The Three Stages of Business Systems..

What's it About...

Jonathan Stewart

I love talking to business owners but when I talk about systems I get one of three responses. It all depends on where they are in their business journey!

September 6, 2022
"You Focused" Business Advice, Creative, Generative Producer, Perfectionist, Rebel, Sustainable Systems

I've been chatting to a number of business owners around their struggles with systems. A pattern that I started noticing (neurodivergent powers activate) was there are three stages when it comes to implementing systems in your business:

You've got:

Fledgeling Business Owners

The Messy Middle

Super Scaling

I'd love to introduce each, and I'm super intrigued to know where you're at in this?

Each one have different struggles, and each one have very different needs!

Fledgeling Business Owners

This is where we all start. When you first start your business, we choose the apps that other people tell us to, because the amount of decisions we've gotta make is incredibly overwhelming!

They're far more likely to DIY it and then get overwhelmed and stop… because revenue is far too tight, and right now “systems that work” are last on their long list of “things they should do!”

Often the choice is to use AIO (all in one) platforms that promise the world, and that'll get them setup and ready to go fast… even if it's a right pain the digital ass sometimes.

Super Scalers

The super scalers have been in business for a long time, they are super clear on the way they work, they've at a stage where they have multiple full or part time employees and are at the stage where they wanna scale BIG time.

Often they're in the startup space, and at least one or two members are technically minded, and have hired a couple of letters to support in the running of the business:

COOs
CFOs
C3POs (okay maybe not that one..)

They've got the foundations of their systems already sorted, they're looking for that cherry on the top of the cake that allows them to fully customise and make their systems fit them.

The Messy Middle

I honestly believe that the messy middle is the best place to be! (but I'm bias).

When you're in the messy middle you're at a point where you've established yourself as someone who can help clients and you're at a point where you're ready to make your business a tiny bit easier to run, you've mostly sorted out your revenue streams, and now you're ready to go big-ger!

But you've still got your old systems from when you're getting started… and it's starting to push you into a box that just doesn't fit you. You're stuck at a place where you're spending far to much time:

Setting up new products
Sending emails (like this one!)
Trying to clear out your inbox… and all the “busy work” you should do

You wanna make your clients feel like royalty (because they are!) and you want the systems in the back end to just be so much freaking easier. (because they also should be).

But… the annoying thing is, few ever talk about the “messy middle”! It's just…

“Oh you're getting started to”

OOOHHHH SCALING TO 100's of EMPLOYEES!

You really can't scale until you've got the foundations in place, and you can't get the foundations in place when you're first getting started, because you aren't sure what you need.

What you think of:
The Three Stages of Business Systems..?

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