my business is BROKEN... only this will fix it!

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today I'm talking about systems and procedures in your business and how and why most people will never implement them in their small business. And in my opinion, it's why most small businesses fail. It's because they don't have systems and procedures. It's built upon the personality, the strong characteristics of the owner. It's fantastic that you're great at sales, you're really good at doing your job, that you're really good at putting in the mulch, you're really good at trimming the bushes, you're really good at cleaning with floors. Whatever you do in your business, you're probably really, really good at it. And that's awesome. But the problem is the. That does not scale. When I talk about scale, I mean, that doesn't make the business bigger. It doesn't allow it to get employees. What allows the business to get employees and run profitably and continue to grow is going to be systems and procedures. Now, today, what I talk about is how systems and procedures can actually seem very constricting. And it is for this reason that many business owners will not implement systems is because it's actually. It feels like it's constraining them from doing what they want. And I like to parallel it to a cast. If you broke your leg or you were trying to repair an injury, usually you have to wear some sort of a sling or a cast or even a brace. Now, when you're wearing that brace, when you're wearing that cast, it's actually very constricting. You can't have full range of motion, and it makes you slow down a little bit. And systems in your business sometimes feel the same way. And that is, you feel like, I can't just do anything I want. I'm not as free to do whatever I want. I have to follow a system. I have to follow a very strict, rigid path that is called a system or a procedure. And that's like a cast. It doesn't allow you just to move your arm anywhere. Your wrist. If you have a cast on your wrist, you can't move it anywhere. It's like, okay, you can only move it laterally, right? These are things that make the bone grow back healthier. These are things that allow the bone to grow healthily without deforming it or potentially leading it to growing in a way that is weak and could potentially break again. And in fact, when a cast is removed, although the muscles around the bone at first are weaker over time, because that bone heals, if it heals correctly and is given time and it has that cast on it, it actually grows back stronger than it was prior to the breakage. And so what's very in your small business, realizing that as you're growing your business, you're like a bone that is developing and growing. And if you just let it grow haphazardly, it will grow faster. If it has full range of motion, yeah, you'll get more done. But if you without that cast, without that restriction, hey, this is the system, this is the rigid way to do things, then you can absolutely lead to growth too fast, leading to damage, leading to injury, or if you have certain weaknesses in the business like profitability, a bad culture, some employees that are not good, having that wound, having that injury without a cast of systems really makes the business be injured long term and potentially even fail. Now, I say this because at Augusta Lawn Care, we have almost 100 owners that have started their lawn care business. And the ones I consistently see struggle are the ones that try to have full range of motion when join a franchise like Augusta. There are certain systems, there's procedures, there's ways that we teach doing things. And I understand that can seem constricted to an entrepreneur, because as entrepreneurs, we like free range motion. We like being able to do what we want, testing what we want, trialing this, giving this a shot. And when it comes to systems and procedures, it can seem like, man, like, no, I don't want to do it that way. But when systems and procedures are made, when a cast is put on, you have to have trust in the doctor that put on that cast. So I have to tell our franchisee at Augusta, and what you will have to tell yourself, regardless if you're in a franchise or not, is the systems and procedures that are set up in my business are there to protect and make sure that the business grows healthily. Not the fastest, not done in the way that allows the most range of motion, going here and doing this and trying this out. But the system is there. And to make sure it grows at a steady, healthy speed and protects the bone, the business, the organism from damage. And you have to remember that if that bone, if it doesn't repair correctly, it can lead to the entire organism being deformed, lead the entire organism failing, it can lead to the entire organism becoming sick. And that's what happens in many businesses because they allow the culture of their business to grow without any systems. And they don't have any an employee handbook. They don't have something that's signed by the employees of what is approved and not approved by the business. And they don't have a system for onboarding employees and marketing, marketing to find new employees because there's no systems involved, because there is no processes. It makes the business grow and fast and all of a sudden it's going different directions. And that can lead the entire business eventually failing. One part, one bone, one part appendage of the body not correctly healed, not correctly growing in a healthy manner can lead to the entire organism failing. And that's what happens in many small businesses. I mentioned hiring, but it could be advertising. If someone just pouring money in advertising every willy nilly which way, they have no idea what they're doing. They're buying magazine ads and radio ads, let's do a local TV ad. And all this craziness, that's one part, one appendage of the body that is beginning to become deformed and growing outside of systems. There is no cast and it needs a breakage and needs to be, hey, like come back into the systems. And sometimes that's what our businesses need. When you look at TV shows like the profit or when people do turnarounds or like bar rescue, whatever, well, you know what they do is they come in and they break the bone, they break the appendage that's been growing outside of the systems. And then they have to put the cast back on, they put bandages around. They have to restrict it, they have to restrict the owner, the employees. This is all done for the success of the business and the health of an organism when it comes to a cast. So if you've listened to my podcast, my videos or others, and read books and you're like, these are the systems I know, these are what's right for my business. And you kind of seem restricted by them. Keep in mind this is a healthy thing. When you feel like you want to go outside of certain systems or you want to go innovate on those systems, keep in mind that if somebody needs to have a cast, they need to have systems on their business. A cast on an arm and they take that cast off, they're opening themselves up to a lot of hurt. So if you look at your business and you see that there is struggles and profitability, glasses and cultural problems, start asking yourself, am I following systems? Do I have systems for hiring, systems for marketing, procedures on how to do certain things, that is going to somewhat restrict my growth. I'm going to have to follow a certain pattern to create an estimate. I can't just create it on the fly on my phone and send it out to the customer and send them an email and oh, yeah, it'll cost 50 bucks. Like, I can't do that anymore. I have to follow the system. That can seem restrictive. You might even grow slower in your business because you can't innovate on every single customer estimate. Innovate. I'm using the word innovate really is make stuff up on the fly for certain things. You can't do that if you're going to actually scale a business and do it in a really profitable and protected way. Now, one of the things I see owners get out of the systems the most on is actually in their finances. Start using credit cards that are personal. They start taking loans out that are personal. They start mixing business and personal expenses. They have no idea what their numbers are. Their QuickBooks is an absolute mess. And we actually have a service that is helpful for that. So check out lawn care bookkeeper.com if you're a landscaping business, lawn care business, or any home improvement business in the lawn care industry, just go to lawn care bookkeeper.com, we can help you with your payroll, your kids, QuickBooks, getting things ready for your taxes. And it's all for a flat rate. So check that out. And check this video out here about more details about ways to create systems around your finances and in your business. I'm Mike Andes. We'll see you tomorrow.