Business Systems and Processes.

The Systems Thinker Blog

Your Clues to Uncover Weak Business Systems!

Ron Carroll

It’s been my experience that many small-business owners don’t expect timely financial reports from their accountant and don’t use them to manage their business. BIG MISTAKE! 

Financial Report Clues

Your “Balance Sheet” and “Profit and Loss” statements provide a valuable report card of overall business performance. They reveal strengths and weaknesses, performance trends, break-even points, and other intelligence for decision making and problem-solving.

This historical data is useful to stakeholders, investors, and bankers. However, its greatest value is to help YOU improve your business.

The Systems Thinker Advantage

As a Systems Thinker, you recognize that the numbers on the financial report point to business systems that are responsible for generating those numbers. 

You see the cause and effect relationship. The systems are the cause. The reported numbers represent the effect. If a number is disappointing, you can make it better by improving the faulty system at the source.

YOU are in control of your financial outcomes by being in control of your business systems and processes!

Systems are the Solution

Let’s consider a few business problems revealed by looking at a financial report, and the systems or processes that might be causing the undesirable numbers.

Income Statement

Sales revenue is down. Is your lead generation system attracting sufficient customers? Does your sales process successfully convert leads to sales? Does it include cross-sales and up-sales to maximize customer value? Is your pricing system giving you maximum dollars per sale? Is your customer-care system so good that customers keep coming back?

Margins are low.  Can you reduce costs? Could your purchasing system be improved to buy materials or products for less?  Could your pricing system be tweaked to increase sales or sales margin?  Could you improve your production or order-fulfillment systems to have more efficiency and fewer mistakes, returns, and rework?  Would an improved hiring, training, or incentive system payoff in greater employee productivity and reduced labor costs?

Balance Sheet

Accounts Receivable is high. Do you have an effective credit approval system? Is your collections system consistent and persistent? Could you change your sales terms to include full or partial payments at the time of purchase, or in ten days?

Cash reserves are low. Cash flow is poor. Is your inventory management system failing to keep the right products in the right quantities? Are you accumulating slow-moving or obsolete merchandise, which ties up much-needed cash? Is a weak collections system leaving cash stranded in a bloated accounts receivable? Are profits dried up from inefficiency, waste, and too many ineffective business systems?

Count on Your Accounting System

Once the trouble has been identified on the financial statement, you have no choice but to bear down and improve the system or process that is responsible. There really is no other way to solve the problem!

Remember: Accounting is your business system to measures the effectiveness of all your other operational systems; each of your core systems and processes should be accountable for a planned result. When they are performing at desired levels, happy numbers will appear on your monthly financial statement. Improved profit and cash flow will follow.

It all starts by developing good business systems and processes!

Next time your accountant provides you with a financial statement, put on your Systems Thinker glasses and peer through the numbers to identify the systems you need to elevate. And never forget that numbers are the language of business improvement!

Related Articles:
Measuring Your Business Processes Pays Big Dividends!
Do You Know Your Key Performance Indicators?

Where are Your Business Systems in the Evolutionary Process?

Ron Carroll

As a small business matures, its systems and processes should also advance through several stages of improvement. Unfortunately, many small-business owners do not understand this evolutionary process and get stuck at the lower more primitive levels.

In his book, Universal Principles of Design, author William Lidwell states that “In order for a [system] design to be successful, it must meet people’s basic needs before it can satisfy higher-level needs.” (This concept comes from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which describes human motivation.)

High-Performance Systems

Most entrepreneurs begin with basic functioning business systems, often defined in the owner’s head. As the company expands, and people are added, systems and processes need to become more formalized to keep up. Increasing growth, competition, customer expectations, and daily challenges demand that business systems reach ever-higher levels of performance.

The Systems Thinker has an advantage. He or she understands the underlying principles of system development—process, components, people, quality, speed, and measurement. When these fundamental principles are applied, high-performance systems and processes evolve naturally.

