Have you ever felt like your business is a circus show where everyone is dancing in their own direction?

As a business owner, are you just praying that nothing goes wrong?

If that’s the case, it’s high time to systematize your business.

Take a cue from McDonald’s.

The fast-food giant has revolutionized the industry through standardized processes, with a net profit of 26.65% as of December 31, 2022, and a valuation of approximately $193.05 billion.

Let’s dive in and explore how you can bring order to the chaos.

Map your business

The first step in systematizing your business is to map out your business structure.

Here’s the deal: You can start on a simple piece of paper, but a mind map is preferable.

Start by listing all your different business areas on a mind map.

For example, in my case, my areas includes YouTube, blogging, and coaching.

Under each of these areas, note down all the processes involved.

For YouTube, I need to research video topics, record B-rolls, film the video, edit it, design thumbnails, and publish the video.

Similarly, there’s a workflow for blogging and course creation.

Now, how do you define these processes?

It’s pretty simple.

Think about your work sessions—anything that can be completed in one sitting of 60 to 90 minutes can be considered a single process.

If your business is more complex, you might want to categorize these processes by various departments.

💡 Remember, this mind map should be simple. For example, in the above mindmap, under coaching, I have a vague process called marketing. That doesn’t mean anything, right? I may need to break it down into various sub-processes.

Capture

Once you’ve mapped out your business, the next step is to capture and outline all the steps involved in executing these processes.

You might be wondering: How do you do this effectively?

Rather than just jotting down the idealistic steps, take a step back and ask your teammates to outline the actual steps they follow.

How can they outline?

This might be better captured in a Loom video rather than in written instructions from you.

Let me give you an example. In our blog post writing process (we use AI to speed up content creation).

Here’s how we do it:

1. Create a high-level outline for the article.
2. Dictate original insights for each section.
3. Ask AI to expand each section to form a complete article.
4. Humanize the AI-generated content to make it sound more natural.
5. Finalize the article for publication.

Having a mind map for your entire business like this unlocks a new level of clarity. It also helps with team management and highlights areas that are preventing you from achieving your business goals.

🙂 I recommend refining this mind map over the next two weeks before rushing to create any fancy flowcharts or SOPs. These mind maps are easier to edit, especially in the initial stages. In fact, your mind map can be your flowchart. Think!

Documenting process

Here’s the deal: the next step is to document your processes, but don’t overdo it.

People often create plenty of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), store them in Google Drive or other platforms, and never touch them again.

The main objective is to make your documentation easily accessible so that your teammates can use it when executing repetitive tasks.

You might be wondering: do you really need a lengthy SOP for every process?

Not at all!

Sometimes, a simple checklist is all you need.

For instance, when I’m filming videos, I use a handy checklist to ensure everything runs smoothly. An entire SOP would be overkill.

However, some processes are more complex and require a more detailed SOP, especially when dealing with external freelancers or contractors.

When creating an SOP, include three key sections:

• Overview: Start with the purpose of the SOP and the context, providing clarity for your teammates. It also includes a section on responsibilities as well as a section on terminologies.
• Process: List all the steps involved in the workflow here. Use headings, sub-headings, and step-by-step instructions to keep things clear and avoid overwhelming your team.
• Resources: Provide all the necessary project management tools and references to execute the workflow effectively.

Now, let’s put this into perspective: In our SOP on writing AI-powered blog posts, we detail everything from conducting research to finalizing the outline.

We emphasize the importance of dictating original insights to the AI rather than letting it write the entire article.

Inside each section, we provide more detailed instructions, including screenshots and Loom videos if necessary.

Testing the workflow

After documenting the business processes, it’s crucial to test the workflow to ensure it can be executed as efficiently as possible.

You might be wondering: why not just test it yourself?

As a business owner, you’re likely an expert in your field and may suffer from the “curse of knowledge“—assuming everyone knows what you know.

To avoid this, have someone else test the process. This way, you’ll identify any friction points that you might overlook.

Iterate

Once you’ve received feedback from the testing stage, it’s time to refine your processes.

Here’s the deal: this isn’t a one-and-done task.

Because:

Your process documents are living entities that need to evolve continuously.

Improvements can be made by reflecting on mistakes, receiving feedback from customers or teammates, or tracking key business metrics.

Sources of feedback to iterative and improve:

• Mistakes: Maintaining a log of mistakes can be crucial. Even billionaire investors like Ray Dalio have implemented a culture of logging mistakes to make system-wide changes by reflecting on patterns quarterly.
• Feedback: Value the feedback provided by your clients and teammates. Document it and review it quarterly to roll out changes.
• Metrics: KPIs or key metrics can often reflect the efficiency of your processes. For instance, in blogging, we track the time people spend reading our posts. If readers drop off early, we adjust our writing process to keep them engaged longer.

💡 When aiming for improvements in your system, ask yourself, “What changes can I make in my system, mainly with processes and checklists, so that it would be impossible for my teammates to make the same mistakes in the future?”

This is the highest leverage question you can ask to improve your business systems.

Build documentation

Many businesses have well-written processes and documentation.

However, they often overlook the digital environment in which they and their teammates operate.

On average, people spend 7 to 10 hours a day in front of a computer. Yet, the digital space is often cluttered with distractions, unlike our well-organized physical spaces.

This is also true for your teammates, they as well jump between multiple apps daily.

You might be wondering: How do you create a distraction-free digital environment?

The answer lies in – building your own effective systems that dictate the environment in which your team works.

Remember, all businesses are not the same, and you shouldn’t let rigid software restrict your ability to make innovative improvements.

For instance, I use Notion to manage my entire business and life using a LifeOS called CoreSystem.

As a content creator, I also have a system for managing YouTube videos, blog posts, social media, etc.

Conclusion

Now, let’s bring it all together! 

Systemizing your business involves externalizing all the processes that you have in a form of mind map, noting down the sub-steps, and identifying the bottlenecks in those processes by having all team members on board and improving the way which the members operate by devising solutions

You need to be aiming for continuous improvement, than treating it as a one-off process.