GUIDE

SYSTEMIZE
YOUR BUSINESS
 ABOUT THIS EBOOK

Systemize Your Business

Grow Your Business by Implementing Repeatable, Scalable Processes

Many entrepreneurs dream of scaling their startups into big brands,

but when it comes time to actually do it, they don’t know where to
start. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create automatable systems and
processes that will help you grow and improve your business over time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
System-Building Is Business Building

CHAPTER 2
The Benefits of Systems

CHAPTER 3
Where to Begin Systemizing

CHAPTER 4
Constantly Improve Your Systems

CHAPTER 5
Automate Your Systems and Scale
 CHAPTER 1

SYSTEM-BUILDING IS
BUSINESS BUILDING
 For many business owners, there’s a giant gap
between what they expected running their own
business would be like and what it’s really like.

After taking the plunge and starting a business,

many business owners hope that success will bring
freedom to work on their own schedules, a level
of financial abundance their previous jobs couldn’t
provide, and the fulfillment of knowing they’re making a positive
difference for their clients.

Unfortunately, a lot of small business owners actually experience

the opposite. More often than not, business owners are tied to their
computers and phones at all hours, struggling to make ends meet
financially and spending most of their time doing everything other
than what’s most fulfilling or inspiring.

Why is that?

The problem is that most entrepreneurs are applying their hard work
to the wrong things, and they’re fundamentally off track about what it
takes to build a business.

In the 1940s the McDonald brothers started their first hamburger

stand in San Bernardino, California. They opened the doors and
started flipping burgers, and people instantly loved them for the
quick service they offered. But where would they have gotten if they
thought the key to success was flipping more burgers?

As counterintuitive as it sounds, the McDonald brothers didn’t

actually flip burgers to success. They (or Ray Kroc, the guy who
bought the brand) built systems and processes for burger-flipping,
fry-frying, hat-wearing and napkin dispenser-refilling, which he
cumulatively called The McDonald’s Operating System and taught to

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over 80,000 franchisees. Even today, McDonald’s is one of the 10 most
valuable brands in the world because they built a business, not a way
to flip more burgers.

Small business owners will not achieve their vision of freedom,

financial abundance or fulfillment by answering more phone calls,
handing out more business cards, making another appointment or
working longer hours. Going down that road is just creating a self-
employment job, not a business.

So, if working harder in your business is not the answer, what is?

The answer is working harder on your business. That is, focus less on
doing the work and focus more on building systems and processes
that are designed to do the work for you. Building systems is building
a business.

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 CHAPTER 2

THE BENEFITS OF
SYSTEMS
Let’s consider the value of system-building: Why are businesses
better with systems than without them?

Systems Are Predictable

Imagine running a bakery without a system for baking cakes. Every
day, the cakes would come out a little different. Some days they’d be
great, with the perfect combination of ingredients, time in the oven
and amount of icing, and sometimes they might come out dry and
burnt. Customers wouldn’t know what to expect and would not trust
the business.

The same is true in every area of your business. If you follow up with
a new lead differently every time, the experience you’re delivering
is going to be hit-or-miss. Some clients will view you as prompt and
professional, while others might feel that you’re dropping the ball and
can’t be trusted with their business.

If you were to do your accounting a new way each month ... well, you
can imagine.

To have consistency in the products or services you deliver, there

must be “a way” you do it every time — an operating system for your
business. Many small business owners build these consistent systems
naturally out of habit, but they don’t clarify or document it.

When you systemize, that “way” is recorded and expected to be the

same every time. This predictability allows you to make smarter,
more confident decisions, such as reallocating resources and planning
for changes.

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Systems Are Delegable
Until you’ve got clear systems in place, you are limited to one of three
possibilities:

1. Doing the work yourself

2. Being frustrated with the employees who don’t do the work
correctly
3. Being hostage to an employee who does do the work correctly

With clear systems, you can train someone who has the skills
required for the job and provide clear expectations. The work will
be accomplished the way you want it, every time. And if that great
employee who does the work correctly leaves, you can simply train a
new employee.

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Systems Are Measurable
When things are done the same way each time, they become measurable.

For example, if each of your sales reps perform the sales presentation
differently every time, you won’t know exactly what’s working and what’s
not. Some salespeople will get dramatically better results than others, but
you won’t know why or how.

