If you’re good at what you do, your business will grow.

That is a simple philosophy upon which I’ve built my business career.

I had a conversation with my friend Joe, and he shared with me a story.

Joe’s father was a successful business person, and Joe asked him how he had become so successful.

Joe’s father responded that there were three keys to his success.

1. Show up on time.
2. Do what you say you’re going to do.
3. Bill appropriately.

Joe responded, “Dad, that seems like common sense; everybody does those three things.”

Joe’s father responded, “Son, you would be surprised how uncommon these three practices are in business.  By following these three keys, I’ve set myself apart from my competition.”

Voltaire said, “Common sense is not so common.”

Joe’s had a system for being successful in business.

Believe it or not, you have systems already in your business.

You probably haven’t taken the time to document those systems because for most people documenting systems is a time consuming and arduous process.

You know that documentation process where you create an operations manual.

Then three weeks later, something changes, and you have to go back to update the operations manual.

If you don’t keep that operations manual up to date, it will soon become stale and outdated.

After updating the operations manual a few times, you throw your hands up in frustration and go back to your normal day to day operations.

However, you are good at your work, and your business is growing.

Now you run into the business owner’s dilemma.

You are running out of time.

You decide to hire someone so you can empty work off of your plate.

Now you run into the problem of training that new hire.

After explaining how to do things for the 100the time, you throw your hands up in frustration and go back to your normal day to day operations.

That’s when you think back to something your wised business mentor once told you.

“You have to build systems for your business.”

You start fuming because you tried that before.

You’ve tried to create an operations manual, but the promise of a simpler business didn’t materialize.

Creating those systems wasn’t worth all the effort.

You feel like you’re running into a brick wall.

That’s because you are running into a brick wall.

You’re building systems the wrong way.

Here’s the major thing you need to remember.

You already have systems.

You don’t need to create systems.

You need to capture those systems.

The beauty of capturing systems is it takes very little additional time to capture those systems.

To start capturing your systems, you only need two things to get started.

A smartphone and a screen capture software.

The smartphone you will use to record video while you do your work that is not on a computer

The screen capture software you will use when you are doing work on a computer.

The beauty of using video is it captures almost everything, and it is quick and easy to record video.

Here are the top three things to keep in mind when you are capturing your systems.

Record Bite-Sized Videos

I like to record my videos in tasked size bits.

The big benefit of this is it’s much easier for the end-user to watch a five-minute video about one task than it is to watch a 30 – 45-minute video about a process.

Then when a person has a question about a task, they can just watch a few minute video about the task instead of searching through a larger video.

When explaining the system, I talk while I’m performing the work.

I explain what I’m doing and why I am doing the work the way I’m doing it.

If there is some underlying knowledge of why I’m doing something a certain way, I’ll explain that while I’m doing the work.

Pretend that you are talking with a third-grader.

How would you explain the process to a third grader?

If a third-grader can understand what you are sharing, then it is highly likely that anyone will be able to understand what you are talking about.

Focus On Top Priorities

I like to think of my business in the following four categories:

• Sales/marketing
• Operations
• Finance
• Leadership

At the beginning of each quarter, I spend time reviewing my business and making a list of the top three priorities in each of these four areas.

Once I have my top twelve priorities, I order those priorities based on what is most important for the next 90 days.

Then I start working on the first priority.

I use this system by capturing my systems.

The first system I capture is the one that will allow me to delegate that work right now.

This frees my time so that I can work on more important tasks.

Capture Systems One at A Time

One of the pernicious problems many business people run into is becoming overwhelmed.

It’s easy to understand how this happens.

There is a never-ending to-do list as a business owner.

Every day, some tasks will undoubtedly be left undone.

Then a new day starts, and a new to-do list starts, and the cycle begins.

Recognize this is the nature of the beast with running a business.

It would be wonderful if you could get everything that you view as important done today.

However, for most people, that is not reality.

Focus on capturing one system at a time.

Once you’ve captured that system, then move on to the next system.

One step at a time will get you better results than trying to do everything at once.

Conclusion

If you’re good at what you do, your business will grow.

You have a limited capacity, and eventually, you will run out of time.

You will have to make a strategic decision on what you want your business to be when it grows up.

If you decide that you want the business to become larger, you will have to build systems to free your time up to focus on more important priorities.

The systems will become the backbone of your business’s success.

Without those systems, you will most likely find yourself running around like a chicken with its head chopped off.

You will be much more successful with your systems when you take the time to capture these systems on video.

There are three things to keep in mind when capturing your systems.

• Record Bit Sized Videos
• Focus On Top Priorities
• Capture Systems One at A Time

Get started today by making a list of three systems you want to capture.

Effective systems will free you up to make your business flourish.

Before I end this article, I wanted to ask you if you’re looking to grow your business profits and having more cash in the bank, send me an email at damon@idealmoneylife.com with “PROFIT” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!