Even a small reduction in errors and rework can have a significant impact.

—Abigail Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Fidelity Investments

How Melissa Systemized Her Business and Scaled to 40 Locations

Melissa Woods is the Chief Business Mentor at Pinnacle Global Network. In the 1980s, Melissa built a company called JW Tumbles, a children’s gym. She was excited in the early years, but, as the company created traction and growth, Melissa found herself chained to her business.

As Melissa recalls: “I had a fantasy of driving off to get milk and never coming back. I realized that if I didn’t duplicate myself, it would only get worse. No free time, no ability to take a vacation. No ability to expand. One day – and, yes, this really happened – a princess from Saudi Arabia brought her kids to the summer program and said she wanted to build a JW Tumbles in her country.

“This was my wake-up call, as I realized that my business could be replicated and scaled. I hired a paralegal who was great with systems and especially strong at converting the information we fed her into a digestible format. She would ask us questions about how we did things – what we did the moment we came into the gym every morning in preparation for the day, how we cleaned the gym, what cleaning supplies we used and how we used them (i.e., one spray, two sprays, one wipe). This became an exercise that forced us to think about every tiny detail.

“The hardest part was articulating with pen and paper in a directional format how we deal with our clients. It was so natural to us, we did not realize what we did. We took a hard look at the customer experience – from the moment they stepped into our gym to how we said goodbye to them at the end of a class. We were very serious about it. The gym had to be welcoming every moment people were inside it. This required all the senses. Smell: The gym could not smell like a sweaty kid’s gym. Sight: Every piece of equipment had to shine with cleanliness. Sound: We were particular about what music we would play prior to classes starting. It had to be uplifting, happy music.

“I was tasked with watching every move my partner made when we were teaching the kids. I took the job very seriously and was able to see the exact methods he used. I was able to dissect the things he did that were innately ‘him’ and share them with the paralegal. For example, I studied how he greeted a new child and her parents before they arrived for the first complementary first class. He would first loudly say ‘Hello’ the moment they came in. Then he would walk over and say to both mom and child, ‘Hi, I’m Jeff,’ shake the mom’s hand, and then look at the new child – but without making eye contact. I asked him why he did this and he answered, ‘Because if I make eye contact it freaks them out, it’s too confrontational.’

“This tiny little thing made a huge difference in a new child’s first experience. It went into the operations manual. There were fifty more nuances like this that he did that over a period of several months. I was able to observe and capture them, so we could train employees on this. Later, we used them to train new franchisees.

“Over the years we were able to expand to several locations. We would get the report on how many new kids came to class weekly, and how many converted to students. If there was a gap in sales, I would go to the site and observe how the staff was approaching parents after a class. I realized they were not going up to them. They would just let them leave without having a conversation.

“After observing the class one day I went up to each of the four new kids’ parents and started up an easy conversation along the lines of: ‘Hey, it looks like Jack had a lot of fun. I loved when he had to tell the story to all the kids and the instructor about his dad’s golfing.’ The parents were so impressed that I had recalled something special her kid had done that they signed up again right then and there.

“By having observed the workers, I realized they did not know what to say to parents after a class. So they never said anything. Once I recognized this, I added a new training – how to talk to parents.

“Founders of businesses often start a business because they are passionate, and good at what they do. The problem is they do not know how to teach others to be them. It requires patience and time. It’s all well worth it. My company was able to break down everything we did in the customer experience, so that clients could take their kids to any one of our gyms anywhere in the world and have the same exact experience.”

As a result of having stepped back to take the time to systemize every aspect of her business, Melissa grew JW Tumbles to 40 locations in five countries.

■ ■ ■

A key component to successful scaling is ensuring that goods and services are delivered systemically. When Melissa made the shift from her old model of being chained to her business to systemizing everything, JW Tumbles was able to replicate, scale, and become successful anywhere in the world.

Systems, processes, and execution are the behind-the-scenes orchestra to scaling a lucrative and sustainable company. For instance, when someone goes to McDonald’s to order a hamburger and fries, they can expect a nearly identical experience at any franchise location worldwide. Ray Kroc conceived of his assembly line–influenced production system long before there was enough demand to inspire 35,000 restaurants. Kroc drilled the process down to the most minor specifications, including weight, fat content, diameter, and even the number of pickles in every single burger.

