Field Guides / Operations

"I need better systems in my business": where to actually start

When an owner says they need better systems, they rarely mean software. They mean everything lives in their head, and they're the person who has to see everything. The fix isn't a new tool or the perfect system. Write down how things are done now, one process at a time, starting with one that keeps breaking. Record yourself doing a task, then turn that recording into steps someone else can run.

Why does everything in the business still run through you?

Everything runs through you because the business grew faster than its structure. You went from freelancer to employer, skipped the step where the how gets written down, and became the bottleneck.

I hear "I just need better systems" on almost every sales call. Then I ask a simple question: if you disappeared tomorrow, would the business fall over? The answer is usually yes. That's the real problem the word "systems" is covering.

The biggest challenge is that everything is in your head, and the way you do things feels like the only way. The team can deliver a project, but nobody can run a process without you, so you spend your days bailing water to keep the ship afloat.

The usual reaction is to buy software. Software doesn't fix it. A tool only holds what someone has already written down.

I'm a certified Systemologist and a case study in David Jenyns' book, Systemology.

Which process should you document first?

Document first a process that keeps breaking and doesn't change from job to job. Usually that's somewhere on the path a job takes from enquiry to paid invoice.

A simple tracker uses eight stages: enquiry, quoted, booked, shot, in edit, delivered, invoiced, paid. Each handover between them is a process someone has to run.

Two filters decide where you start. The first is what breaks: the step that stalls, gets missed, or comes back to you as a question. The second is what doesn't change. How you invoice won't change. How you run a pre-production brief won't change much. Start there.

Skip how to film. That's the part your people already know.

If you can't tell which process breaks most, log a week first. Track seven days in 30 to 60-minute blocks and tag each block CEO (strategy, sales, leadership), manager (oversight, approvals), specialist (shooting, editing) or admin (emails, scheduling, invoices). The admin and manager blocks that repeat are your shortlist.

How to document a process so someone else can run it: the method, step by step

A documented process is one page that someone else can follow on their own: what starts it, the steps, who does each one, what finished looks like, and where the files live.

1. Record yourself doing the process the next time it happens for real. A screen recording for anything on a computer, your phone for anything that isn't. Document what exists, not what's ideal. A rough screen recording plus a short list of steps beats a perfect manual that never gets written.
2. Write the steps underneath the recording. The video is the rough-and-ready training. The written steps come from the video. One line per step, each starting with a verb: open, check, send, move, file.
3. Fill in the rest of the page. The trigger that starts the process, the person who does each step, what finished looks like, and where the files live.
4. Hand it to someone else and stay quiet. They run the process from the page while you watch, or next time it comes up. Every question they ask is a missing line, so add it to the page there and then. If there's nobody to hand it to yet, that's the first hire question.
5. Keep every page in one place the team knows, and link it from the job.

How to give every job a number so the files are always findable

A job number is a short code stamped on every job and carried through the quote, the folders, the invoices and the project tool. One code, used everywhere, means anyone can find anything in seconds, and it fills the "where the files live" line on every process page.

A convention you can adopt is PREFIX-NNN, with one register file that lists every code you've ever issued.

The ID columns hold the internal ID each tool gives the job, so one lookup by job code takes you straight to it in every system. Leave a column blank until that tool has one.

Pair the register with a job tracker: one row per job, keyed by job number, with a stage column running through the eight stages above. It answers "what's on and where is it" without opening anything else.

How do you keep a documented process current?

A documented process stays current when whoever runs it fixes the page the moment reality changes, and updates the "last checked" line that day.

Apply the same rule to trackers and process pages: update them when the fact arrives, never batched for later.

New pages come from repetition. A multi-step job that's happened two or three times earns a page.

Work through it that way and twelve weeks later you'll have it documented and out of your brain, and you won't be the bottleneck any more.

A worked example: the invoicing process on one page

Here's the template filled in for invoicing, using Acme, the example client from the job-number convention, and job ACME-007. It's an illustration of the shape, and the roles are placeholders.

Business done right is boring: predictable, consistent and profitable.

The mistakes that undo it

Four mistakes undo the work once the first pages are written.

• Trying to document everything at once. You can't fill ten cups with bits of energy and expect any of them to be full. One process, finished and followed by someone else, then the next.
• Writing it for yourself. Steps that skip what you know by heart only work for you. Keep each page simple enough that someone who has never seen your business could follow it.
• Keeping your systems inside the project management tool. Project management is who does what by when. Documentation is where the how lives. Owners who store their systems inside their project tool end up in a mess.
• Inventing job codes outside the register. Two people mint the same number, or a job runs under a name instead of a code, and nobody can find the files by code.

The rule of thumb for better systems

Document one process a week: one that has happened two or three times, keeps breaking, and doesn't change from job to job.

The benchmark for a finished page: someone else has run the process from it, start to finish, without asking you a question.

Hold yourself accountable

Which of these have you taken on or put in place recently?

• The path a job takes, from enquiry to paid invoice, is written down on one page.
• At least one process that never changes, such as invoicing, is documented with a recording and written steps.
• Your documentation lives somewhere separate from your project management tool.
• Someone on your team has followed one of your documented processes without asking you.
• Every live job has a job number, and that number is on its quote, its folder and its invoice.

Your one move this week

What's the one thing you can commit to implementing this week? If you're not sure, start here.

Pick the process that never changes, probably invoicing. Record yourself doing it once, then write the steps underneath the recording on the one-page template. That's your first system.

One thing executed every week creates 50 strategic moves a year.

Related tools and guides. Making your first hire, The profitable quote checklist, Anatomy of a Profitable Quote, The S.C.A.L.E. Method.