Processes, Systems & Software ~ What???

16h (edited) • Communities

As solo professionals, it's easy to get overwhelmed by automation solutions, especially today when we see opportunities to automate many facets of our business all around us. It's tempting to automate processes and systems that aren't fully or well designed.

Does this sound like you?

On the surface, these automations appear to close the gap and fix the problem. However, the reality is that they too will eventually break and end up keeping your business from growing.

One of the foundations of implementing automation properly is having a clear definition of processes, systems, and software. So, let's start there.

🔄 What are processes?

Processes or workflows are a series of steps or tasks that are required to complete a specific, predictable outcome, deliverable, or goal. Processes are typically captured in what is called an SOP, or Standard Operating Procedure.

⚙️ What are Systems?

Systems, or Business Systems, are the processes put together that solve a business problem.

💻 What is Software?

Software consists of platforms, applications, and automation. These are digital tools used to introduce efficiency, speed, accuracy, and reduced cost into a business system.

💡Let's look at a real-world business example.

Let's say our "Free Resource Lead Generation" system, which begins when we make an offer for a free resource that gives our prospective client information about their problem.

🔗 Our Example System:

➜ We make the offer. This can be through networking, social media, etc.

➜ Our prospective client raises their hand and lets us know they want the offer.

➜ Having raised their hand, we ask them for their name & email address so that we can send the resource to them.

➜ We enter their name & email address onto our contact list.

➜ We prepare the email with the resource attached.

➜ We send the email to our prospective client.

➜ Result: we've captured the prospective client's contact information, and they are now a lead for our business.

The next question is: where in this system can we introduce software that will help us be more efficient, expedite the process, and reduce our time and, thus, costs?

🛠️ Here's ONE solution option:

➜ When the prospective client raises their hand, rather than manually collecting their name and email, we provide them with a URL to our online form that collects their name and email address.

➜ When they submit the form, our software adds them to our contact list.

➜ When they submit the form, our software adds them to an automation sequence that sends them an email that includes the resource.

➜ Result: We've captured our prospective client's contact information, and we reduced our manual processes in the "Lead Generation" system to: 1. Making the offer, 2. Sharing a URL.

This is a simple example of a business system, how to define the process steps for the system, and how applying software to that system benefits our business.

What's the point, you ask?

🎯 First, without having well-defined business processes and systems before adding a software solution, it generally means that you're automating what you "think" is going to help you, rather than knowing how a software and automation solution will help you.

🎯 Second, a benefit of mapping your processes and systems is that it allows you to see where they're not working well together or where you want to make changes, so you can fix that before adding software and automation.

🎯 Third, having mapped the process and system, you can look at it objectively and potentially consider several solution options allowing you to align with the best option for your business.

🎯 Fourth, with the mapped processes and system, you can easily convert those into SOPs and hand off the processes to an assistant or automation to complete on your behalf.

If you made it this far in the post, that's great! Good for you! 💞

👉 Post your favorite GIF that represents how you feel now about mapping processes and systems in your business. 😎

➡️ And if you want support mapping your processes, systems, and solutions, check out my Skool community: SOLOBIZ Systems Sandbox @ https://www.skool.com/solobiz-systems-sandbox-3943/about

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Processes, Systems & Software ~ What???