Business facing a dry spell? Spruce up your systems!

Systems and processes. Love 'em or hate 'em, you need them in place if you want your business to grow and thrive. As someone who helps people with their systems every day, I'm constantly talking to people about their feelings about systems. Things I often hear:

• I don't have time to get systems in place.
• I just started, so systems aren't that important right now.
• Systems are hard to get in place.
• I don't have the money to invest in systems right now.

None of that is accurate – just so you know.

• You already have systems and processes – whether you realize it or not. Whether they are good or bad, functioning or malfunctioning, or streamlined or bloated is another story.
• It's easier to organize yourself when you're starting out than it is to clean up messes later.
• Systems are easy to implement if you know what you want and know what to do. And if you don't, ask someone. Also, Google is your friend.
• Squash the idea that systems have to be pricey. You may not be able to afford the holy grail of automated lead funnel systems now, but you can certainly still put systems in place that help you attract prospects, nurture them and close sales – with little to no money.

A process is a sequence of events (or steps) that get something done from start to finish. Example:

You just wrote a great new blog post. Now what do you do? Hopefully you're search engine optimizing it, adding a great image and promoting it so people find it. That would all be part of your blog post process.

A system is what's used to execute the process. So, let's look behind the scenes at your process:

You drafted your blog post in Google Drive, then pasted it into WordPress. After working on the SEO and adding an image, you wrote some social posts that you scheduled in Hootsuite or Smarterqueue.

So, you've now quickly and easily created and promoted new content with the help of three systems – GDrive, WordPress and Smarterqueue.

Those systems? All under $20 a month. You might even have GDrive for free.

During your slow time, go through the systems you use. What's missing from the picture? What are you using that you can stop paying for? What new processes can be put in place to save time and money and cut back on manual or repetitive work?

This is important to do anytime — and revisit often — but its much easier to focus on this when things are slow than it is when your phone is ringing off the hook.

Don't know what to do – or just don't want to do it yourself? That's what I'm here for. Schedule a discovery call with me and let's chat about how to get the right systems in place for your business today.

Want more helpful tips on what to do when business is slow? Grab this free checklist.