Stages of System Evolution

Let’s take a quick look at the five stages of system evolution beginning at the bottom of the pyramid—the lowest need. Think about one of your important business systems.

Stages of Business System Evolution

  1. Functionality – Does your business system—lead generation, customer service, order fulfillment, and so forth—achieve its basic purpose? Rudimentary systems at this level are a good start. However, they are subject to frequent change, errors, waste, frustration, and breakdowns. They are nothing special, certainly no better than your competition (grade your business systems).

  2. Reliability – Is the performance of the system stable and consistent? This is a big improvement. Your process is now smooth-running and predictable. It operates without a lot of supervision. You may even think it is good enough.

  3. Usability – Is the system user-friendly, easy to operate, and forgiving of errors? Now you’ve designed a system that people enjoy working in. You’ve removed complexity, confusion, uncertainty, and even murmuring (see system busters). Employees perform better when they enjoy their work environment.

  4. Proficiency – Does the system empower people to do things not previously possible? Congratulations! You have a high-performance business system that delivers excellent quality and efficiency.  It’s a money-maker. Your company is becoming exceptional!

  5. Innovation – Are your people now free to innovate and improve the business system or process? Is the system team at the top of their game, continually trying to achieve superior results, and better their best? Does this happen even if you’re not around? When enough of your business systems reach this level of performance, you will have a culture of excellence!

Developing effective business systems and processes does not happen overnight; however, you can accelerate the process if you understand the principles that drive improvement. Invest a little time every day in The Zone and push your core business systems and processes to the top of the pyramid.

Could Your Hiring System Use This Valuable Component?

Ron Carroll

Your entire business is a system, and people are its most important components.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great said, “Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.”

Now Hiring

Mis-hires are Expensive

In recent years, studies have provided shocking information about the high cost of hiring the wrong person. Mis-hires are every expensive. Some analysts estimate a cost of three to six times a person’s base salary, and double or triple that for managers and executives. The right or wrong hire can make or break a small business!

So, if you don’t have time to create an effective hiring system, expect to waste far more time overcoming the consequences of a mis-hire!

In my experience, few small-business owners actually have a formal system in place to ensure they attract, select, promote, and retain the best and the brightest. Your hiring system should have several subsystems, each leading you closer to the perfect candidate.

  • Do you have an advertising system that attracts the right people?
  • Do you have a screening system for quickly eliminating all but the most qualified candidates?
  • Do you have an interviewing system that reveals insightful and crucial information?
  • Do you have an evaluation system for grading and comparing candidates?

You can find best practices for hiring in books and articles on the Internet. If you do much hiring, this business system will have a significant financial impact on your company. Remember: The full cost of a mis-hire is not always apparent, but it is real, and it is expensive!

Try This Component

Let me share with you a nifty component of a hiring process that will get you better results.

One savvy business owner I’m acquainted with created a step-by-step hiring system that includes a “Hiring Packet.” The red 9”x12” envelope contains all the forms—component documents—necessary for a candidate to go through the company’s entire hiring process.

The packet includes an employment application, a telephone interview form for a secretary/receptionist to screen applicants, a job description, two manager questionnaire/evaluation forms for interviews, W-4 and I-9 government forms, an employment agreement, and a 30-day-after-hire evaluation form. The envelope also includes information about the company and a copy of employee policies that are given to the candidate to read. The person’s resume and references are added to the packet along the way.

Once a Hiring Packet is started for a person, it travels through the process and remains active until the 30-day evaluation is complete. Documents are then put into the employee’s permanent file.

A Hiring System That Works

This Hiring Packet is the central piece of an outstanding hiring system. You can, of course, alter what is in the packet to suit your needs. This component standardizes the hiring process, saves a great deal of management time, and helps ensure that the best candidates are hired.

Could your hiring system be improved? Would a Hiring Packet be helpful? Get someone to gather or create the necessary documents, and assemble a few packets. A little innovation to get the right people on-board will prevent costly mis-hires and yield a big payoff!