Now that you’ve developed your Big Picture Vision from Chapter 2 and have outlined the major tasks involved in achieving it, nothing should get in your way of beginning your scaling efforts – except, perhaps, for execution. The good news is that execution problems are entirely within your control and fixable.

With that in mind, it’s time to take a look at all of your systems and processes and determine where improvements can be made and things that can be streamlined. This chapter is dedicated to helping you and your organization to break through the barriers, ditch unnecessary steps, avoid repeated mistakes, improve ownership and accountability, and allow your workflow to run smoothly. You may think that you are an expert at execution, and you may very well be. But chances are you are clinging to habits and old ways of doing things that hold you back from getting things done in the most efficient and results-oriented ways possible – and you don’t even realize it.

In the early days of building your business, the struggles tend to be around cash flow and getting clients in the door. As you scale, the challenges tend to shift around time – as in, there never seems to be enough of it. Therefore, the need to manage your time and make the most of every minute becomes the priority. I have found myself daydreaming about having an eight-day week and what I could do with that extra day. But truth be told, I would just fill it up with more distractions. The key is to maximize the time we have.

Money comes and goes, but time does not. The time period from just a few minutes ago – when you were reading Chapter 5 – is gone. We cannot get back past moments. If you think about spending time like you spend money, you will choose wisely how you cash in every minute. Choose how you want to invest your time moving forward. How can you maximize these moments? Get clear on the purpose of how you are spending your time.

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

—H. Jackson Brown Jr., bestselling author

Your Day Is a Series of Investments

What do you want your return to be for the time you invest on your business and your life? If you think of getting a return for every action that you take, then you will choose your actions wisely within the time period that you have. For instance, if you spend your time writing a book, what do you want your return to be for investing that time? Would it be business growth – a sense of accomplishment? If you spend an hour at the gym, eat a healthy meal, or spend time with your children, what is your intended outcome for each of these investments? Good health? Feeling fulfilled? If you binge-watch on Netflix, what is your intended return for investing that time?

Looking at your life this way forces you to take a hard look at how you invest your time, your most valuable asset. Learning how to manage your time and inspiring your team to do the same is the underpinning of what it takes to successfully execute the final phase of the SCALEit Method.

Cashing In on Time

What would you do if you had an extra month per year? What would you do with all of that extended free time? Live in your bathing suit on the beach, write your memoir, spend more time with your friends or loved ones, learn how to play the flute, or fly on the trapeze?

I’m about to give you a gift: the ability to start accumulating your bonus month right now. Here’s how it works.

Most people waste at least two hours each day by procrastinating, falling into meaningless, time-sucking activities, working on projects that don’t move them toward their Big Picture Vision, tinkering around in social media or on the Internet, or failing to grasp the art of saying “No” and setting boundaries.

Do the math. Two hours per day multiplied by 365 days is 730, which equals one month! If you become more productive two extra hours every day for one year, you will be giving yourself the gift of entrepreneurialism – a complete month off whenever you choose. As time goes on and you master the art of focus, time management, and delegation, you will be able to multiply this time off to several months per year.

Focus, Focus, Focus

In business, a brilliant idea is just a fantasy if it stays only in your head. Execution is when you set your strategy in motion and make it happen. It’s all about taking action.

You are the visionary, the leader, the idea magnet. Implementation – well, that’s another story. Execution is not always your best friend, but it’s the necessary promise – the Yellow Brick Road to reaching your goals. Do you find yourself moving forward on a task, distracted by another, then get excited as you see something else of interest out of the corner of your eye?

This compulsion, which I call “shiny object syndrome,” refers to how some people chase after the newest shiny object within view and forget all about the last one they pursued with exuberance. When entrepreneurs experience “shiny object syndrome,” they are exhibiting signs of EADD: Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder. (This is neither a clinical term nor a diagnosis … at least not yet!)

The fact is, it takes five times as long to get something done when you repeatedly stop and start to do other things. I’m not referring to quick coffee or bathroom breaks or a head-clearing walk, which are necessary and beneficial, but latching onto doing another task while in the middle of something else. Why does it take so long to complete the original task when you return to it? Because it always takes time for your brain to refocus. It’s like reading the same sentence over and over in a book, but not really processing it. How wonderful would it feel to dive in fully and get your projects completed in one half or even a quarter of the time? This alone would be life changing!

