintenance, employee time cards and payroll, and other financial administration (like making sure that everything is tracked and ready ahead of tax time, preferably).
This might also include an email routine, so that you’re not just constantly in your inbox, responding to urgent things that keep coming up. So that you can actually be working and just maintaining your inbox maybe once or twice a day.
And any other little administrative things that you need to take care of on a regular basis.
Those are the six essential systems that every business owner should have running your business for you.
I’d love to hear in the comments what you already have set up for your business, what you still need to set up, and what you’d like to hear more about from me.
Tell me what you think in the comments and I’ll talk to you again soon!