Don’t Wait for a Crisis to Build Systems

How far can you get without systems? Systems that help you grow your business not only make life easier, but they allow you to enjoy doing business. Your customer wins, and you get to do more with less. But why do so many people tolerate less than ideal setups in their business?

One thing I have observed is that human beings have a large tolerance for pain. Sometimes we are not even able to realize how much pain we have because we become acclimated.

When you are out of shape, eating unhealthy, and neglecting your body, your reality may not hit you until a crisis happens. It’s common to hear the narrative of someone who has heart problems or diabetes finally deciding to make major life changes. While those changes could have been made years before, the crisis motivated them to action.

Your business may be doing fine in your eyes, but it is likely limping along in reality. You may just be used to working poorly and inefficiently without the crisis.

When you see your competitor winning or finally feel overwhelmed by the workload , then you become motivated to take action.

Building systems is a wise investment because this is what creates worth to your business. Having a system that gets new customers or a system that gets the work done faster with technology, people and processes is much like having the factory that will product thousands of parts or a packaged good.

Just because we are in the service economy does not mean there is less demand for systems. The emphasis shifts towards integration, connectivity and virtualization. We’re often moving bits rather than atoms to get the results we need.

The connected economy allows us to do amazing things, but it is also a continual threat. Your industry will always be changing faster than ever because the barriers are lower. This is why the habit of innovation and building speed into your business is critical. It’s the mainstay that keeps you afloat in a tumultuous sea of competitors, market threats and customer whims.

To create staying power, value and differentiation, the minimum you need to commit to is being productive and having systems to help you do so. There are just too many other businesses that have moved that bar and that have created remarkable experiences. In this kind of world, you don’t have much room for mediocrity around how things get done.

We’re heading into the holiday season. It’s a good time to reflect and think about what you are building. How can you make it more valuable and easier on yourself and your customers?