Perfection is a massive block to most creative types. Remember, get it done and then perfect it along the way. Version 1.0 will open the doors. Then allow Version 2.0 and beyond to evolve and change from the clues and feedback you receive from your market.

Let’s focus and get it done!

The Three Ps of Planning

I was a single parent for 12 years. Out of necessity, I learned how to glean the most out of every moment to be able to care for my daughter and run my companies at the same time. I got into the habit of working late after she went to bed at night, so I could be present with her after I picked her up from school. That worked fine for a while, until I realized that if I completed this work during the day – while she was at school – I would be more relaxed when she was home, get a much-needed night of sleep, and feel even more energized the next day. Out of personal necessity, I developed a process to help me stay in the productive zone during the day, so I could be focused on my daughter in the evenings.

When I began mentoring other CEOs, I realized this two-step process could be translated to help them manage their time and, ultimately, their success. The goal for you is to maximize your hours for the things that really fascinate you, lift you up, move the needle forward, and grow your business, while at the same time freeing up your mind so you don’t burn out. Plain and simple, this process helps you get more done faster, so you can take charge of your time and your life.

• Step 1. Three Ps of Planning: Organize your days by working on similar types of activities to keep you in the flow.
• Step 2. Mile Steps and Mini Feats: Break down your projects into small steps to combat procrastination and complete them faster.

First, divide up your week into three types of days so you can be deliberate in optimizing your activities. The Three Ps – Prep Days, Pinnacle Days, and Play Days – help you streamline your days, keep you focused, and help you to get more done in less time.

Working on the Business, Not in It

One of the first things I do with my clients is to wean them off the seven-day workweek. (Yes, most business owners work seven days a week.) I recommend that their schedules should include one weekday off, plus the entire weekend free. That leaves four full days left of work. These business owners look at me like I’m absolutely nuts. But then they try it – and guess what happens? They end up getting more out of the four work days than they did in seven because they are refreshed and focused. They truly value those days and their time off – whether they are golfing, boating, spending time with their families, traveling, or whatever. In addition, they find that their most innovative business ideas happen when they are outside the office taking it easy during play. The next goal we work toward is a three-day workweek. Once you build your solid team and systemize, this will happen. Then you will experience moments in the office in which everything is taken care of by your team and you won’t know what to do with yourself. That is when you know you’re on the right track.

Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.

—Maya Angelou, poet

In the early entrepreneurial days, you will tend to require more Prep Days to develop your revenue streams, marketing, bookkeeping, and so on. However, as you take the leap to building your enterprise, you will want to delegate most of those tasks to your team so you can step more into the role of CEO, rather than worker bee.

My client, Robin Richter, CEO of Wearable Imaging Promotional Products – a company that has been in existence for 25 years – and a former pro golfer, used to spend crazy hours working through her elaborate order processes with her clients. Now that she has scaled with a team behind her, most of her Prep Days have shifted to Pinnacle Days. She can spend this valuable time building profitable and rewarding relationships on the golf course instead of buried behind her computer. This change was good for her bottom line and for her soul!

Most of your days during your four-day workweek will be Pinnacle Days. This is where magic can happen with your team, your partners, your clients, and your customers. This is where you are unveiling everything that was inspired during your Play Days, and then developed and honed during your Prep Days. During Pinnacle Days, you are making yourself available to everyone, listening to them, being in the moment, and soaking it all in. If you can’t pare these action items down, then you need to ask yourself if you are too involved in day-to-day processes and should be delegating more.

How to Execute Your Roadmap

Now that you have your Big Picture Vision spelled out and your week divided among Prep Days, Pinnacle Days, and Play Days, you need to break down your projects and tasks into smaller steps on each day so they are actionable and achievable. A Big Picture Vision can feel exciting while at the same time seeming lofty and potentially unachievable. By working backwards and creating bite-size steps to follow on a daily basis, you will reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed, plus you will meet deadlines and achieve the goals you are working toward.