Business Systems vs. the Misunderstood Operations Manual

Ron Carroll

Do you have an operations manual? I doubt it. Most small-business owners don’t unless they’ve purchased a franchise. Operation manuals require a lot of work to create, have to be frequently updated, and tend to gather dust from lack of use. Fortunately, there is a better way!

Recently, I did some work for a senior retirement center. I asked the manager to tell me about some of his business systems. He proudly opened an office cabinet and pointed to seven three-inch binders, the operations manual prepared by the corporate office. He said, “We don’t really read it, but we use it as a reference.” I looked over several chapters and found them to be well-written and quite thorough—A GOOD START!

But is a procedure in an operations manual really a system? DEFINITELY NOT!

For example, making a chocolate cake is more than just a recipe. An automobile is more than just an owner’s manual. A physical workout is more than just an exercise video.

The difference is this: A written procedure in an operations manual is just one component of the business system or process. The actual results you get depend on other factors that give life to the procedure during its implementation. Read on.

A Typical Business Problem

Three times a day in the retirement community, the staff serves meals in a large dining room for approximately one hundred people. They do a pretty good job following the procedure outlined in the company’s operations manual.

Senior Center Dining RoomAt dinner time, for example, four servers begin working at 5:15 p.m. They first serve a round of drinks and salads, then soup, the entrée, and finally the dessert. After serving, they bus the dirty dishes back to the kitchen, wipe off tables and chairs, and completely reset tables for the next day’s breakfast. Servers are expected to complete this seven-step task no later than 7:30 p.m. to stay within budget. They are typically about fifteen minutes late.

A manager might look at the operation and wonder why the servers can’t seem to get done on time. He or she may even get frustrated and tell people to work faster, or they’ll lose their job. Pressure is often applied to solve this type of business problem.

However, the serving system, as with other business systems, is more than just a written procedure. Most workers want to succeed, and you can help them.

The System Thinker’s Solution

In this situation, the Systems Thinker looks at the following:

  1. Are the servers a good fit for the job? Are they well-trained and do they work as a team? Is there a system owner/team-leader who is accountable for results, sets the example, gives guidance, and responds to problems that may arise?
  2. Do all the servers understand that the goal of being finished by 7:30 p.m. is a corporate, management, and budget requirement? “Failure is not an option.”
  3. Beginning at 5:15 p.m., how long should it take for each of the seven steps in the process. Do the servers start on time? Can they see a clock and know how they are progressing with each step? (self-administered feedback).
  4. Is the dining room laid out for fast and efficient service? Do the servers understand the best positioning of food carts to get the work done with a minimum number of steps? Are the carts loaded so there are no extra trips back to the kitchen?
  5. Does the company measure results? How many meals in the week are completed on time? Is there a little competition between breakfast, lunch, and dinner servers? Can you make it a game and keep score?
  6. Does the serving team celebrate victories when they get the job done on time? Do they know their best time from beginning to end? Does the company provide any recognition or incentive for fast completions?

The Payoff

Four servers, completing the procedure on-time—fifteen minutes earlier than usual—is a one-person-hour improvement. There are three meals in a day, 365 days per year. This adds up to well over 1000 hours at about $10.00 per hour, or $10,000 dollars annual savings. However, this company has 360 retirement communities in the U.S. and Canada. The improvement could add—CHA-CHING—$3,600,000 to the company’s bottom line each year. Wow!

This is the power of Systems Thinking. It is more than just following a procedure in an operations manual. It takes into account people and personalities, system ownership, training, work environment, score-keeping, feedback, recognition, celebration, and so forth.  

The difference between an operations manual and a business system might be compared to the difference between a movie script and the movie itself. Actors, camera techniques, background music, special effects, and even the theater the movie is shown in, all influence the end result.

Turning a written procedure into a blockbuster money-making business system is the Master Skill of the entrepreneur. It is your primary responsibility to make this happen. You or others can do it by applying the Box Theory™ Way!

