If I had a pound every time I heard this reaction then I wouldn’t need to work Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays either…!

* Spoiler Alert * Businesses are Fundamentally the Same, and Here’s Why:

• Regardless of which industry or sector you’re in, the SYSTEM is the difference between a business which is being run haphazardly, with no direction and little more than hope to guide its sails, and a structured, planned, perfected and well-executed success model.

• Businesses are fundamentally, mechanically the same when it comes to marketing, lead generation and sales. Yet so many are losing out on ‘easy cash’ because they’re failing to SYSTEMISE their follow-up processes into their business (and worst-case scenario, they’ve not even defined or documented a follow-up procedure in the first place, after doing all that hard work to get someone interested).

• I do recognise that people are the vital factor in any business, but it is the SYSTEM which will get the best out of them.

I come across so many businesses that are doing OK. They’re doing a good job, have a reasonably good reputation in their marketplace, are generally a good company to use (from their customers’ perspective) – but they never get bigger than average.

The reality is that these businesses cannot grow because they do not have the processes, systems and disciplines in place to create a scalable business model.

They have not set up their goals and targets; there is no unity of vision; they do not have measurements in place or a way of improvement by learning lessons; and their exit plan is simply, ‘more of the same’.

To grow a business successfully you need to let the system deliver the excellent result – not the people.

The real crying shame is most of the entrepreneurs I have met are world class at their trade, skills, services or with the products they sell – they are passionate about what they do and spend a huge amount of time getting that part right.

Then, along comes a company that is not so passionate, has inferior products and services but outsells our heroes time and time again and starts owning their space because they’ve simply been good at the basics – creating processes and systemising these in their business.

Let’s not let this happen.

Please think about the importance of systems in your own business, and when getting advice (be it from a book, fellow-entrepreneur, colleague, member of staff, agency etc.) please think carefully first before claiming your business is different.

PS in case you’re still in doubt, here’s a little graphic demonstrating how we’ve helped business owners systemise and scale their business from across 55+ industry sectors.

PPS here’s a clue to how we’ve achieved this…we have a system!