On the other hand, when you have a documented sales presentation and
train new sales team members on it, you can reasonably expect those
reps to (eventually) achieve results that are close to others who have gone
before them. And you could expect them to take a similar number of calls
each day or week or to manage a similar number of leads.

Creating detailed systems works for every type of business. Going back to
the bakery example, if the recipe was detailed enough, and the baker had
the required skills or experience, you could expect him or her to make the
same cake every time. You’d also know how many cakes a baker could be
expected to make in a day, how many people walk through the door on a
typical day, and how many cakes you sell in an average week.

8 9
7
5 6

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Systems Are Improvable
When you’re able to measure the details of your business, you sud-
denly have a new ability to make improvements on a regular basis.

You might know that your current sales presentation on average

inspires 25% of the prospects who hear it to buy your main product.
Armed with this knowledge, you could try a new style of presentation,
share the benefits in a new way, shorten it or make it longer as neces-
sary. Soon, you’d be able to measure your new results and determine
whether the changes you made were an improvement over the previ-
ous presentation.

From there, you could try again and, step-by-step, experiment your
way to a much more effective presentation. Or a better cake, better
packaging, customer service or advertising — this can be applied to
all parts of your business. With systems, you have the ability to create
a measurably better business over time by using the one strategy that
is time-tested and proven to work in all businesses: trial and error.

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Systems Are Scalable
Once you have systems that are predictable, measurably working and
clear enough to successfully delegate, doing more becomes a simple
matter of adding resources.

If you want to bake more cakes, hire more bakers. If you want to man-
age more leads, hire another salesperson. Growth becomes a choice.

Systems Are Automatable

Marc Andreessen, a well-known investor, once said, “Software is eat-
ing the world.”

In every industry, companies are replacing high-cost systems man-

aged by people with low-cost, high-volume systems managed by
software. In fact, Digital Trends says the U.S. Census Bureau expects
automation to take over a shocking five million jobs by 2020.

That doesn’t mean that there’s no place for humans in the workforce
— rather that there’s more room for them to focus on tasks that
require creativity and human intelligence. People can leave the busy
work for the machines and focus on bigger-picture items that work
towards moving their business forward.

When systems are automated, tasks previously completed by manual

labor are converted to easier, faster and more manageable processes
completed by a software.

Almost any repetitive process or system can be automated, and

automation will make sure it’s completed the same way every time.
Of course, not every system is automatable, but for those that are,
employing software to reliably, instantly and inexpensively run things
can be a game-changer.

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Systems Are Sellable
Finally, and possibly most importantly, systems add enormous value
to your business in the eyes of prospective buyers and investors.

Before investing in your business, they want to know that a viable

business will remain even if the business owner leaves. The people
who work there won’t always stay with the company, but systems will.
That means prospective buyers want to see that there are easy-to-
follow, detailed systems in place that they can use to train new people
and continue running the business. Systems are the business.

So, in the truest sense, system-building is the heart of business-

building.

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 CEO LANDON RAY
RECOUNTS TRANSITIONING ONTRAPORT FROM A
STARTUP TO A SYSTEMIZED BUSINESS
Business owners are not alone in the struggle to manage all the moving
pieces in their new business. ONTRAPORT CEO Landon Ray went through
exactly that, until he gained assistance from now-President Lena Requist
in 2009 and started building the business.

Here’s his story on transitioning from a systemless startup to an organized

business of over 100 people:

In 2009 when our business began to really take off, I was quickly
buried by the growth. The phone was ringing off the hook for sales
inquiries and support requests, and I was the only one who knew
how to do any of that. Completely overwhelmed, I hired a few
people to start picking up support calls and another to do sales.

With no systems or processes in place, I had no way to train these

new team members. So, I sat nearby and pretty much let them
fend for themselves, answering as many questions as I could all
day long.

It wasn’t pretty.

Within a few months, the team had grown to seven, but instead
of getting a moment to take a breath, I was busier than ever
putting out fires, answering a million questions and making
all the decisions. When that seventh employee came on, I was
so overwhelmed trying to manage all the spinning plates that I
couldn’t take a second to stop and show her how she could help,
so she sat there for a couple weeks doing just about nothing.