Related Articles:
The WOW Factor: Six Ways to Supercharge Your Business Systems! (Part 1)
The WOW Factor: Six More Ways to Supercharge Your Business Systems! (Part 2)
Turn Dust-Gathering Procedures into Business Systems that Wow!
Boost Your Business Profit by Adding the Fun Factor!

Five Ways to Cut Labor Costs with Effective Business Systems!

Ron Carroll

If good business systems and processes don’t reduce your costs and put more money in your pocket then, you’re not tapping into their full potential. One of your best opportunities is to trim labor costs.

For example, I worked with a marginally profitable distribution company having two-million dollars in annual revenue and thirty employees. After looking carefully at their operation, we were able to help streamline the business and decrease the number of people required to process orders. This initiative eventually reduced labor costs for order-fulfillment from approximately12% to 7% of sales. The company saved over $100,000 the following year with the productivity gains.

Business Productivity

We’re talking about the big results you can expect when you put on the hat of a Systems Thinker.

Boost Productivity

In a Microsoft survey of 38,000 workers conducted a few years ago, it was discovered that the average employee is productive about 65% of the time. Using effective business systems to improve on this number is one of your best opportunities to save money.

Do you have twenty employees? I bet you could get the same work done with better business systems and only eighteen employees. Do you have fifty people in your company? Efficient systems and processes could reduce your workforce by five or more. I’ve been in many small-business operations through the years, and I could do very well financially if I were only paid by the waste in labor-expense I could recover.

Cut Labor Costs

Here are five methods you can use to slash your labor costs starting today:

  1. Pay the higher price for “A” workers instead of the lower price for “C” workers who cost you more in the long run.  Fit the right people to the job. Train them well. Put workers in a great business system where they can perform above their pay grade.
  2. Get rid of productivity busters such as clutter, poor floor layout, complexity, unnecessary movement, and so forth.
  3. Increase worker and system efficiency by eliminating mistakes and defects, delay and downtime, and show-stopping bottlenecks.
  4. Create competition. Turn the system into a game and keep score. Give financial incentives for an excellent performance.
  5. Reduce the cost of supervision by creating smooth-running business processes that provide frequent performance feedback to workers. Give ordinary people the tools for self-management and make them accountable; they will become extraordinary.

In a highly-competitive marketplace, you can keep your labor costs lean with effective business systems and processes! Your organization has opportunities just waiting to be discovered!

And by the way, more than half the participants, 55%, in the Microsoft survey said they relate their productivity directly to software efficiencies. Maybe you should take a look at Box Theory™ business software today.

Git Er Done NOW with Effective Business Systems!

Ron Carroll

“Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!” (Donald Gardener). Building a business with effective systems and processes is one of those good ideas you just can’t procrastinate. The cost is too high. So, promise me you won’t delay another day!

Don't procrastinate creating remarkable business systems

Years ago, I watched my father-in-law work on projects. He liked to build furniture. Every day he would go out to the garage and make a few saw cuts, sand a couple of cabinet doors, or apply a coat of lacquer finish to something. He spent little more than a half-hour, but at the end of a year, he had several beautiful pieces of furniture to add to his collection.

I’ve tried to follow his example by breaking large tasks down to smaller ones that I can complete with steady progress. This method has helped me accomplish some formidable tasks, the Box Theory™ eCourse and Software being good examples. It took nearly five years, but the persistence paid off.

Busy entrepreneurs like you can build effective business systems using this same strategy. At the end of the year, you will have an amazing collection of systems and processes to show for it, AND a company with greater customer loyalty, profitability, and growth!

