I don’t know about you, but I always want to proactively grow my business to the next level, AND that would be a challenge IF my business lacked structure. But it is not. I am THE systems queen, so it runs like a well-oiled machine because it is fully automated. Right now, the buzz word in the interwebs is scaling. Everyone is focused on growing their business but NOT willing to focus on the fundamentals that should be in place to help them achieve their goals on demand.
Opportunity Without Structure is Chaos
Everyone is focused on branding. Looking good. Superficial b.s that doesn’t add any value to their customer’s bottom line. As my peer Akilah Pitts stated the other day in an training, she said… We are living in an age of “Internet Pretty But Behind the Scenes Hot Mess.”
There are two schools of thought when it comes down to the concept of “Internet Pretty But Behind the Scenes Hot Mess.”
Thought #1: On one hand this happens because a brand grows at warp speed, and they are just trying to keep up with demand with no systems and processes in place to support their growth. They have a desire to serve and help their clients achieve their goals, but the customer service experience is often subpar because they didn’t strategically plan anything. They showed up and delivered without regard to what would go wrong. They threw spaghetti at the wall hoping something would stick, AND it did. They got caught up in the “overnight” success hype. They get pinned in the corner, unsure of their options to move forward with how to manage client requests and service fulfillment.
Thought #2: On the other hand, there is a heighten growth of “business owners” who are only here to make a quick buck, aka scammers. They know people are vain, and if they present the right “experience” designed to inspire people to buy, then they can get whatever they want from whoever they want whenever they want it. Their moral compass is off. They know if they can mimic an illusion of success to eager potential clients, and in return, those people will buy with little to no concern, and unfortunately, they would have gotten off scot-free.
Regardless of a person’s intentions, it is almost impossible to grow a business that produces sustainable results without structure.
What is structure? A rulebook of action steps your business can follow to ensure that you are delivering a customer service experience that is in alignment with your brand’s promise, which means that you have a documented plan for each area of your business.
A few examples of a few areas you should consider having a documented plan for:
- Prospecting
- New Client Acquisition
- New Client Onboarding
- Service Fulfillment
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Customer Service
- Client Disputes
- Client Request
- AND anything else that is required to manage a profitable business.
And not only do you have a documented plan in place, but you have an infrastructure in place to help you manage your day to day operations. This means that you have something in place to:
- Take payment
- You have landing pages/sales pages/website that showcase your suite of services
- You have an email marketing system in place to capture and nurture leads
- You have legally formulated your business
- A business bank account
- An accountant
- Social media accounts that engage your current and ideal clients
- A project management system to manage your existing clients
- A CRM that manages your client contents to name a few.
If you don’t have these things in place, I am curious to know how you are managing everything and staying on task. Structure also means that you keep your calendar up to date so that you aren’t double booking, and you are responding to client/prospect requests on time.
I am telling you that you NEED a plan and systems in place to support your business growth goals. It’s ok to be CUTE and all, but it is a PR (Public Relations) nightmare when your back end systems are a hot mess or non-existence. If you want people to be talking smack about your brand, keep winging it, and see how fast your sales hit zero. It is hard to scale if you are doing everything manually or not sure what to have in place to support the demands that arise in your business.
I am here to help you TODAY if you are dealing with the following things.
- Being unfocused and not sure what to focus on to move the needle in your business.
- Not hitting your revenue goals consistently.
- Unclear as to why people aren’t buying from you because you KNOW your offers are the shit, and you are sick of people making excuses or putting you off until a date in the future that never comes. You are tired of talking to people over and over again who appear interested, but they never buy or they try to discount you to death.
- Feeling overworked and underpaid.
- and anything else you want to throw at me.
#gutcheck [FIRST NAME GOES HERE]; if you got an influx of 10 to 50 new inquires or clients for your business, could you handle it with ease, or would it be a clusterfuck? Take a few moments to ponder this and walk YOURSELF through your systems and process and determine what is missing and or where the bottleneck would happen if you had an overflow of blessings hit you because your marketing was working.
I think it is worth your time to do a gut check to understand what is standing in the way of you achieving your next level of success. I KNOW you have a couple of questions swirling around in your head that warrants clarity. You don’t want a cookie-cutter response you want someone to give you feedback based on your business model or lack thereof, skill set, and what you need to do to achieve YOUR goals.
If this is you, then I want to invite you to book a Profit Injection Strategy Session.
If you love my content and want more and haven’t already done so, then join my FREE Facebook Group Rebel Queen. It’s popping over there.
If you KNOW, you need help, but on the fence and want a few questions answered before moving forward, then let’s talk. Click here to book your complimentary session.
That’s all I got for you for now.
I look forward to working with you and or connecting with you.
Your Business Systems Strategist
Wendy Nicole Anderson