Your Mile Steps and Mini Feats

• Step 1: Write out all the large steps that must happen to make your Big Picture Vision come true. This could be 10 steps or 50 steps, depending on how big your vision is. These large steps are your Mile Steps, your bigger projects that need to be completed in order to reach your Big Picture Vision. This could be building a website, buying a building, hiring a marketing team, or creating a new revenue stream. A Mile Step is a project that has many moving parts. It is a crucial component of making your Big Picture Vision a reality.
• Step 2: Once you have this list of Mile Steps listed out, write down every step needed to complete that one project. I call these small steps your Mini Feats, which are minimally 20-minute incremental tasks that will help you overcome procrastination and being overwhelmed, so that you can easily move forward to completion and success.
• One Mile Step may take a month or even a year to complete, depending on how large the project is and how many Mini Feats are needed to complete that project. For instance, if you are creating a franchise, adding on new locations, developing a new product, or systemizing your company, there will be many Mini Feats needed to complete that one Mile Step. For example, when building a website, your Mini Feats would be: writing copy, choosing photos, gathering testimonials, creating an opt-in, and so on.
• Some of your Mini Feats will need to be repeated over and over again because you won’t do them all in one sitting. By using this structure to simplify your goals in the Mile Step/Mini Feat process, you will gain a feeling of stability and reliability. When you sway off course (which can happen from time to time), simply return to your daily Mile Step/Mini Feat structure and your plans will begin moving you along your path again.
• Step 3: When you are planning out your Mini Feats, schedule them on your calendar. By giving them a set time, you are much more likely to stick to them and won’t try to push them off to a later time.
• Step 4: Once you complete all of your Mile Steps, you will have reached your Big Picture Vision. Then it will be time to develop the next level of your vision.

Systemetize Everything

A longtime colleague of mine, Geeta Sidhu Robb, once said to me: “Build a business through your systems, not your blood.”

Business owners like you know exactly what this means: You’ve put years of blood, sweat, and tears into your business. You continue to devote everything you have – time, freedom, and money – to ensure that things get done exactly the way that you want them done. Your blood might have been crucial to getting things started and, even now, you still feel like you donate 10 pints of blood each and every week. However, to stop bleeding you must move outside of yourself and get out of your own way.

Having the right systems in place right now will ultimately set you free. Your goal is to find that happy place where you have a solid and growing business that doesn’t need your blood anymore, because the workflow is pumping just fine on its own. You can walk away guilt-free to focus on more important things while your team oversees the execution. But it will only work if everything is properly systematized.

As you scale your business, think carefully about all of your systems and processes. Are they as streamlined and efficient as they should be? Are you unnecessarily involved in any of the stages of execution, including approvals? What would happen if you suddenly removed yourself from the workflow – would the business collapse? Is the team capable of flying without you?

Your goal should always be to peel yourself away from executing the details and work toward creating a self-managed company. That’s where your team comes in: Delegate and trust them to do their jobs!

In order to take action on tasks that lead to growth, you need powerful systems in place that accomplish the following:

1. Free you up to work on your Big Picture Vision strategy.
2. Enable your team to get from point A to point B in the most efficient manner possible without sacrificing quality.
3. Allow for new team members to step in and get into the rhythm faster with less on-boarding time.
4. Limit the number of mistakes, redos, and general churn.
5. Save your company money – unless the expenses lead to faster scaling and/or greater financial reward.
6. Rely upon as few touchpoints – i.e., checks and reviews – as possible (again, without sacrificing quality).
7. Make more money by selling and providing more products or services faster.
8. Get a higher valuation on your company when it’s time to sell.

Become Scaleable and Salesable

By creating efficient systems and processes, you will ensure that all the right steps are being completed, that your team is working together toward a common goal, and that they are holding one another accountable. They guide your team on where to be, what to do, how to do it, and when it needs to be done. Strong processes are what will make your business scaleable and ultimately saleable. If you plan to sell your company one day, you need to be able to have another team step in without missing a beat. If the inner workings of your company are organized, its value will increase dramatically. Regardless of whether you plan to sell your company, take the time to set it up as if you were going to sell.

The good news is you don’t need to hire Six Sigma or Kaizen experts to identify improvements in your company. Sit down with your team (freelance or in-house) leaders for quarterly planning days in which you outline existing processes, identify problems and roadblocks within those processes, and then make the pivotal decisions about which steps can be improved, replaced, shortened, or removed entirely. (This can be done virtually as well, but nothing beats face-to-face.)

Nine out of 10 times, the leader is the holdup in terms of asking for redos and dragging her feet on approvals that others can be trained and empowered to make. Be prepared to let go of a lot of control! If you demonstrate your ability to accept change, others will be willing to follow your lead.

