No business EVER sold for its full potential when the owner did the everyday jobs in the business or a portion of them.

When you sell, and 99% of us will at some point, the idea is to make it so you can sell with as little earn out as possible.

That aside, you may operate the business for another 20 years before you sell.

Do you REALLY want to be dealing with all the day to day stuff of dealing with staff issues, customer complaints, ordering the stationary, paying the rents, marketing etc?

That’s not owning a business, that’s owning a JOB, and no one ever started an agency and said, “Hmmm I think I’ll build a job for myself”.

We all went into agency with the hope and dream of building a good solid business.

It’s NEVER too late to systemise your business and it’s not hard in all honesty.

Of course, like everything, there are tips, tricks, hacks to get to the end goal more efficiently and effectively BUT in the main it’s not rocket science.

So why are 99% of agencies not systemised?

What are your thoughts?

The post Making Yourself Redundant first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

Well, if you are then you are employing the wrong people.

If you run it from an operational perspective then you have a job, I’m afraid to say, NOT a business.

Of course, if you have just started and or are small, then as long as you know this nuance and are working towards making yourself redundant, that’s fine.

BUT most people who have been in business for a couple of years or more and who are still doing vals, paying the Landlords, dealing with minor complaints, speaking to vendors, have not made enough difference in their business to break the self-employed barrier – nothing wrong with that.

It’s not a criticism, just pointing out an observation and if that’s what you want to do then great, job accomplished (pardon the pun).

However, if at some point you want more time, more options, more income and build a true business you can sell, then you really need to start, honestly, looking at your business and what you can do to get yourself from running it on a day-to-day basis.

It’s NEVER too late for you to systemise your business.

You just need to start. Don’t use excuses. Re-prioritise things so you can find and make the time.

The post You May Not Be The Best Person Operationally To Run Your Business first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

What seemed obvious to you, just simply wasn’t to others.

This can be based on a few reasons:

– Lack of understanding of the process

– Their base knowledge and understanding

– Previous experience or lack of it

This is why when writing procedures, you need to write them to the lowest common denominator, i.e., to who is going to have to read and understand them.

There is no point keeping it all high level and corporate language if an apprentice has to follow them. They have failed before they even start.

When writing the procedures if the thought of “oh that’s obvious” or “surely they must know that” ever comes into your head, then you have not written them with enough detail.

A good tip is to get someone NOT from the industry or the business, to have a read of them. If they understand it and there are no missing parts, then it’s a good procedure from that perspective.

If it’s disjointed and doesn’t flow or they get stuck when reading, then you have missed parts off.

Procedures above all must make sense and improve things. Not ask more questions than provide answers.

The post Common Sense Is Not Common Practice first appeared on The Agency Roadmap.

I don’t know of a good business that doesn’t have systems of some sort and I certainly don’t know of a great business that the owner isn’t obsessed with systems to a degree.

Systems are the difference between being self-employed and owning a true business.

Here are my top 10 tips:

1. Make time – Have protected time, ideally daily, to write the operations manual. Get up an hour early or go to bed an hour late.

2. Write the manual how you want your business to operate not how it currently does.

3. Use SMART goals to write the manual.

4. You cannot put too much detail in the manual.

5. Make sure you cover all learning basis regarding how you communicate to the team (written, video, role play etc).

6. Audit the business every month to make sure the team are doing what they are meant to be doing.

7. Feedback how they did – how can they improve otherwise.

8. Tell them warts and all – don’t hold back but be empathetic at the same time.

9. Test, tweak and change/evolve any procedures that you need to.

10. This is a lifetime process. You will never complete systemising your business.

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