My Question to You

Why would you want to put off creating systems that:

  • Help you meet and exceed customer expectations.
  • Elevate productivity, quality, safety, and cleanliness.
  • Improve employee job satisfaction and worker motivation.
  • Reduce training requirements and supervision.
  • Allow non-expert lower-cost people to perform at higher levels.
  • Dramatically improve profitability and cash flow.
  • Help you stand out in a crowded marketplace.
  • Reduce dependency on people who come and go.
  • Free you from continuous hands-on involvement.
  • Enable you to one-day sell, replicate, or hire someone to run your organization.

The benefits are just too many to ignore!

You’re Losing Money Every Day You Wait

While some system innovations can generate large financial returns, most improvements will add incrementally to your bottom line—the “compound effect” (Darren Hardy, Success Magazine).

Don’t suffer from procrastinitis—“a common and deadly disease that takes a heavy toll on success” (Wayne Gretsky, hockey great).

If you can’t work on your business systems in The Zone for an hour each day, do it for a half-hour. BUT START NOW.

One final thought: “If you need a new process and don’t install it, you pay for it without getting it” (Ken Stork, former president, Association of Manufacturing Excellence). Every day you wait is costing more money and good-will than you realize.

I know you should do it. I know you can do it. I hope you will do it!

Five Ways to Add “Killer Customer Care” to Your Business Systems!

Ron Carroll

What is it like to do business with Your Company? Do you know what your customers really think about you? Do you have “killer customer care” that draws customers back again and again?

“Killer customer care refers to the combination of principles, ideas, and techniques that are designed to consistently and systematically enhance the depth and breadth of your customer relationships. Killer customer care is the ultimate competitive differentiation for businesses in the twenty-first century” (George Colombo, Killer Customer Care).
Your Customer Care SystemSo how do you achieve this killer customer care?  You begin by building your business from the ground up around the specific needs of your customers. You create a customer-care system that is so remarkable they wouldn’t consider buying from anyone else.

For a moment, let me speak as one of your valued customers. I want to offer five suggestions to help you earn our loyalty and turn us into raving fans.

1.  Put on Your Best Face

As customers, we like to be served and not sold. We like people who are positive, polite, understanding, caring, and helpful. In other words, BE NICE! Give us clear communication without jargon or legalese. We like people who call us by name and personalize our service. We appreciate those who listen, take ownership of our problem, and are immediately responsive to our needs. We expect your employees to have some expertise and a “can-do” attitude. We don’t like to be taken for granted. In fact, we want to feel important throughout the lifetime of our relationship.

2. Use Systems to Meet and Exceed Expectations

We like to do business with companies that deliver explicitly on their promise. We like error-proof “business systems” for handling all contacts, accounting services, and problem resolution. With good systems, the job is done right the first time and every time. Nothing is left to chance, and nothing falls through the cracks. (Customer dissatisfaction is usually the result of a breakdown in established business systems or processes.)

Your customer-care systems should empower employees to solve our problems quickly and turn any frustrations we may have into gratitude and appreciation. Commitments to us must always be kept. Your consistency and reliability over time are more important than occasional sales promotions or grand events.

3. Surprise and Delight

We like to be pleasantly surprised. Some of us like to be entertained and to have fun. We all like to be “WOWED!” While we are grateful for consistency and reliability, we also want an element of freshness and unpredictability that will keep us excited. If you continually exceed our expectations, you’ll not only get our repeat business, but we’ll tell our friends.

4. Monitor and Measure

We want you to listen to what we have to say.  You’ll want to know:

  • What we like and what we don’t like.
  • What would make the buying experience more satisfying.
  • What we like better about your competition.
  • What we wish your company would provide that you currently don’t.
  • Why we were surprised, annoyed, frustrated, or disappointed.

Shop your business from our point of view. If you want to better understand our expectations, ASK! We feel valued when invited to give feedback or opinions. Listen between the lines and don’t be afraid to hear the brutal truth. We want YOU to be the best, just as much as you do!

(Some customer feedback is quantitative in nature, such as the percent-of-sales of returned merchandise. Other information is qualitative such as suggestions or complaints. Make sure you have a system to capture this information, transfer it to management, analyze it, and act upon it.)

