Process Creates Progress

Alex Charfen: As entrepreneurs, we want to grow our businesses, hit bigger numbers, make a bigger impact and do more, sell more, and even make more. However, sometimes we have to look at growing other aspects of our business besides just the top or bottom line in order to really grow fast and make the ultimate impact we should be making.

I know how it is. As an entrepreneur, want to grow one number, either the gross number of how much we're making or how much our business is doing or how much we're actually making. We want to focus on the big numbers, on the revenue.

By the way, isn't that how we all keep score with each other? Let's be real. You ask another entrepreneur, "Oh, how big is your business?" You're instantly comparing them to yourself, which I don't know is necessarily the healthiest way to look at it, but the fact is a lot of our mind share and a lot of attention goes to growing the numbers in the business. Here's the issue. There are times in your business where you have to actively decide to stop growing those numbers so that you can put a foundation in place.

This week I was on a coaching call with a couple of my clients who you've heard of before, they're two guys that I absolutely love. I have so much respect for them as fathers, and as business people, and as human beings, Brad Gibb and Ryan Lee. I actually nailed their names this time so, guys, I'm getting better, I promise. Brad was talking about how he and Ryan had made the decision that in the months of November and December of this year they're actively not selling. They're not gonna try and sell, they're not gonna try and close, they've pulled back a little bit, very similar to what we're doing in our business right now.

What they realized was they didn't have the right systems, the right processes, the right structure in place to get people into their business and to fulfill the promises that they were making. Now, they were doing great right up until they went from a one million dollar business to over three million dollar business in about six months. That type of explosive success, that type of massive impact is incredible to have as an entrepreneur but it will also throw off pretty much every single system in your business.

It will cause you to have to evolve everything you're doing and here's the opportunity. If you're willing to stop and say progress is now only financial, progress can be in efficiencies, progress can be in how quickly you as a company can accomplish something. Progress can be in processes, and in systems, and in structure, and so if you as an entrepreneur are willing to say stop and start working on the foundational parts of your business it's amazing how things change. Once you're in that place where you've hit one million and then you've jumped all the way to three million here's what we know for certain. There are foundational processes in your business that are working that we need to get documented and get clarity around them so that we can maximize the efficiencies that you have in the business.

Check this out. A few weeks ago I had a call with Brad and Ryan. I went through this explanation with them and said, "I think you need to document everything, I think you need to start making some flowcharts, some process documentation." In fact, I even pulled up some flowcharts and process documentation that our company has been working on to show them what I meant. Like, the level of granularity that I expected them to go to and to put together in these documents. Brad and Ryan started doing that and here's the first result that they got. Not the ultimate result, not what they're going to get after they go through everything, but here was one of the first results that they shared with me.

The first result was, they went and documented their client onboarding process and here's what happened. By putting together a flowchart, documenting all the steps, understanding exactly what the client went through, this is the result that they shared with me. They went from a four hour onboarding process that generated sporadic results that really weren't consistent, where both Brad and Ryan had been involved with clients. There was some confusion, the clients weren't really getting what they wanted and there was even some frustration on the part of Brad and Ryan.

After they documented it, put the flowchart together, realized where there were some efficiencies and got their assistant involved, here's the punch line, are you ready for this? It went from a four hour process with sporadic results that both of them had to be involved in and was frustrating, to a 20 minute process with consistent results that is now managed exclusively by their assistant and neither one of them is involved so all that time is freed up to go and do more. I want you to understand what I just said. They've just started this process and they've only done a deep dive on onboarding.

They haven't looked at any of the other delivery processes or sales processes or anything else that they do with their clients. They've started them but they haven't gotten to the point where they're actually making changes in adjusting. The first thing that they did got them a three hour and forty minute efficiency back in their own time. When you look at your business where do you have that opportunity to go back and get back that much time? See, in a business when we can put process in place it makes us more effective and more efficient. When we put process in place, it makes it so that we don't have to be involved in everything. When we put process in place, it makes it so our team can handle things for us we get back, the single, most valuable asset we have, our time.

Time is expiring every single minute. If there's efficiencies in your business chances are you're using time in a way that's ineffective and that really isn't getting you what you want. Now, none of us get excited about having to go do process documentation or create flowcharts or write out scripts or write out dialogs. However, here's what really exciting. When Brad was sharing this with us, you could see the excitement on his face. There was a palpable level of celebration that he was sharing with us because here's what happened with them.

They go and they start documenting and both he and Ryan now have the opportunity to bring on clients. Here's the real important part, they can bring on clients without causing themselves pain. You've heard me discuss this equation before. If there is pain in your business, you will sabotage the business and you won't do as much as you can. If selling the client means that it's gonna take a bunch of work on your side, and that it's gonna slow you down and it's gonna take away your momentum, you're not gonna sell as effectively, as intuitively as you can.

If there's pain in your business, you will not see the opportunities that are as bright as you can or that you should be seeing. If there's pain in your business, you're going to procrastinate and have a hard time, and have difficulty actually creating the momentum you're capable of. When you stop and you put process documentation together and you start creating the flowcharts, and the systems, and the structure, you eliminate that pain. As you eliminate that pain, you open an entire new avenue of productivity for yourself. As an entrepreneur, when you can pursue opportunity without pain everything in your world changes.

If you're sitting there thinking, "I wonder if what he's saying is really true," well here's what I want you to think about. As your business gets easier to deliver, you will find more opportunities to sell. As you feel less pain in bringing on clients, you will find more opportunities to bring on clients. Let's look at the other side of that coin. If every client that comes in hurts you, you're going to have a hard time doing those things. The only way I've ever seen entrepreneurs get past this is to buckle down and start creating process. What will blow you away is you don't even have to be half-way through documenting the process before you're already asking yourself, "What are we doing and why didn't we think of improving this earlier?"

Every time I've ever had a client go through this they come back and tell me, "You wouldn't believe how much we found and how much more efficient we can be and, really, quite frankly, how excited we are around process documentation." I usually chuckle and say, "I would believe. Not only do I know exactly how you're healing but this is something that consistently, as I coached clients and worked with entrepreneurs for over 25 years, when process documentation finally becomes a priority in a business is exactly when an entrepreneur starts seeing massive opportunity, starts seeing what really they can do with their company, and start seeing massive momentum in sales and in the growth of the organization."

If your business isn't growing as fast as you want it to, maybe it's because it's not clear enough yet. Put together some process documentation and you will see the entire business change. If you're ready to start building your business in a different way, if you want to start really understanding how to put the processes, the systems, and the communication structure in place so that everybody in the business knows what's going on. If you're ready to start strategic planning, like less than 1% of businesses do, so that you can give everyone in your business clarity as to where they're going. If you're ready to finally step into the role of CEO and lead a team to grow a six figure, seven figure, eight figure, and yes, even nine figure business, let's do this. Go to Billionaireco.com/apply. Fill out the form there. A member of my team will be in touch with you and let's get on a call. Let's show you how we can help you build the business you've always known you should have.