Ep 30. Running A Thriving Business Without Systems: A Mini Case Study

What happens when you attempt to run a growing business without systems? In this episode, host, Phylicia shares a mini case study of a past client who went through this. She shares the challenges they faced during this season, along with the solution that eliminated most of those challenges.

About Phylicia

Phylicia Pough, MBA is a wife, mom of 1 daughter and an entrepreneur. For over 10 years, Phylicia has been behind the scenes of businesses and ministries, keeping things organized. Her journey started in Administration and developed into Systems & Automation Consulting/Strategy. 

Her latest venture is The Mom CEO Suite which is a community for the modern day mom in business that curates experiences and safe spaces for mompreneurs. The Mom CEO Suite also automates business and podcasting processes for mompreneur service providers.

Connect with Phylicia

Facebook: Phylicia Pough

Instagram: @PhyliciaPough

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/phyliciapough/

Connect with The Mom CEO Suite

Website: themomceosuite.com

Instagram: @themomceosuite

Join The Mom CEO Suite Facebook Group

Join The Mom CEO Suite Email Community

Links & Mentions

Transcript
Speaker:

You are now tuned in to the Mom c e O Suite

Speaker:

Podcast. I'm your host, Felicia wife,

Speaker:

mom, and entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my

Speaker:

mompreneur journey along with strategies that will help you build your

Speaker:

online business operations in a sustainable way.

Speaker:

The goal is to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as

Speaker:

a mom who values putting family first. We will also hear the

Speaker:

experiences and expertise of other moms with

Speaker:

service-based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so

Speaker:

you'll know that you are alone. Motherhood gets hard,

Speaker:

entrepreneurship gets hard, but together we can

Speaker:

do hard things. Welcome to this.

Speaker:

hey, Frank, thank you for being here in today's episode,

Speaker:

I'm going to be sharing a mini case study.

Speaker:

Talking about running a thriving business without systems.

Speaker:

It's very possible to do. You can have. Great revenue in your

Speaker:

business. You can have a team, you can have all the things

Speaker:

and you can be doing this without systems, but if you do, there are some

Speaker:

challenges that come up and I'm going to share what those are

Speaker:

through this mini case study from a past client that I

Speaker:

worked with, you all already know if you've listened to the past

Speaker:

episodes. I identify or I define

Speaker:

systems. As your process, plus your tools, plus

Speaker:

your people. And episode 28 and

Speaker:

episodes 29. I introduced the idea

Speaker:

of SLPs. And I talked more about your processes and

Speaker:

I shared a little bit about the benefits. And now today,

Speaker:

through this case study, I'm going to share some of the challenges

Speaker:

that arise when you don't have those processes or those SLPs

Speaker:

in. Police. this'll be really quick. Let's get into it.

Speaker:

So the client. Client was actually a male. But he was a

Speaker:

service provider. He had been in business for at least 10 years.

Speaker:

He had a dedicated office space. He had a support team.

Speaker:

Of at least five people in his business was thriving. Lots

Speaker:

of clients doing lots of work, continuously getting new

Speaker:

clients. And so on the outside, it looked like

Speaker:

everything was going well with the business.

Speaker:

But some of the challenges that. Uh, roles because

Speaker:

he did not have great systems in place.

Speaker:

Was that he was always working, always ripping and

Speaker:

running, handling things in the business, handling things with the

Speaker:

team. He was always being pulled into putting

Speaker:

out fires. So if there was an issue that came up.

Speaker:

A lot of times the team members couldn't handle it. Because again, there were

Speaker:

no. documented processes in place or no real systems

Speaker:

in place. So he had to be pulled into a lot of

Speaker:

situations. To put out these fires. He

Speaker:

was limited in his capacity to grow the business even

Speaker:

more in other ways like speaking or attending

Speaker:

conferences or things like that. Because he was so involved

Speaker:

in the day-to-day work of the business. It was

Speaker:

also missing out on money. because there

Speaker:

weren't clear processes in place for a lot of things.

Speaker:

Including invoicing and accounts receivables.

Speaker:

There were thousands of dollars of outstanding

Speaker:

invoices. Of money that had not been

Speaker:

collected. So he was missing out on some money because

Speaker:

he didn't have systems in place. There was also

Speaker:

a lack of boundaries between the owner

Speaker:

and his clients. Because the

Speaker:

clients would call him directly like one his cell phone.

