I recently read an article about very successful and busy leaders in the business world. They attribute part of their success (and keeping their heads above water) to making as many things in their lives “standard” as possible. It’s why you see certain people always wearing a white button down shirt or a gray tee shirt. It’s not like they have one outfit at home – they keep buying more of the same on purpose – it takes away one more thing for them to decide on. Breakfast? Same thing every morning. If you nail down all the everyday and mundane routines by standardizing, what may appear to be a lack of variety is actually freeing up their brains for all the intense decision making they have to focus on the rest of the day.

Even micro-businesses who are doing everything on their own have to recognize that reinventing the wheel gets exhausting and counter-productive. Beyond your morning routine, when it comes to day to day operations, settle on one way to do each project and task and document it. It can be in writing or on video, but document it. Once it’s “down” it becomes a thing. And following a process is more freeing than having to make 100 tiny decisions.

In the beginning you’ll be adding and modifying your system, and that’s normal, but after a few weeks, it needs to be set in stone and followed to the letter.

What to build a process around? Everything.

  • What do you do when you go networking?
  • What do you do when you want to touch base with former prospects?
  • What do you do when a new client comes in the door?
  • What do you do when you have a sales opportunity?

When I brought on a virtual assistant, the need to document became clear. Simply having conversations around how to do something always left something missing or unclear. So an earlier assistant started documenting what she did for me, and after she moved on, the document helped the new assistant get on board quickly – I didn’t have to stop and re-train her from scratch. I have been adding to it and modifying it as we discover new ways to get things done more effectively. And she’s been adding to it, too! Beautiful.

Ugh – documenting – what a pain! Yes and no – the act of documenting processes makes you stop and think if this is the best approach, if something is missing or superfluous. The document is there for you, your first hire and your future team.

The more you standardize one way of doing things and then document it, the more you realize other things should be systematized as well.

Let’s take going networking. Your process can look like:

  1. Register for the event, pay, and put it in your calendar.
  2. Attend with the intention of meeting 2 new people, reconnecting with 2 people you’ve previously met, and scheduling a one-on-one with at least 1 other person. That’s touching 5 people in the room at each meeting.
  3. Come home and make sure to check out their LinkedIn profiles and send a connection request for each of the 5 you’ve touched. Send them a note initiating or continuing a conversation.
  4. Look for the next scheduled event of that organization and place a hold on your calendar to remind you to register.

Not too bad – it’s easily repeatable and allows you to walk into the room with the intention of connecting with 5 people and carrying the connection further online. Your own process can look different but the point is to create and keep to the same procedure.

Typically the first go-round of documenting a process won’t be perfect, so be on the lookout for ways to improve – make things more efficient, productive. Enlist the advice of your admin, your team. Encourage them to add to your document!

The more you find ways to create a system, the easier it will be to off-load the task. While no one can pretend to be you at a networking meeting, in the future, one of your team members can go networking on behalf of your company and follow the process.

Standardize your verbiage so your team writes like you and you can ask them to respond to emails with confidence. Teach them standard phrases and ways of speaking for the company so they can speak on the phone with confidence.

Setting standards and creating systems opens the door to more involvement from your team. They can take over running the team meetings, onboarding new customers, reaching out to past customers, finding new networking and speaking opportunities for you. Giving your team opportunities to jump in with confidence will allow you to focus more of your time on the design and planning of your business growth.

Challenge – create at least 2 new processes for your business that you can follow with confidence. Write them down. Follow them and see if there’s any improvements you can make. Make revisions and create 2 more new processes.

This may not be up there with seeing a movie and getting ice cream as your favorite ways to spend your time, but you will thank yourself in the long run! And your team will operate with confidence, thankful you laid it all out for them.

You’re on your way to growth mode!