5 Key Benefits of Creating Systems & Processes

I talk a lot about systems and processes because I truly believe that they are absolutely vital to building a great business (in hindsight, it probably would have made more sense to do this post before my previous one on how to create systems and processes, but regardless, hopefully I did a good job of explaining how to go about creating systems and processes).

In this video, I talk about five (of the many) key benefits of creating them for your business:

Having systems and process allows you to:

1. Save energy. You need to have a lot of energy — both physically and mentally — in order to run a business, and by documenting the things that you do every day, you can save energy because you don’t have to try and remember every single step of everything you do. If you can create simple checklists of processes that you repeat, you’ll be able to conserve your mental energy to focus on new “to-do’s.”

2. Scale your business in an effective and efficient manner. Creating tight systems and processes will also help you deliver consistent results for your clients — no matter how big your business becomes.

For example, let’s say you own a bakery, and you have a particular pastry that is very popular with your clientele. Of course, you’d like to be able to deliver the same, consistent, sweet taste for your customers each and every time — and therefore, you’ll want to use the same ingredients you always use and bake the pastry at the same temperature. Your customers come back to your bakery again and again for the same, consistent pastry — and you need to make sure that you deliver consistent results every single time.

3. “Replace” yourself with other people. When you have low-value tasks that are your responsibility to execute, it will really benefit you to document these tasks so that you can hire someone else to do them. As the leader of your business, you need to be focused on high-value tasks — goal setting, creating relationships, developing strategies — and if you’re stuck doing menial tasks every day, you won’t have the time or energy to think strategically about your business.

4. Grow your business. If you have a really tight systems and processes for executing your client projects, you can hire other people — whether they be outsourcers, employees, or contractors — to simply follow these processes, which ultimately allows you to focus on bringing in more business.

5. Create a valuable asset. This last benefit is overlooked and is a result of you being disciplined and documenting everything you do in your business. By having all of your processes and systems in order, your business will be more valuable to a potential buyer because the buyer won’t have to spend the time to create processes and systems on their own. They can essentially purchase a “turn-key” operation, which is a tremendous value-add that you’re bringing to the table.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think are the main benefits of building systems and processes?