Small Business Systems Consultant Case Study

Nicola runs a company called the Green Pillars Consulting and she's one of our systemologists. She kind of went through that journey and, and sometimes it's just easier hearing some other systemologists talk about how they got started and some of the challenges they might have had up front. So you kind of go, oh yeah, that sounds like me. Or hey, I'm on a similar journey. And that kind of gives you confidence for someone who's a couple of paths or steps ahead of you. So, Nicola, I'll let you chime in.

Thanks. Hi everyone, Nice to see you here. So I have a very familiar story for a lot of women, I think I was working full time in sales and marketing roles and then I had children and I'm British, living in Western Australia, I don't have family support here and going back to work was just, it just wasn't going to happen. So I started a marketing consultancy which turned into a coaching business. I did my NLP training so I was very much working with mums in business who are short on time. So I was helping them with the marketing side of things to attract clients in the quickest time as possible. But I was also very much going through that coaching process really set me on a journey of personal development. And so I was very much into that invisible work of looking at our mindset and how it affects how we.

How well we work and how efficient we are and why we procrastinate and what our time management habits are and all that productivity and stuff. But I have a similar story as well. I sort of fell out of love with that business and went back to work full time as a marketing manager, which I loved. It kind of kick started the fire in my belly again. But I very quickly realized I didn't really want to work for anyone else and so I was looking for something to allow me to work from home again that would just like I would get really into and really fired up about. And I met Rob Morgan through my husband. He was in a business group with him, a coaching group. Read the book and really from there again it just ticked so many boxes for me in terms of going to that next stage of accountability, getting organized, running brilliant businesses, making it easy to get clients.

And so I started my training in November 22nd, was it Jim? We were in the same cohort and qualified around April 23. I actually happened to be spending the year in the UK last year, so I didn't really get started. I picked up a couple of clients who were landscapers and then I got back into Perth In January. So I've been running my business seriously now for about six months and I'm on my seventh client. People are working in different ways with me. Some are doing the full package where I'm doing all the work. Others are just wanting a bit of support. One person is just a solopreneur owner, operator who's trying to sell her business. I'm helping her get her systems together to be able to do that. But I cannot emphasize enough how supportive the Systemology community is, how amazing the community is. Previous systemologists are more than willing to meet with me at any time and chat and kind of think about how things could be going better and answer any questions I have. And the support and information that Systemology give us through David and his team is just, yeah, amazing. So it's very much, I have been very much able to just start my business and make it go pretty quickly.

Yeah, I love it. Was there something as you were in that transition, Nicola, like what, what challenges were you looking to solve when you thought, right, the systemology business or opportunity could be good for you? Was it that you wanted to niche, Was it the particular leads or how you work with clients or. Because it sounds like you already done consulting and you're already doing some of that type of work. So I'm just wondering what it was that got you to think. You know, I need some focus here. I know you mentioned accountability was one thing.

Yeah. So I'll tell you why I do what I do.

My husband and I have been in business for sort of 15 years in different ways and at the time he was involved in, in quite a big business. And like, I firmly believe that it's the small and medium business size owners that are the ones that can contribute and give back to our communities and make the world a better place. It sounds like a really grand thing but you know, you've got to start small. And so I, I want to get into businesses and help them have less struggle. Like it doesn't have to be hard. You can run a really good business and have time for your passions, your family to go on holiday without it imploding, to give back to, to have the time to coach your kids, sporting groups, to volunteer at school, to give prizes for the local charity event. You know, that's what I want. And so that's kind of what, because of my personal experience with my husband and the businesses that we have run together or on our own, that's what I was wanting to create, is to get out of just helping small women in Business which was awesome. But they were not building amazing businesses. They were very much stuck in sort of hobby sized businesses. And to then move into that transition into and to helping people that can really make a difference and have awesome businesses as well as awesome family lives. I'm not sure if that answers your question but 100% that's why I show up every day.

100 and I think like that is echoed across all of our systemologists in the community as well. It's the recognition of this opportunity. This problem has plagued business owners since the dawn of time. And Michael Gerber talked about it. The idea of the technician that has the entrepreneurial seizure. They think oh, because I run a business that cuts hair, I now think I can run a business that cuts hair. And they very quickly realize having the technical skills to do the work versus actually running a business that that delivers that technical work are very different. And at the heart of it, systems and processes really are the building blocks. There is no matter what business you're talking about. But as it starts to scale, if it's a profitable enterprise that works without the business owners, then systems has to be a part of that. Because systems is just about capturing the way the business does something and saying this is the best practice. This is the standard. And for whatever reason, most business owners struggle with that. Now fortunately, there's never been a better time to systemize in the history of mankind than right now. Because of everything that we're seeing with the changes, with the advancements in AI and a lot of what we can do to accelerate documentation and capturing process and organizing and engaging process and policies. It's really a phenomenal time to help businesses get over this huge challenge that they have. And business owners are so grateful when you solve this. One last thing, I wanted to let you know that that clip was taken from our systemologist certification program. Now we are a network of business coaches and consultants who are really passionate about helping business owners get out of the day to day operations of running their business. And we do that through a system Systems first AI led approach that just works like gangbusters. We're always on the lookout for people to join our network and join in the movement to change the face of small business. If that sounds like something that you're interested in, head over to systemology.com getcertified and I look forward to seeing you in the network.