5. Practice the “Golden Rule”

We like to do business with companies that adopt the “Golden Rule”—treat us the way you would like to be treated. Don’t just subscribe to the Golden Rule as a philosophy; build it into your business systems and processes. When your company culture embodies this philosophy, it will become remarkable!

Protect Your Investment in Customers

Start today by defining exactly what experience you want your customers to have. Then identify the most common interactions you have with them—telephone, walk-in, sales presentations, inquiries, problem resolution, and so forth. Finally, turn those interactions into business systems or processes that incorporate the five suggestions above. You’ll be amazed by the results!

Remember: Each customer contact is a moment of truth, a time when you can make or break a relationship.

Killer customer care is everyone’s job.  Never stop talking about how to improve the customer experience. Your business success depends upon it!

Create a Symphony of Business Systems to Delight Customers!

Ron Carroll

Every customer contact will strengthen or weaken your business relationship. Do your customer-care systems produce a sweet melody or a dissonant noise?

Symphony Orchestra

A Good Customer Contact

Every time I call Bank of America, I am overwhelmed with the over-the-top friendliness of their representatives. “Yes, Mr. Carroll.” “I can do that for you right now, Mr. Carroll.” Is there anything else I can help you with today, Mr. Carroll.”  It’s really pretty gushy, but I always hang up feeling like they listened, they care, and that I am a valued customer.

A Bad Customer Contact

Every time I get online with Bank of America to pay a credit card, I think they have the most confusing, unfriendly, and frustrating website imaginable.  For example, they display a list of monthly credit-card transactions without a total at the bottom. I have to calculate the column myself. Buried links make it difficult to find things. Illogical amount balances include multiple statement periods, not the period I am reviewing. It’s all very annoying and slows me down. I sometimes feel like changing banks.

The takeaway: every customer contact can make or break a relationship. You can’t excel in some situations and fall short in others. A single bad customer experience will often nullify all the good ones.

Your Customer Contact

Think for a moment of the different kinds of contacts you have with your customers—courting a prospect, providing a service, or resolving a problem, to name a few.

Each customer contact should be part of a business system or process that delivers a predetermined message, response, or solution.  Even if you give customer-service employees latitude to solve problems, they should have guidelines and clear-cut authority from your system policies.

With good business systems, you will give your customers a favorable impression and strengthen the relationship every single time.

If one instrument in an orchestra is out of tune, it can ruin the audience-experience. When one of your business systems is flat, it can also spoil the customer experience.

All of your business systems and processes that touch customers should work together to create a symphony of service that delights in every way. When each instrument is tuned and every note inspires, you will receive the kind of standing ovation that shows up on your bottom line!

Master the Fundamentals with Effective Business Systems!

Ron Carroll

Darren Hardy, publisher of “Success Magazine,” covers stories of business accomplishment from the most successful women and men throughout the world. In a recent interview, he described three keys to success.

  1. Master the Fundamentals
  2. Continually Improve
  3. Be Consistent and Persistent
    Darren Hardy

If you follow my blog, you know I believe that effective business systems and processes are the foundation for all success. So, let’s look at these three principles from a System Thinker’s point of view.

1. Master the Fundamentals

The way to master the fundamentals of your business is by incorporating laws, principles, and best practices into your operational systems and processes—putting proven strategies into action. Systems—marketing, hiring, customer care, order fulfillment, accounting, and so forth—are the fundamental building blocks of your organization Like sports, success in business is determined by how well you perform the fundamentals, how effectively your business systems and processes deliver desired results.

2. Continually Improve

Daily improvement is not a random activity but the systematic way in which you elevate your business processes to get better results. Focus attention on your vital systems and processes. Measure performance. Make adjustments. Measure again. Make it a game and keep score! A little improvement every day will have an amazing “compound effect” (Darren Hardy).

