But it doesn’t come easy for a lot of us. Many business owners – whether they are one-worker shops or the heads of hundreds of staff members – find it hard to alter how they deal with their passion projects, and insist they be the people to handle as many crucial tasks as possible, such as documentation. Taking a step away from the tools, stripping back processes to create foundations of what problems they are trying to solve in the market, and then delegating new systems to various departments, is just about unbearable. That is why the team at Skills Certified Australia have put together a simple, step-by-step guide for those who want to know how to systemise their trade business.

Step 1.) Recognise Critical Systems

Regardless of what trade you perform, begin by recognizing the key aspects of your business at all stages. Forget the incidental tasks, and focus on elements revolving around how you obtain new customers, how you produce and deliver your service, how you receive payment, and how you retain those customers in the future.

Step 2.) Appropriately Delegate

Now you know what process are essential to your business, begin to break them down into different departments so staff have more focus on their roles and responsibilities. For example, a marketing team will be responsible for new clients, finance for invoicing, operations for work completion and so forth. If you are a smaller enterprise, than obviously these departments can be combined to suit your staff, such as management and HR.

Step 3.) Build a Neat Framework

Consolidate all of these elements into a neat framework by asking and answering questions like, ‘What result do I want this system to deliver?’, ‘Who is best suited to make this happen?’, and ‘What is the best method to achieve this?’. That can be followed by recording these processes, uploading findings to common platforms, and then reviewal of all documentation to see whether improvement or continuation is appropriate.

Step 4.) Integrate Staff Focus

Ensure that all staff members are focused on project success, rather than performing individual tasks. While these may seem similar, a commitment to a better end result will lead in staff being flexible, open to training, and adopt new processes, whereas a focus on tasks may lead them to lean into old habits and work in silos that ultimately work against business progression.

Step 5.) Introduce Metrics & Identify Opportunities

It is imperative to consistently monitor your systems to ensure they are contributing to the business’s maximum potential. Implementing various metrics in all segmented departments will enable a comprehensive representation of performance that can be measured and assessed. From here, opportunities to improve can be identified and acted upon.