Prepared for: Stefan

(October 10, 2023 at 9:27:57 PM)

Result: Systems and Processes

 Searching For Your #1 Obstacle Is A Huge Step!
Well first of all Stefan, huge congrats are in order for taking this huge step! Trying to figure out what is holding us
back from realising our goals and dreams is a massive step in the right direction, and one that most people do not
take. So CONGRATS! Now, down to business...

Let's start with the good ☺️

The diagram below shows how you are doing in different aspects of running your business.

Mindset

Leadership 8 Vision

6
4
Finances Strategy
2
0

Systems Offer

Productivity Marketing

Brand

You - (Higher number is better)

Based on your answers in the Business Triage, YOUR strongest TWO were:

Mindset. Mindset is a huge hurdle for most business owners. But work on Mindset never stops - so always
reassess and make sure any issues are identified and addressed as early as possible.
Purpose / Vision: Having a solid vision for your business is a great starting point as it's not only useful to
identify where you are heading, but articulating it clearly is a great way to attract both the right clients /
customers as well as people who buy into your vision and join your team to help realise it. Keep revisiting
this and make sure everything you do is aligned to realising it.

It's still vital for you continue to strengthen the areas where you are already relatively strong at in your business as
well as make sure that everything you do in your business aligns with your overall business strategy.

On the next page, we will start unpacking your number 1 obstacle.

 Your #1 Business Obstacle: Systems and Processes
Here's the same figure from the last page but flipped the other way around to highlight the areas you need to work
on:

Mindset
Leadership 8 Vision
6
4
Finance Strategy
2
0
2
Systems Offer

Productivity Marketing Systems & Processes /

Brand 10

You - (Lower number is better)

Based on this, your priority focus right now in your business should be your Systems and Processes.

You may not agree with this...

You may be thinking: ‘That’s not relevant to me. I needed some productivity hacks to free up more time’ or ‘how
do I get more clients’. Don’t worry. You’re not alone!
It’s extremely common for us entrepreneurs to focus on techniques and ‘hacks’ that attempt to fix our day to day
short term problems, whilst losing oversight over the key building blocks that are needed to help long-term growth
with minimum stress.

There are basic foundations that need to be put in place (in the right order) for any business to succeed. If they are
not in place, then your metaphorical house will be hard to grow and can come crashing down without notice.
But this is exactly a key purpose of this exercise! Sometimes, the root cause or fundamental challenge that we are
facing is not the one we think it is. It may also be the reason why certain challenges in the business do not seem to
be improving.
So, let’s break this down some more:
Based on the answers you gave, your business is over 5 years old. You started your business to gain financial
freedom, have time flexibility / freedom. However, you mentioned that you are nowhere near that. Hang in there!
Go about it the right way and it will happen. But you did indicate that you are feeling Feeling Good! 😃, which
could be a lot worse!

Just remember that sometimes it's important to slow down in order to last the distance and subsequently speed
up. Sounds counterintuitive but it's similar to when you're running out of petrol when driving. The natural instinct
is to speed up to get to a petrol station quickly, but that will burn more fuel! The trick here is to slow down and
pick on the ONE BIGGEST challenge in order of priority. Fix the foundations, then start building.

Here's a highlight of pertinent things you mentioned going on in your business right now. Don't worry! Figuring
out your #1 obstacle is a HUGE step towards growth:
Your mindset seems to be in a relatively good place
You want to scale your business but you're not sure how.
You have a clear vision and strategy for where your business is going.
You do not have a solid offering (This could be either a product or service).
Your sales figures aren't repeatable / consistent.
You have too much to do but not enough time.
You track and measure some things in your business
You do not use systems and processes as much as you probably should.
Your team members roles and responsibilities are not clear all the time.
You are struggling to do things consistently and / or repeatedly
You are struggling to remove yourself from the day to day activities of the business
Your team does not operate efficiently.
You are not profitable yet. Hang in there... It usually takes time to break even
So, Systems and Processes is your immediate challenge to fix FIRST. Let's see why...
 Why Improving Systems & Processes is Important
Systems and processes are the foundations of any business. They are the ‘what’ ‘when’ and ‘how’ of running your
business. Everything you do involves some kind of process and these need to be efficient and accurate for your
business to be at its best.

