SYSTEMology Case Study With Gary McMahon

Hey, it's Dave from System Hub and we've got another little case study here for you about systemology. I'm chatting with Gary from Ecosystem Solutions. You can find out more about them@ecosystemsolution.com I'll put a little link right near the video. But Gary, maybe just to start, I'd love it if you could just introduce yourself, talk a little bit about what you guys do and your company and maybe a little bit about your target audience and products and services you sell.

Sure. I'm an ecologist and a bushfire consultant. I've been in operation in the south west of Western Australia since 2005. We specialise in rare plant and animal surveys for developers as well as helping them design subdivisions so that they're safe and meet all the standards and policies for bushfire protection, so that people are safe. So we look after the animals and the people and, and that's our key role. Our primary clients will be developers. However, we have worked extensively with both federal and state government on policy development on some of these issues. But we also get mum and dad from the street that wants to build a house and needs to know what construction standards they need to build it to. So very diverse.

How long have you been in the game for?

I've been in my own business since 2005. Prior to that I worked for 12 years in the government as an ecologist for the local conservation agent department.

Yeah, very cool.

Too long some days.

And I know the few times that we've chatted and we worked together, I think through the systemology program over a good few months. And one thing that I recognized about you is I think you are my perfect target audience. Like your profile matches it really well. You know, this small, medium sized business, growing good demand for the product and service because you sell a great product, but just working incredible hours and having a hard time juggling everything to keep the business going. I'd love to know some of the challenges that you faced. Particularly I suppose that made it attractive that you found out more about System Hub and systemology.

Yeah, well, in the first couple of years it was nice and quiet. I was a single operator, it worked nicely. Then I fell into the niche in that the two major constraints on development are environmental constraints and fire constraints. And while there's only three bushfire consultants of the level that I have in the state, I'm the only one that does both. So the demand, once that niche opened up has been phenomenal to the point where I can't service the demand. The phone calls 50 to 60 a day, 200 odd emails a day. And when you're a self one man band, you just can't do that. So working the hundred one hundred ten hours a week, seven days a week sort of thing, something had to give. And in the interim I've put on some staff and tried to expand all that sort of approach. But you sent me one of your emails. I saw and it just showed that there's a way I can actually step back and not become the bottleneck in my business and to actually work through this process and be able to take a Sunday off even at this stage, you know, just, just to be able to step back and see that I can actually make my business run without me. That's where I'm coming from.

Yeah. And what was there anything that kind of was the trigger for you? Obviously I sent the email out. Was there anything that made you think, yep, I'm going to go ahead and join this program because there's a lot of stuff out there on the Internet. It's really hard to know what you should avoid and what you can listen to.

Yeah, well look, I'll be honest. In the last two years I've known I've needed to do something just managing projects and stuff coming everywhere. I've probably tried every project management that's available through Google to try and coordinate things. Most of them are far too complex. What we do is fairly simple in a project management sense. A lot of our approaches are too simple for some of these major. We're not building bridges and stuff like that. The thing that when you sent your email out was it was simple, it didn't go into this waffly sort of approach, nice clear steps and I thought I could do that. And then when you mentioned some of the things that you can actually be still have a successful business, you're just not part of it all the time. And I thought that's, that's the go. There's maybe hope. Yeah, I was getting to the point where I'm going something's gonna have to give and whether that's a move out of the business or I don't know. But your email was just at the right time because your systemology approach just seemed to work. Work to my headspace. Nice concise process that's easy to follow and you don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to get there.

Yeah. And how was it going through the program? We have the seven steps that you work through and they take you from a business that has no documentation through to a system that's fully functioning and ready to scale. Were there any things that kind of stood out in the program for you?

Yeah, I. I think it was the week two, when you did the ccf, where you actually look at your business, look at how the customer interacts with your business, and you start to compartmentalize it and figure how that works. That was like, mind blowing because it then makes you stand back and actually look and go. You can sort of see where those bottlenecks are. And you can also see we don't do that really well. We just don't do that very well. And while a lot of it is me that's doing it, you can then just helps you focus on those key components. And to the point where I've redesigned my ccf, now I've got about four for my target clients and I've redesigned it. And to be honest, even up to now, employing new staff, I'm using the CCF to target not what I think I need, but what I know the business needs from analyzing it using your CCF process.

That's awesome.

And I can use that to show staff. And so this is how our client steps through our business.

Yeah. Which is great for the staff because then they understand where they fit into the bigger picture as well and the roles that they're providing.

Yes, totally. Whereas before it's all ad hoc. I think a lot of businesses, hopefully a bit like me, we make it up as we go and there's no structure until it starts to crumble.

Yeah. Once that volume comes through. And if you can't handle the capacity, you see it. That's often what breaks small business and business owners.

Yeah. And that's something I would never have dreamed of. You just don't think. You just think you're a little obscure market in the middle of nowhere and there's enough to tick things over. And yeah. Breaking it down. And the way your system works with nice simple steps, do step one, then you move to step two. You don't go from step one to step four, which I think is where I'd be tended to do. You just think, oh, yeah, all that. Whereas it actually helps you clarify the process and helps you clarify where your business is at, even though you might not like what you see sometimes. And this shows how scary how much work I still have to do. But it gives you hope.

Yeah. I think that's been most impressive watching with the implementation that you've done is managing to take these ideas, implement them in the business. You just introduced me to one of your New team members who is shadowing you effectively behind you creating the systems and processes for the business.

Yeah, and that's another key thing that when you recommended, like, I thought, oh, instead of, you know, using outsourcing, somebody and you know, should I just get Jasmine to actually do all the typing? And you said, no, you get Jasmine to coordinate all the input and that's a godsend. Jasmine now can take that on. She's my systems guru and is learning as I go and means I can still be that arm's reach away and I can be out doing something and she can still be plotting along, putting things into the system, getting contractors to do updates and all that sort of stuff. So it's been a revolution. I'll be curious and I'll hopefully Show you in 12 months exactly where we're at.

Well, I suppose that brings me to the last question I was going to ask, which is, I suppose with that benefit of hindsight now having gone through the program and we probably need to have a part two once all of this filters through, because the impact that we're having now will have immediate impact, but it also ripple out for years to come. I'm sure if someone's watching this now and they're thinking about, do I work with a systemologist or check out system hub, is there anything that you might be able to say with that outside perspective and the benefit of hindsight that might be able to help them make the right decision?

Yeah, look, I would say you need someone to help you. You need a system or a person to just not hold your hand, but just point you in the right direction because you're scattering everywhere and someone that can actually logically take you from. Our sessions were an hour a week. It was worth about five hours at that time. And it's just, it's cumulative. The value is just ongoing to the point that I couldn't put a value, a dollar figure on what this program's cost for its cost, what it's actually benefiting for me. And in the future I can actually see it's probably going to save my sanity and maybe my marriage and family as well, but it's also saving my business. And I like what I do. And I was losing control of it was like a dog without a leash. And so this is actually putting the leash back on and I'm starting to train it and work it properly.

It's magic to see. I just love seeing the implementation.

Big high five.

As far as taking this and then running with it and implementing it, I mean, that for me is just a huge win. So thank you again very much, Gary, for implementing. I know this is not the end, probably only the beginning of our journey as we kind of check back in and see how you're growing, but thanks very much for your time.