Systems are the cornerstone of your business. Without the right office organization systems in place, you’ll very quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated.
I recently held a virtual workshop where I talked about the three biggest mistakes I see many business owners making in their business, and all of these mistakes had one thing in common: a lack of SYSTEMS.
One of those mistakes I shared was having the right systems in place, but in the wrong order.
Let me explain a bit more…
Over the 16 years I have been in business, I have become aware that there is a very specific order in which to build your business, and if you do any of this out of order, then at some point you’re going to cause some problems for yourself.
So, I took these steps and created a 3-step business management model. I refer to these three steps at the 3 “Ms” to Online Business Management Success, and it is this business model I follow and teach my private clients to follow too.
Put simply, the three steps in the 3 Ms model are:
- Step 1: Manage – build the foundations for your business by creating your core systems
- Step 2: Market – create visibility so that your target market knows who you are and what you do, and then build your database of potential clients and customers
- Step 3: Create Multiple Streams – when you get to the “bursting point” in your business repackage your expertise into various products and programs to leverage your time
I’ve written and talked about this specific business management model a lot previously, so I don’t want to focus on the process today. Instead, I’d like to share with you the results you get (or don’t get) when you do things in the WRONG order.
Scenario #1: Creating & Launching an Info Product Without Having a List in Place
Rather than focusing on building your list (step 2: market), you spend time creating a product (step 3: multiple streams)because that’s what you’ve been led to believe works … create a passive product that people can buy on your website and you become an overnight success!
So you create and launch your product, but you don’t get any sales!
Why? Because you don’t have anyone to sell to!
This is a classic case of going straight to Step 3 and completely missing out Step 2.
Scenario #2: Running an Advertising Campaign to Get New Subscribers/Leads
Let’s say you run a Facebook ad for your ezine, and it’s a huge success and you get a ton of new subscribers (step 2: marketing). If one (or more) of these new subscribers are then interested in working with you, what processes do you have in place to turn that subscriber from a potential client into a paying client? I.e. your client conversion system – and this is actually a part of your contact management system (step 1: manage).
So if you don’t have this system in place before the marketing, you’re going to have to scramble to get this set up and you could actually lose the potential client in the process.
This is an example of marketing your business (step 2) before managing your business (step 1).
So even though in the two scenarios above, you had the right systems in place, you were implementing them in the wrong order. The result is that both of these scenarios will have a very real impact on your bottom line:
Scenario 1: You put in hours of YOUR time creating an info product with no sales. What is your hourly rate? Multiply that by how many hours it took you to create the product and there is the cost of your lost revenue opportunity. That time would have been better spent focusing on getting new ideal clients so that you can fill your business and generate consistent revenues.
Scenario 2: You lose the sale because you don’t have your systems in place. The client goes elsewhere. What has that lack of systems just cost you in terms of business revenue?