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Fortunately, our eighth employee — and current President Lena
Requist — understood the value of systems. After a week or so of
observing the mayhem that I’d created, she got to work on building
systems around the most crucial parts of our business — how we
served our clients and how we billed them — both of which were in
relative disarray in those days.

Over the years, we’ve covered virtually our entire business with
clear, repeatable, trainable, measurable and scalable processes.
Once completely unmanageable at seven people, ONTRAPORT is
now at more than 100 people and very well-organized across all
departments, with robust online training for nearly every position,
making the company easy to manage and completely scalable.

Of course, there’s always more to do, but I’m certain that our focus
on systemizing our business has made the difference between
success and failure. It’s that big of a deal.

And, of course, it’s completely changed my own experience

of life as an entrepreneur. Not long ago I was a caricature of
the overwhelmed and haggard startup founder, dazed by the
Frankenstein of a business I’d created. Today, at 10x the size, it’s a
relative cake-walk.

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 CHAPTER 3

WHERE TO BEGIN
SYSTEMIZING
The value of systems is clear, but how and where do you start
systemizing your entire business? If you are like most entrepreneurs,
you agree with the idea of systemization but feel overwhelmed at
the prospect of actually making it happen. Here are five steps to get
started.

Step 1: List All the Responsibilities of Each Position in

Your Company
Sometimes, it’s difficult for employees to put their finger on exactly
what they do all day, much less break it down into process-sized
chunks. In that case, here’s an effective trick: Have them grab a
notepad and write down every single thing they do all day, every
day, for a week or two. Also, there are useful apps, such as Toggl,
Due Time, and Klok, that have been developed to help people track
their time/tasks. Pretty soon, they’ll have a complete list of their
responsibilities which can then be thoroughly documented in the
operations guide.

Step 2: Have the Employee Write the Detailed Processes

Involved With Those Responsabilites
After listing all the responsibilities of each position in your company,
have that employee write the detailed processes involved with those
responsibilities. For example, your accountant may be responsible
for keeping track of payments, depositing checks and paying the bills;
have him or her write the detailed processes for each of those tasks.

Writing out detailed processes means thinking about the little things,
such as how often the process is completed, who the process owner
is, links to pertinent resources, and login information for software
used to complete the process.

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Step 3: Document Processes With Urgent Delegation or
Improvement Needs First
Employees who may leave their role soon — whether due to a
promotion, a move to another company, or even going on vacation
— should be first to document the processes within in their role. This
makes it easy for their replacement to quickly pick up where they left
off with nothing falling between the cracks. A system should detail
each step so thoroughly that any qualified person can complete the
job by following it.

Other important tasks to focus on are those that need improvements.

Are there any areas of your business that you feel aren’t performing
well? Even the process of writing down the steps can help employees
identify where the inefficiencies are so plans can be made to correct
them.

Step 4: Store the Processes on a Shared Knowledge

Base Where Others Can Access Them
Where do you store your systems and processes so
everyone can access them? When the processes
are stored in an easy-to-find communal place, Things to
do
:
there’s less confusion about where to go to find the
information you need. That means no distracting
messages to managers asking for guidance or time
wasted as an employee aimlessly searches for
instructions.

If you’re just getting started, task

documentation can be printed and put
in binders to be distributed to each team
members. Down the line, many companies

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go digital and either put their processes in a knowledge base online,
such as Google Drive, or use more complex tools like Confluence that
can link to project management software.

While writing systems can be time-consuming, remember, they’ll

ultimately reduce the time it takes to complete tasks and keep you
from the cycle of impromptu scrambling. By getting this work done,
you’re creating the opportunity to delegate or even automate these
responsibilities — you’re starting on the path to building a scalable,
manageable business.

Step 5: Improve and Make Changes as Necessary

Systemizing your business processes is not a set-and-forget kind of
project. You need to regularly review your processes and continually
look for where things can be improved. As employees continue to
test and practice these processes, they may find inefficiencies or
processes that can be removed entirely. Over time, you may even
create a process for reviewing, assessing, and improving different
internal business processes.

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ontraport.com | 20
 CHAPTER 4

WHEN TO IMPROVE
YOUR SYSTEMS
Knowing the right time to make changes to your processes can
be challenging. Here are four main reasons a process may need
updating:

1. Something Breaks
Things don’t always go the way you plan in business. This will be true
of your foray into systems-building as well. When you’re just starting
out, when a process is new, or when you have a new person in a role,
processes sometimes won’t produce the results you intended.

