Operations

The changes in the park’s environment remind me of the changes that took place in an organization I have been working with. In this case, the leader, who for sure can be described as a “Wolf,” stepped away from his post as leader a few years ago. He was distracted by the good life, a loss of physical energy and the notion that maybe his kids could run the company.

In order for your business to be successful, by most definitions, you will probably find you need to document 25-50 core systems. A documented system takes many forms. It can be handwritten, a word document, excel template, audio or video recording, a checklist, or even a series of photo cards – as long as someone other than you can view it, and use it and without input from you, follow steps to get the result you want.

Run your numbers through this simple profit calculating tool to see where you are at

“A Promise of Something Better” were the words my husband said to me 23 years ago when we first started dating. Those five simple words set the foundation for our amazing life together. It was his promise to me and in turn, it became my promise to him. It’s a promise our family lives by, making life better not only for ourselves but for many others as well. I was thinking about his profound promise today, when planning to explain why a company promise is so important for business owners.

Prior to owning a smartphone I missed a lot of deadlines and appointments. Prior to auto-debit online banking I missed a lot of payments. In fact, going way back I remember getting a Hydro disconnection notice for non-payment even though I had enough money in my bank account to pay my bills. The cost was huge in terms of my credit and my bank account paying all that interest and at times penalties.

Being a strategic business owner means taking the time to figure out what you need to do when and actually putting those tasks into some form of calendar that will prompt and remind you to take action. Those items can be bills due, employee performance plans to complete, tax returns to file and even an annual vacation to book because you know if you don’t write it down, chances are it either won’t happen or will happen late.

Sometimes it worries me that I have a lot of missing or broken systems in my company. It’s easy to become paralyzed by the pressure of having to have everything “perfectly organized.” That can prevent me from even trying new things. (Being the systems coach and all!).

Right now I’m working on my blogging system and I’m struggling. Even though I don’t have the system tight yet, I’m not going to let it stop me from trying. The mindset for getting organized and profitable in business is to just keep moving forward in the direction of your goals.