What it means to Systemize your Business?
What does it mean to systemize business process and more importantly, why does it matter?
Entrepreneurs realize that the way to change the world is through visionary ideas that create growth and scale. Most if not all entrepreneurs have this in common. So why then, is it such a challenge to scale a business?
We decided to research the most searched keywords relating to business and entrepreneurship over the last ten years.
Nothing works without a Process
In 2018, our co-founder and CEO Gary V (as we like to call him, short for Gary Vanbutsele) ran a company specializing in providing managed IT services. This industry requires extensive process documentation and effective implementation of those procedures.
As the organization grew, instead of being able to focus on the mission at hand, Gary spent his time answering staff and customer queries. Yet the information they needed, most of the time, was already at hand, albeit disjointed and disparate.
It was then that Gary was introduced to the EOS® model through a friend and colleague.
What on Earth is EOS?
Quite simply, EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, is a comprehensive business system that integrates a holistic business model. EOS includes simple business tools and proven processes that align all the pieces of a business to produce the desired results.
The EOS framework helps management teams grasp the different aspects of operating and growing a business. The model illustrates the Six Key Components™ of any company that must be managed and strengthened to be a great business.
[EOS]
Managing the challenge of scaling business
The system helped Gary and his team aggregate data and run more efficiently. And although it outlined the importance of process, it didn’t necessarily help them with processes in the business. Gary and his team lacked a pragmatic approach.
They were hiring new employees at a rapid rate but couldn’t transfer knowledge fast enough. Nor were new team members being equipped with the information needed fast enough. As a result, there were inconsistencies and the operating efficiency that the team experienced when there were fewer members of the team, just wasn’t there anymore.
And so the idea for Whale was born; a tool to help systemize business processes. We’d love to say that the rest is history, but of course, it isn’t.
Systemize business process and create a frictionless customer experience
Let’s face it.
Process is wonderful, but it isn’t enough and certainly isn’t sustainable without systemization. What does this mean?
Imagine a place where processes are documented, teams are trained, and clarity rules? That’s what we wanted to achieve with Whale.
What Gary found in his former business is probably something you can relate to. It’s not enough to have company information and knowledge. It’s not even enough to give teams access to this information and knowledge, even WITH a process and standard operating procedure in place.
Relevant knowledge and information need to flow. It’s about the team member being able to receive the right information at the right time, seamlessly.
Knowledge and information need to be shared in an organic style that makes it easy to digest in bite-sized pieces through automated communications from start to finish. And it needs to be visibly tracked.
Systemize business process and reduce friction with automated workflows
Within the team, we’re always talking about frictionless experience. We knew that if Whale was going to work not just within our team but for clients, automated workflows and creating a frictionless experience were mission-critical.
The goal is simple. We want to make sure your business runs confidently and seamlessly. It’s vital that processes are easy to use, and people have immediate access to information wherever they might be. That’s the whole point of Whale. Ultimately, you need to know what is happening at every moment in your business, as situations can easily change by the minute.
We know that customer experience drives business growth. According to Bain & Company, companies dedicated to improving their customers’ experience can increase their revenue to 4 – 8% above their market.
Customer experience, however, is a mirror of the internal organization.
To drive customer experience on the outside, frictionless and seamless experience must be attained internally in the businesses first.
Tying it back to growth
You can run around trying to accomplish a million different tasks every day, but what matters is spending time.
Most entrepreneurs spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to put out fires or train teams when those tasks could be systemized to create time, space, and capacity to focus on growth.
Trying to organize data and information is a pain in the ass. We know but think about it as sharpening the saw. Would you rather spend a week centralizing your company knowledge and systemizing learning and standard operating procedures? Or would you rather lose thousands of hours a year repeating the same task with the incremental frustration that comes with growth?
Time is Money Growth
Efficiency is a beautiful thing, but efficiency alone doesn’t mean anything if it’s not creating additional value and opportunities. Time isn’t money. Time is an essential resource that creates growth opportunities.
As entrepreneurs, we understand that opportunity cost has real and tangible effects on a business. Quite simply, spending time on one activity means that you can’t spend it on another. However, those alternative activities may have also resulted in a benefit for the business. This is why scaling a business is of such critical importance.
It’s about finding ways to do double, triple, or five times the amount of work in a quarter of the time or just eliminating some tasks. The old model of working harder and putting in more time doesn’t work. Finding ways to eliminate tasks or double time can feel impossible, but it isn’t.
Systemizing processes is just one of the ways entrepreneurs and growing businesses can find a quick route to scaling and growth.
This was a key consideration for us in our own business when we developed Whale and in helping customers systemize their businesses. As a result, we became obsessed not only with creating a product that helped customers manage their processes but helped them optimize for growth.
Systemize Business Process? Why it isn't for everyone
Have we just outlined a miracle solution that could answer all of your business challenges?
No. Systemizing your knowledge sharing to onboard new teams to achieve operational efficiency through implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System® or for SOP Management isn’t going to work if your business model doesn’t work or if you aren’t prepared to change the way you think by adopting a growth mindset.
So how do you know if this may work for you?
Answer yes to three or more of the following questions, and you may find it massively beneficial to adopt a tool like Whale in your business.
- Do you want to create more consistency in your organization’s processes?
- Do you want your employees to be more autonomous in their work and enjoy their jobs more?
- Do you want everyone in the company to know, appreciate, and apply the processes and procedures?
- Want to focus on the bigger picture more often?
- Do you want control over your work and not the other way around?
- Or do you want more free time?
Allow us to answer the latter on your behalf:
Yes, of course!
Systemizing means creating clarity from chaos in life too
Why do businesses fail? Lack of forward-thinking and organization. Research shows that around 70% of startups fail because they fail to plan, grow too fast or run out of cash.
If implementing the right processes and enabling seamless knowledge sharing that flows could help minimize the risk of failure, what else could it do?
In 2013, Koen Lepez struck out on his own to create Direct – a whole new kind of managed security service provider. As the business began to scale from 15 to 30 team members, Koen realized that implementing the proper process solution wouldn’t just promote scalability but was also essential to his personal life.
Eight years on and 30 employees later, it’s safe to say Koen is uniquely experienced at tackling the challenges a growing business can throw your way.
