The 3-5 Processes Every Small Firm Must Systemize First

Every night before I climb into bed I look at my calendar for the following day to lock in what I’ve got planned. I have a loose idea of what’s coming already, because that’s just how my brain works, but there are enough specifics now that I can’t keep it all in my head anymore.

What’s more, my calendar doesn’t record the specific tasks I need to complete. Those too live in my head. If that list starts to become unwieldly, and it doesn’t take much, I have a hand-written notebook I use to write down all the outstanding items. Who I need to follow-up with, house maintenance I need to make calls about, contracts to send out to potential clients, and so on.

The scale of my business, and the simplicity of managing a family of three, allow this crude system to work. My ability to remember combined with the little notes I keep in my notebook get the job done. My toes are on the line though, and it doesn’t take much to overwhelm that system.

Now, if you look at your own business which is likely more involved than mine, the landscape is markedly different. In spite of the complexity inherent in a business that serves dozens to over a hundred clients at any given point in time, the systems necessary to make order out of the chaos are quite similar. Efficiency in your business doesn’t necessitate an elaborate collection of systems and processes along with the requisite documentation.

The truth of the matter is that businesses like ours run on a few repeatable workflows, and those workflows either create chaos or they … well they flow. As with everything else we talk about, prioritization and simplicity are key.

So how do you choose which processes to tackle first? You don't need to systemize everything, you need to systemize the right things. Here's how to identify them:

Criteria for Choosing What to Systemize First

Specific repeatable actions or processes likely came to mind as you read through to this point. Don’t discount your instincts, but to make sure your efforts are focused on what will drive the most impact for you and your business, consider three criteria.

You want processes that:

1. Happens frequently
   1. Anything happening weekly or daily is ripe for systemization
2. Have high emotional or financial stakes
   1. Client experience, revenue, or deadlines depend on it
3. Break easily if handled from memory
   1. If “forgetting a step” causes chaos, systemize it

Again, time and energy are your truly limited resources. Your time. Your employee’s time. You don’t need hundreds of documented processes, or a super robust SOP (Standard Operating Procedure manual). You just need to cherry pick the top 3-5 critical processes and focus your attention there.

These are often the highest-leverage workflows:

Client onboarding and first touches. This interaction happens all the time. It sets the tone and expectation for your relationship with new clients. It is the first time potential clients experience your brand. You have the opportunity to reduce client questions, reduce rework and redundancy, and prevent embarrassing oversights like missing welcome emails, or unsigned agreements.

And to make this more interactive, share with me the high-level bullets of your oversimplified onboarding flow.

Weekly priorities and task tracking. There is the whirlwind of the day-to-day, and there are the higher-level strategic initiatives that need to be driven forward. We’re not talking about the strategy itself, but instead the actions that need to happen each week to move that initiative forward.

Systemize how priorities are chosen, where tasks live and how they’re tracked, how work is communicated and to whom, and/or when check-ins happen. Having a tried and tested system like the 4 Disciplines of Execution or OKRs helps immensely here.

Deliverable review & quality control loop. If you’re a part of this loop (and odds are good you play a pivotal role in it), this is likely one of the places where a notable bottleneck occurs. Without a clear review process, the consistency of quality and timeliness fall away. Delegation fails because you didn’t define what “good” meant or looked like. And small mistakes quickly turn into big problems.

Where specifically do you need to be a part of this loop? At multiple points in the process or just one?

Draft → Internal Check → Your Review (if necessary) → Client Delivery → Follow-up

Billing, invoicing, and collections rhythm. Your immediate response may be to ignore this one, but this one matters for a variety of important reasons. First and foremost, inconsistent invoicing translates to inconsistent and unpredictable cash flow. Your Stage 3 symptoms may actually be caused by Stage 5 problems. With that unpredictability it’s hard to know who has been billed, who has paid, or who’s late. You will struggle to solve the problem without a system to provide clarity.

Additionally, because it relates to money, there are emotions and psychological baggage that get involved, muddying your decisions. The more systemized it is, the less impact these invisible influences will have.

Internal communication hub and information flow. Every firm has tools they use spread across their business. CRM tools, file management software, encrypted messaging, project management, and so on. Information ends up scattered across multiple tools and there is no widely accepted source of truth. Everyone has a preferred method of communication and ignores the rest, missing key messages at important times. The more this type of chaos grows, the more burden leadership holds in keeping track of everything themselves to better direct and orchestrate the business.

How to do it

Similar to our grand innovative ideas, or thoughts on how to solve teleportation … there's a gulf between knowing these five systems would be useful and actually having them implemented. It comes from feeling overwhelmed, but that only happens because you can't see the bridge. You can't see the first step.

Documenting any process is fairly simple. Treat it less as an exercise in perfection and fine detail, and more a minimum viable product, or a Minimum Viable System if you will.

Here's the simple four-step process. First, identify who owns this workflow. If no one clearly owns it, assign an owner now. Then have them:

1. Record your screen while you do the task
2. Narrate your decisions
3. Turn it into a simple checklist
4. Store both the video and your checklist in one shared and central location

If it doesn’t involve your computer but a handoff between parties, either content yourself with just writing it down or create an audio recording as you narrate the system … and THEN write it down and store it in the same central location as before.

You don’t have to set aside a weekend to create documentation. You don’t need to dedicate every Monday afternoon as “Process Documentation”. Just record what actually happens, as it happens.

Record the process as it is first, and then when you’re done if you want to make changes … feel free. But start with a clear record of reality first and foremost.

Imagine taking the mental load that comes with carrying these processes and tasks within yourself and setting them down. Your critical processes are systemized and it didn’t take almost any of your time. The opportunities for mistakes and emergencies are drastically fewer and further between. You have more trust with your team, more time for meaningful work or *gasp* your family and your life outside of the business.

And ultimately a more consistent and calmer business that feels predictable.

Your task now, is to pick one process from this list. Pick one process that you think will make the most impact and record yourself doing it once. Turn it into a 5-7 step checklist.

And you’re done. That’s it.

Reply and let me know what process you’re going to systemize first! I’d love to hear how it went. If you need help identifying which workflow is your biggest bottleneck, a Focus engagement might be the best first step. If you want to learn more, schedule a call.