In most small businesses, processes aren’t a matter of life and

death. When something goes wrong — a customer might not get the
experience you were hoping to deliver or a product might not come
out exactly as designed — you can usually apologize, make it right,
and fix your process.

Often, these breakdowns happen not because of a flaw in the process

but because someone didn’t follow the process. The solution to that
is training and clarity about expectations.

But when your process was followed and things still didn’t go well, it
may be time to take a look at how to improve things so the error can
be avoided in the future.

2. Something Changes
It doesn’t always require a breakdown to see that a process needs
improvement. When there’s a significant change in the business that
affects a process, things often need to be reworked.

For example, when there’s suddenly a lot more work to do and you
need to shift the responsibility for a task from one person to a team
of people, a change in process makes sense. You’ll need to make sure

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people are communicating, not doing double work, and handling the
flow as efficiently as possible.

Other changes that may trigger a process review might be new laws
or industry rules, the adoption of new technology in the business, or
the decision to do some work remotely instead of in a single space.

3. Something Is Learned
As an entrepreneur, you’re always looking for new and better ways
to do something. Sometimes you’ll get a new idea from reading an
article, seeing how another business runs things, or getting a tip from
a peer or a sharp employee.

Sometimes your ideas don’t go as planned,

so you experiment. You might try a new way
of advertising, a different approach to sales
presentations, or a twist on your product.

Some things work better than before, some

don’t. When they do, that’s the time to update
your system documentation to reflect what the
organization has learned.

4. Deep Dives
Sometimes there can be too much of a good
thing. Good-intentioned and diligent people get
busy adding to and extending processes to avoid breakdowns (real or
anticipated) and, over time, something that was simple and effective
can begin to look like a daunting maze. These byzantine systems can
pile on one another and become overwhelming. To prevent overdone
processes, it’s valuable to periodically step back and see if there
might be a better way.

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While doing a deep dive into your company’s processes, look for
opportunities to improve, streamline or simplify things. Conducting
a deep dive once a year is a good way to keep your business’s
improvements on track.

By taking the time to step back and look at the big picture, you can
save a lot of money and improve your customers’ experiences.

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 CHAPTER 5

AUTOMATE YOUR
SYSTEMS AND SCALE
One of the most compelling benefits of systemization is that, once
you turn a responsibility into a process, it’s often possible to automate
some or all of it. Once your processes are automated, they’re scalable.
That means you can do everything at a higher volume and at a higher
profit.

Systems and processes lay the foundation for businesses to grow and
scale, but when companies embrace business automation, it takes their
scalability to a whole new level. Remember how McDonald’s developed
processes for their fast food operations back in the 1940s? Today,
they’re automating their internal processes so their crews can focus
their time on the customers. That led to increased productivity and a
renewed focus on customer service. Automation proved to be a good
investment for the burger chain — its net income increased by 28%.

The good news is automation isn’t just for mega corporations and tech
giants. You can use software such as ONTRAPORT to automate key
internal business processes to significantly improve your efficiency.
With greater efficiency comes greater output, happier employees,
more time to focus on bigger-picture items, and ultimately more
bottom line revenue. Learn much more about automation in our
Business Process Automation Blueprint.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that a process should not be

automated without thinking things through and ensuring the process
works. If possible, before automating, first try doing it manually. Once
you’ve figured out the ideal process, map it out. Then, it’s simply a
matter of building the system into your automation software. You’ll
then be able to get all the stats you need to measure the effectiveness
of your processes over time and continue making improvements.

What you’ll find is that the more you’re able to successfully automate
your business, the easier it will be for you and your team to focus on
creating new value for your clients — and it all starts with systemizing.

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Ontraport’s mission is to support entrepreneurs in delivering their
value to the world by removing the burden of technology. We deliver
on that mission by creating software, offering services, and educating
the entrepreneurial community.

For over a decade, Ontraport’s industry-leading CRM and marketing

automation platform has powered thousands of companies. Its
intuitive all-in-one system equips businesses to manage each stage
of the customer lifecycle with seamless, personalized customer
experiences that spur business growth.

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