3 Benefits of Implementing Systems and Automation to Scale Your Small Business Without Adding Staff
Mediocre businesses are born from inefficiency.
Inefficiency comes from not having repeatable systems that deliver the same consistent results every time. Early in my career, I'd rely on the brain recall trap so many small business leaders like me struggle with—we keep everything in our heads. If you want to succeed, systems must be documented and continuously improved.
You don't need to hire more people. You need better systems and automation.
The power of systems is undeniable.
But you need to get started to embrace the many benefits.
Benefit 1: Increased Efficiency
Productivity comes from the execution of core systems.
You automate redundant activities while building repeatable consistency. This allows your team to focus on the few things that matter the most.
Think of how inefficient it is to keep everything bottled up in people's heads (the brain recall trap).
Until I started to systematize and automate, I was the biggest bottleneck in many of my business's core processes. Your team can't be efficient if you're in the way of critical activities flowing freely in the company.
You have to break the dam to let the water flow freely. If not, you'll always have a company restricted by how it executes core functions.
Systems and automation are your first steps to massive efficiency gains.
Start to improve your systems and find key areas to automate.
Benefit 2: Reduced Human Error
People are one of the biggest problems for any business.
No, I'm not saying people are bad. Instead, people bring emotions, habits, and are prone to errors.
Before I had core processes outlined for my teams, people would enter data wrong into our ERP system, make snap assumptions, or do things their way. This created inconsistency, and errors were rampant. People assume how to do something when there's no system, but that is unproductive and inefficient. Inconsistency breeds errors.
You reduce errors by creating systems that are done the same way every time and automating the redundant steps.
Benefit 3: Improved Workflow
Goals are fleeting.
You're always in a state of pre-success failure or actual failure if goals are never realized. Systems are turned on/off that initiate a desired output or can remain on forever.
Imagine you want to improve an area of your business and set a goal to improve output by 50%. You create projects, deploy resources, and the goal is achieved—then it's done. But if you built systems, the goal would never end. The system is continuously improved, driving better results with each iteration. Systems are a massive workflow hack.
To improve your workflows, make systems the foundation for executing things.
Solving business problems at the results level is a temporary fix—like a bandaid patching a severe wound. To make a lasting improvement, you need to make changes at the systems level.
"Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves," James Clear writes in Atomic Habits.
