5 Essential Systems Every Growing Business Owner Needs
Is it possible to scale without the chaos, you ask? I don’t know about you, but as my business grew, I would find my time and creativity slipping away to little things like onboarding, manually following up, or communication issues (wait, I know I read it, where’d they send that to me again?). Funny how you can be such an integral part to implementing client systems, but ended up overlooking them in my own business.
Once I started thinking of my business as just a combination of systems, I was able to turn things around. Little by little, I mapped out what worked best for my business and then implemented them.
A lot of business owners are visionaries, they see the big picture and have a million ideas, but let’s step back for a second and look at our businesses as just a combination of different systems. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ll take a look at the 5 essential systems that every business should have in place whether you realize it or not.
Client Management & Onboarding System
One of the number one complaints of clients working with service professionals is communication. Now that’s another system, but setting the tone from the beginning that your client interactions are smooth and professional is incredibly important.
Tools: Dubsado, Honeybook, Go High Level, etc
Key components:
Automated Onboarding (contracts, invoices, welcome emails)
A clear client dashboard to track projects & deadlines
Streamlined communication (Everything in one place)
2. Project & Task Management System
I hear it all the time. “I just keep it all in my head, my todoist, my sticky notes.” The thing is, when you do that you’re risking not only tasks falling through cracks, but also powerful, creative brain space. Implementing a project management system keeps everything organized, trackable, and delegatable (is that a word? Can it be??).
Tools: Clickup, Asana, Trello, Monday, Airtable
Key Components:
A single place for projects, deadlines, and deliverables.
Templates and workflows for repeatable tasks
Assignable tasks with clear due dates so no one is waiting on you.
3. Financial & Revenue System
If you don’t have a clear picture of your invoicing, revenue, expenses, and cashflow, you’re making decisions in the dark.
Tools: Quickbooks, Wave, Xero, etc
Key Components:
Automated invoicing & payment tracking
Monthly revenue reports
A system for setting aside taxes & profit
4. Team & Communication System
It’s worth saying twice that one of the most common complaints from clients is communication. It’s also a major complaint from businesses teams (employees, VAs, contractors, partners, etc). Clear communication & delegation within expected timeframes is non-negotiable. Boundaries are also non-negotiable. If you don’t want to spend all day being asked if you can jump on a “quick call”, receiving tons of text messages, or emails and never being quite sure where they sent the information you needed, you need a communication system…desperately.
Tools: Slack, Voxer, Loom, SOP library (ex Notion or Google Drive)
Key Components:
A central communication hub
Weekly check-ins or automated updates
SOPs & Workflows so new hires can hit the ground running
5. Marketing & Content Management System
Are you burning out trying to create fresh content? Have you told your VA you want to approve everything, but haven’t had time and now haven’t had content go up when it should?
Tools: Airtable, Google Drive, Metricool, or a content calendar in your Project Management system.
Key Components:
A content bank for repurposing past posts, videos, and newsletters
A scheduling system
Automations for lead generation & follow-ups
Are you missing any of these systems from your business? I’m a firm believer that scaling doesn’t have to mean more stress. When you have the right systems in place, growth becomes simpler. Take a look at your current operations:
Which of these 5 systems do you already have dialed in?
Which ones are slowing you down?