Speaker:

If they had questions or if issues uh, rules.

Speaker:

And there was no established process for.

Speaker:

The client experience or for client communication.

Speaker:

And so he was pretty much always on call. With

Speaker:

the clients. Which meant. That he was working long

Speaker:

hours. And that led to issues

Speaker:

and being able to remain consistent. And

Speaker:

things in his personal life, like his health.

Speaker:

He was so attached to the business. Yeah, he really didn't

Speaker:

have time to focus on other important

Speaker:

business ventures We're passion projects. So

Speaker:

those were just some of the challenges that. Uh, roles because

Speaker:

there were no. Systems in place. Meaning there were

Speaker:

no processes that were documented. And there

Speaker:

was little. if any automation being

Speaker:

utilized. Okay. Now, our work

Speaker:

together, what did it look like? We first had to look at his

Speaker:

existing processes. He had to see what he was

Speaker:

doing and why he was doing it. And then we had to fill in the

Speaker:

gaps. Filling the gaps, or sometimes we just had to start from

Speaker:

scratch. And develop a strong process. And

Speaker:

documented. And those became the

Speaker:

standard operating procedures where the SLPs.

Speaker:

Now, most of the challenges that I mentioned before, We're

Speaker:

prevalent because all of the business processes were not

Speaker:

documented. They were all in the owner's head. But once

Speaker:

we were able to document. a lot of those challenges were

Speaker:

eliminated the staff. They were able to have a clear direction

Speaker:

for how to handle. X Y and Z, those

Speaker:

fires. Uh, and the owner could step

Speaker:

away. From the business day to day. The SLPs

Speaker:

became the blueprint for the business. Instead of the

Speaker:

owner's brain. Being the blueprint for the

Speaker:

business. Okay. So we did a lot of work with the

Speaker:

processes. I also helped them do some work with cleaning up his

Speaker:

CRM. And, doing some hiring.

Speaker:

But the hiring became easier because we had a

Speaker:

clear idea of what this new hire would actually be doing. It

Speaker:

would have been challenging to bring somebody on. If things on the

Speaker:

back end, we're still so chaotic. And so

Speaker:

I just wanted to share this to let you know. I know there is always

Speaker:

a debate about when you should. Start developing your

Speaker:

SLPs. And to be quite honest, you can do it whenever it

Speaker:

makes sense for you and your business. But I don't want you to

Speaker:

get to the point where you are thriving.

Speaker:

And you don't have systems in place. Because it is going

Speaker:

to stunt your growth. And it is going to come.

Speaker:

Along with some challenges. That may be a little heavy

Speaker:

for you to handle. Now it's not enough for

Speaker:

you to create the process, or create the SLPs.

Speaker:

You can create it and document it, but you also have to live them out.

Speaker:

You have to create space and you have to create a system for

Speaker:

the implementation of these processes. And for.

Speaker:

Your team. Or anybody else that's going to be

Speaker:

involved. To be trained in your

Speaker:

processes. This is a topic that I will talk about more

Speaker:

during the two day SOP sprint. I'll be talking about the

Speaker:

SOP life cycle. But if you are ready,

Speaker:

To actually have processes in your business. If you're

Speaker:

ready to begin. Developing them and documenting

Speaker:

them. And a smart way. And

Speaker:

you're ready to stop. Working so much in your

Speaker:

business so that you can work on your business. If you are

Speaker:

ready to hire. Without it being

Speaker:

chaotic. If you are ready to have the freedom to step away

Speaker:

from your business. Without. The business suffering

Speaker:

Then I would love to have you a part of the two

Speaker:

day SOP sprint, where we will be focusing

Speaker:

specifically on. The processes and the

Speaker:

SLPs, which is the foundation. Of building a great

Speaker:

system. If you have questions, let me know, shoot me a

Speaker:

message. To get more information about the two day

Speaker:

SOP sprint. Click the link in the show description,

Speaker:

and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the

Speaker:

Mom C e O Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this

Speaker:

episode, can you do us a favor? Leave a review on iTunes

Speaker:

and share with other moms in business like you. Help us spread our

Speaker:

message and empower others who are at this intersection of

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *