Blazing a Path to Success: The Role of Systems in Business
Dec 12, 2023Episode 30
Karalee Gault
Ever faced burnout because you're caught in the endless cycle of running your business without systems? It's a pain I know too well. In my virtual assistant business, I hit rock bottom because of the absence of structured systems. And it was only after experiencing business failure and investing in Rachel Pedersen's Social Clique program that I realized the transformative power of systems. This episode is a candid chat about my personal journey and the instrumental role that systems play in avoiding burnout and focusing on what truly matters in your business.
Can systems be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and stages? Absolutely! This episode sheds light on how systems can be tailored to your unique needs, especially for neurodivergent humans. I'll share some valuable resources and tips to streamline your operations, making your business more efficient. We'll also talk about the services I offer - from operations audits to virtual assistant support. So, if you're ready to step up your business game, grab a cup of coffee and let's chat about how we can collaborate to make your business thrive.
Ever faced burnout because you're caught in the endless cycle of running your business without systems? It's a pain I know too well. In my virtual assistant business, I hit rock bottom because of the absence of structured systems. And it was only after experiencing business failure and investing in Rachel Pedersen's Social Clique program that I realized the transformative power of systems. This episode is a candid chat about my personal journey and the instrumental role that systems play in avoiding burnout and focusing on what truly matters in your business.
Can systems be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and stages? Absolutely! This episode sheds light on how systems can be tailored to your unique needs, especially for neurodivergent humans. I'll share some valuable resources and tips to streamline your operations, making your business more efficient. We'll also talk about the services I offer - from operations audits to virtual assistant support. So, if you're ready to step up your business game, grab a cup of coffee and let's chat about how we can collaborate to make your business thrive.
Hello, hello, amazing humans, welcome back to neurodivergent bites. I am your host, Cara Lee, and today we're going to talk about a personal experience here that some of you may be able to relate to, of what not having systems actually did to my business, and this is actually the reason why I'm so passionate about every business, no matter how small or big it is, to have systems so that they can have more time doing the freaking things that they want to do, because when you have more time and energy, you're a happier person, and I'm sure that you didn't start a business that you can spend all of your time in it. Right, I started out as actually a virtual assistant. The opportunity kind of just fell into my lap, like I was 100% a virtual assistant and I actually put together websites. It was a skill that took me six months to learn the ins and outs of a certain platform. Currently it's a tract well, if you want to grab it, you can grab my affiliate link below as well, but a tract well, it is what I kind of call a tract. Well, was is a simple yet robust all in one platform, essentially not doesn't have everything. It's not as glamorous funnel program like there's things to it. But if you're just starting out, this is an amazing program, especially if you have like a membership, things like that. But I digress. If you want to check it out, you can check out more below. It's great options, great support, all the things and all that. But I started out putting together websites for these people and teaching them how to do how to run the platform.
Speaker 1:
Now, I didn't really actually consider myself tech savvy. I did it because I had to learn it for myself, because I couldn't outsource it and I was like, well, I need this thing, I needed to work. So I used all the help articles and trial and error and really figured it out. So when people tell me they're not tech savvy, I'm like, okay, you might not be tech savvy, but with the right time or the right direction and the right teaching, then you can. Or training right, you can actually become more tech savvy in the areas in which actually mean something to you. If you have a goal, you're going to be able to go toward it much faster, right? And so what happened is I taught myself all of these things. Now I've taught myself everything from the very beginning of my business. We are on year four in different capacities. I still bought courses, hired mentors, things like that Like I didn't 100% just go in alone on free stuff, like I invested in myself.
Speaker 1:
And actually the very first thing I invested in after realizing this was is that I invested in Rachel Peterson's the Social Click, and so I learned an astronomical amount about this. But before I go into why I invested in the Social Click, I want to rewind and tell you what happened with my virtual assistant business and how not having systems actually made the bottom fall out of it and completely crumble and I was burnt out. Okay, so what happened is I was a solo VA and I had all these clients, I was doing all the things and then I realized I needed more people. There's no way I could even I could do what I was doing, make the income I wanted to make and like continue doing things the way it was. But what I didn't realize is that there was no systems in place to bring on a team member and there was also no systems in place for that team member to know what in the world they were doing, because everything was still in my brain, which is why I preach you need to have things out of your brain or be able to quickly put something together for that person to be able to very easily be able to do that work, or you know something like that. So I had no systems and because of that I couldn't bring on help. I didn't want to say no, so I was literally burning.
Speaker 1:
What is it? The candle from both ends is a highly set. So I was never. I wasn't seeing my family. I was working like basically 24 seven, and that was not the reason that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and work from home. It was actually quite the opposite. I became an entrepreneur because I wanted to be home and have a more flexible schedule to homeschool my kids. So I'm working 24 seven. I'm not homeschooling my kids any longer, am I? So the reason I became an entrepreneur and I started my own business, that was not correlating with what was actually happening, and so I was like, okay, I finished all of my projects I had with clients and I just literally had zero income coming in. I was like I am burnt out, I can't function, I cannot in good faith take on any more clients and actually deliver the results in which I know I am capable of, and so I joined Rachel Peterson's social click.
Speaker 1:
All right, and when I got in there, I thought I needed some marketing help because I was still trying to get new clients afterward and it wasn't happening and I thought I needed this and I thought I needed that and in reality I mean, I needed some of those things. I needed to have a flexible schedule and I needed marketing support, but really I needed the systems that I to actually put into place to be able to run anything Like even if it was building websites, whatever. I didn't love it. It was just an opportunity to fill my lap. And then a referral system blew up. And here we are right, which is great, and it was overwhelming. So having that like that couldn't create an agency from those systems, right. So I hired someone to also help me with that and that worked.
Speaker 1:
But I realized I didn't want an agency after that. I actually wanted to do more coaching and teaching and not do it not done for you and manage a team. That was, at that time, right. And then it all morphed into even more. But I want to stay on topic. So what I'm saying here is that no matter what size your business is, it could explode tomorrow. That's what I'm saying I literally had one client and she raved about me and told her entire network and I had three clients within the next two weeks.
Speaker 1:
Okay, let me mind you, I had been doing this for less than a year. I've been doing virtual assisting for like a month, but I've been doing some sort of trying to get business knowledge and starting a business for like a year, if that. And then I literally had four clients in two weeks after starting virtual assistant services, from booking one client that I did a nominal job for, and then they referred me to their network and I booked three more clients and did a good job for them as well, but I burnt myself out. So you have a good service, you have good customer support. You have good systems to take it all in. You can have this be really, really good and have a referral system. I was not equipped for a referral system period. There was no way I could take on the amount of clients that a referral system would have. I'm gonna tell you something right now. This feels very strange to me, but I'm in this exact same position today, three years later Okay, two years later, really, I have a client that is like I will share you with my network, but I wanna make sure you're ready, and that could literally blow up overnight.
Speaker 1:
Do I have the things I have in place to like bring in more clients 50, 50. Do I have the systems? Yes. Are they streamlined? Yes. Am I using them? Yes. Do I know what I can delegate? Yes.
Speaker 1:
There are two vital things that are missing from these systems and one of them is SOPs. I do not have my standard operating procedures Actually all of them out of my brain. That would be vital. And you know what, sometimes that's okay, because all of the standard operating procedures that I actually have, like documented right now, 90% of them need updated anyway, because actually SOPs need updated regularly. But I'm okay with the fact that I have to bring I'm bringing on a virtual assistant now to help me with more so that way when those referrals do come in, like I am more prepared. So I don't have all the SOPs, yeah Right. The only other thing that I don't totally have in place is that I don't have the capacity at this given moment to be able to bring on any more clients without a virtual assistant, which meant that I didn't move fast enough to bring in support, to have them trained to know how things are going before I have all these other clients that are booking calls Right. So the whole point of this is that I'm telling you, no matter what size of business you have right now, that could change tomorrow. You have a good service, you are a good coach. Whatever it is, you have a really good course. That could change tomorrow. But we're really talking about it could be any businesses, but especially service providers and coaches, where it's literally your time that we're talking about here. Having those systems in place from the very first day as you start taking on clients, having those systems in place is gonna be game changer for you.
Speaker 1:
Many people are like I don't wanna spend the money putting in place systems, because X if you know exactly what you wanna do with your business, you know who you wanna support, you know how you wanna do it, you need to start putting in place those systems. And if you're like I'm still not there yet, then you start putting in place a task management system. That's how you are keeping track of the research that you're doing, the things that you're creating, the tasks that you need to do, because you need to have something in place that you could easily bring someone else on where you have a foundation. Okay, now I teach about this and I also come in to businesses and do a systems audit, essentially, and operations audit of some sort. All right, so if you're like I'm just starting out, I need businesses we've got a few different resources you can find below and if you are, you know, a six, seven figure business and you're like I need someone to come in and go like where, where are all the gaps? Why do I still not have enough time, all of those things like, then there's also a service for you as well, and we have the operations assessment. We have like executive assistant, obm type of services as well that are available to you as we start growing this and really moving into the fact that it really stepping into what I am really good at and being able to still support a wide range of amazing humans.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so this goes for anyone.
Speaker 1:
Whether you are neurodivergent or not, I work with both people because you guys are all super amazing. But if you're listening to this, more than likely you are probably neurodivergent and we can definitely put in place systems that are working, that can work for your brain. That is the absolute, like that's what we're doing or we're streamlining the systems that you already have, or we're finding out where the gaps are and we're really we're connecting the gaps right. Depending on what part of business you are in, there are resources for you along the way right. There are free, there are paid and then there are done for you type of things. If you wanna chat more about working together or what would make the most sense for you, whether that be the capacity club of VIP week, maybe even virtual assistant or OBM services, you can go ahead and send me a DM and I feel like if we might be a good fit to work together, we can schedule a coffee chat or get to know each other a little bit more to see how we can best work together.