3. Be Consistent and Persistent

In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, the slower moving tortoise won the race because he moved at a constant and steady pace. It’s not how you start, but how you last that matters most. Well-designed business systems and processes create standardization and consistency for customers and employees. They are the gears that constantly turn—steady, routine, and not always exciting—but which drive your business success.

The application of fundamental principles, with an eye on persistent improvement, is a formula for exceptional achievement in any endeavor. It sounds easy enough, but you need a systematic way to make it happen. That’s why I created Box Theory™ Software. It embodies these three winning principles.

Systems are the solution. There is no other way!

Are You Smarter Than Your Business Systems?

Ron Carroll

We can all learn a lesson from the British Petroleum (BP) oil disaster that occurred in 2005. A news report said that alarms on the oil rig sounded a warning of the buildup of combustible gasses. A manager thought something was wrong with the warning system and shut down the alarm. He didn’t want the loud noise to wake sleeping workers. When the rig exploded, everyone was unprepared and fifteen lives were lost.

Oil Rix Explosion

Business systems are created, in large part, to avoid big problems. Policies, procedures, checklists, and so forth are designed to prevent bad things from happening.

However, business owners and managers sometimes use their authority to override or circumvent an established system, as was the case with BP. Many tragic and costly events in our world can be traced to a system failure of some kind, often caused by people who mean well.

On a smaller scale, the same thing can happen to your business!

Stick with the System!

In one company I worked with, an office manager was frustrated because the business owner routinely asked her to break company rules or shortcut their time-honored systems and processes.

I hate to admit it, but I once overrode a system policy by allowing a personal friend to place an order without going through the normal credit approval. It cost my company $25,000 when he couldn’t pay. I hate it when that happens!

When people are rushed to get things done, they sometimes skip important steps within a business process. Recently, I learned of a hurried accountant that skipped a final checklist procedure before mailing paychecks to employees in a distant city. He saved five minutes. However, a little mistake he could have avoided using the checklist caused a group of checks to be inaccurate. Re-doing and re-mailing the checks had a cost, but nothing compared to the angry employees who got their corrected checks two days late.

On a happier note, a business owner’s son came home from military service and went to work for his father. The son let the HR department know that he expected immediate benefits even though the company policy required a three-month waiting period. This dilemma of the owner/father created a buzz around the office. What would Daddy do? He stuck to the system policy and told his son that he would need to wait the three months. Good for him!

Everyone is Watching!

Once you create a business system or process (with accompanying policies), it pays to follow it precisely until it is improved. If you are the owner, all eyes are on you to see if you lead by example. If you do, you will earn the trust and respect of your people.

However, sometimes you do have to make a judgment call when it comes to breaking rules. We don’t live in a perfect world. But remember, good business systems are often called “best practices” for a reason. Consistency translates to happy customers, productive employees, reduced waste, and a better all-around company.

Just Retired
Gone Fishing
Your Lucky Day

It's time for me to focus on other things. Many hours and dollars have gone into my software and written materials over the last fourteen years. Now it's time to give back. This is not a gimmick. There is nothing to buy. I give it all to you for free. If you use the software and apply the principles, you can create a remarkable company. See Below. Have fun!

Turn Your Business Into Money-Making Systems!

Get Free Information for Creating Better Business Systems and Processes
Welcome to the #1 website for helping owners of small to midsize businesses create customer-pleasing, waste-removing, profit-boosting business systems and processes.

What Customers Say

Success Stories

Quotes about Business Systems

So, What Exactly is a Business System?

Video: "All Wealth is Based Upon Systems"

Michael Gerber, "E-Myth"

Michael Gerber

"Organize around business functions, not people. Build systems within each business function. Let systems run the business and people run the systems. People come and go but the systems remain constant."

All wealth is based upon systems - 4 Big Ideas 1 Short Video

W. Edwards Deming, Total Quality Management

W. Edwards Deming

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing. . . . 94% of all failure is a result of the system, not people."

Most Popular Posts

Menu