Effective systems and processes are essential for business growth. When something works, it is repeated and built
upon and becomes an integral process. This includes day to day things from the software you use to large scale
marketing strategies. Measuring how well your processes and systems are performing is important in identifying
where things are going right and when things are not. This helps you optimise performance, efficiency and
ultimately your bottom line. If you hire staff, your employees being familiar with your processes is vital so that
everyone is doing what is deemed by you to be most effective.

What You Can Gain By Improving Systems & Processes

Ensuring that you have effective systems in place, means that you know that you are doing your very best each
time and that every client, is getting the same experience. If (or ideally when) you employ or outsource jobs to
people, this is even more important because you need to know that each client is receiving the same experience.

Knowing your systems and processes inside out means that you will know the strengths and weaknesses of your
business and you can put systems in place to overcome these. You will also be able to identify inconsistencies and
places where improvements can be made to your processes for maximum gain to your business.

What You Can Lose By Neglecting Systems & Processes

Without addressing your systems and processes to see whether they are effective, you could be losing time,
money and energy to inefficient processes. It could also mean that your employees have nothing concrete to
follow, meaning that they are working to different processes and standards which could be damaging to your
reputation and brand. It could also mean you are paying for repeated tasks unnecessarily or worse opposing
activities.

If you are not measuring or tracking everything, you are running your business in the dark. Try to find your mobile
phone in a pitch-dark room where someone else left it randomly without telling you its location. This is like you
trying to find a client without the proper tracked and measured systems and processes in place. Now call your
mobile to its unique phone number and hear it ring and light up. You know that works. That’s your process for
finding your phone in the dark. What are your processes for finding your client(s) every time where you know they
will light up and ask for your product/service?
Activity
1. Pick an activity you repeat frequently in your business.
2. Write out the steps you need to take to get it completed successfully.
3. Now write out what triggers this activity (process) to start and how you know when it is completed
successfully and what is your measure of this success?
4. Next consider what inputs you need to make this process flow all the way through. What resources, tech,
items, etc do you need? How much do they typically cost?
5. Now outline at which points you or someone else needs to make sure that the steps to that specific point
have been executed correctly to the standard you require. Maybe before they go out to a client? Don’t overly
complicate this or it will never get done. What are the minimum review points that are needed?
6. Identify who needs to do what steps. This may simply be you all the way along or it could involve more than
one person. If the latter, identify the roles in addition to naming the people so that if they were to leave, you
or others would know who else to bring in as a replacement.
7. Take another look at what you have written and try to identify if there was a way to streamline it and make it
more efficient.
8. Now reorganise it in a logical manner and write it all out. Congratulations, you have a planned and
documented business process!
 Remember to Keep It Simple!

This aim of this report is to identify what to fix FIRST. It doesn't necessarily mean that this is the only obstacle right
now in your business. It means this is the ONE to START with. Keep things simple, pick one thing at a time to
focus on (whilst still running other necessary things!). Once you get that one thing right, then move on to the next
one.
It's all too easy to see someone else have a million and one products, services, social media channels, etc and try
to replicate all these at once. That is not how you grow successfully and still keep your sanity. Trying to do many
things at once early on is actually a great way to burn out. Please don't do that!

Being successful is not about getting things perfectly right all at once. It's about making simple and singular
choices of what to do (and what not to do) and measure how you are doing as you go along and course correct if
need be. If you try to do too many things at once, you won't know what's working and what's not and you won't be
able to have enough bandwidth to optimise it so that it is consistent and repeatable.

This is one of the biggest tips for running a successful business from our years of failing and succeeding and
growing businesses of all shapes and sizes. Over time you can add other things as you build a team or when
you've fully optimised and automated a certain process. Running a business is about discipline and patience. Keep
those in check and you're already well on your way to building an awesome business and life.

Good Luck!

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 (Shameless Plug!)

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programme that takes you from being a functional cog in your company – to leading your business and getting the
lifestyle you’ve wanted all along!

The Firestarter Programme is designed to support and encourage business owners like yourself, to understand the
roadblocks in their way, and light up their path to success.

We cover Systems and Processes in a lot more depth as part of our Firestarter programme. But that's just the
beginning!

With the Firestarter Programme, you can transform yourself from a small business owner to a 'CEO' for your
business, who thinks and acts strategically, builds and grows a team, automates processes, stays on top of their
budget, and STOPS micromanaging.

If you are interested to learn more about how to take your business to the next level and you'd like to apply and
get on the wait-list, click on the button below for more details:

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