The Systemizer

Once you have worked with your team to create a new and improved system, you don’t want to lose the threads of everything that has been learned and accomplished or you’ll end up reverting backwards and wasting time. This is where Systemizer comes in. This system helps direct, structure, organize, store, edit, and simplify all of the actions of your daily business. The Systemizer is the glue that holds everything together. Here are five steps to systemize your company.

• Step 1: Create systems for every division and operation of your company. Here is an example:
• 1.0 Onboarding
• 2.0 Administrative
• 3.0 Sales Process
• 4.0 Marketing
• 5.0 Financial
• 6.0 Legal
• 7.0 Client Trainings
• 8.0 HR/Team
• 9.0 Operations
• 10.0 Events
• Step 2: Pick one of these areas and break it down into three to five subcategories and then break those subcategories down even further. This is how you determine every ongoing process, or Standard Operation Procedure (SOP), needed in your business that you can create a system around.
  • 4.0 Marketing
    • 4.1 Marketing Funnels
      • a. Webinars
      • b. Facebook Ads
      • c. Referral Program
    • 4.2 Social Media Posts
    • 4.3 Event Posts
    • 4.4 Allie & You Show
    • 4.5 Metrics
• Step 3: Make a folder for each category. Drop in all of the tools, photos, files, and processes you already have so that you keep everything in one place. Only save items in this folder that you will continue to use. Archive old materials that you do not plan to use again.
• Step 4: For each project or company process, write each step that needs to happen from start to finish and file that in your online folder.
• Step 5: Create a document that lists each system, folder and the titles you have given them, so that you and your team can easily access them.
• Step 6: You may also want to make a big hard-copy binder in case there is ever a technology breakdown. (Of course, that never happens, right?) Make sure to keep it updated.

SOPs serve as your mini how-to manuals on how tasks should get done in your organization. Determine which are truly the most important activities in your company that keep the wheels turning. Systemize these first and write them out in plain English as simple step-by-step instructions. One to two pages should be long enough; any longer than that and people will lose patience and refuse to use them.

Only create one or two systems per quarter because everyone needs to get in the habit of using them and it takes at least 60 days to create a new habit. You might have developed the most incredible new system but, if no one is using it, it is a complete and utter waste of time and money.

The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort.

—Michael Jordan, NBA Hall of Famer and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets NBA team

GTP: Get to the Point

This is time management in a nutshell: You do the simple stuff at the beginning of the day and push the most challenging tasks toward the end of the day. When the end of the day comes, you feel frustrated that those big leaps did not happen and then you carry them to the next day.

This is just human nature. You procrastinate on the tough stuff, imagining that you can do it better later and make it flawless. In reality, this is an excuse that people hide behind. It’s a way to avoid our fears and, ultimately, our dreams. Be willing to act boldly and go after the big challenges first, starting right now. Stop overthinking it. Once you make a decision, take action that moment. Write the letter, make the call, send the email – show up in a bigger way than you ever have before. But do not wait for the planets to align. Take action now and, by next week, your anxiety will start to dissipate because you are going for it. I am always so impressed by persistent people, whether they are getting the results they want or not. No matter what, if they keep pushing forward the big break they are waiting for is just one step away. Why would you ever want to miss that opportunity?

Procrastination and perfectionism can kill your company!

Get to the Point (GTP). This can apply to many things in business, but first and foremost it means taking a hard look at your To Do List and placing your Mile Steps in order based on which ones will move your business forward the fastest. What are the activities that will create the biggest impact on your bottom line? Some tasks might seem easy to accomplish and strike off the list – which does feel good – but they might not do a single thing to help grow your business. Other things that are complex or challenging may or may not accelerate your business, but either way, prioritize them based on the impact they have on scaling.

GTP means identifying your time wasters. Are you doing things out of obligation, fear, or guilt? Or because you are trying to show your team how hard you are working? Here’s an obvious tip: Trash or reassign those activities immediately!

Here’s a tough one to help you GTP and focus on the things that really matter. Ask yourself this: Does your phone really need to be on 24/7? More often than not, emails that come in are junk – or at least they can wait for a response. Having the phone on and buzzing with every single email or text can be a major distraction throughout your day. It will drive you insane. You will be amazed how much you accomplish by turning off your phone for a few hours of the day while you are concentrating on completing projects, performing revenue-generating activities, or perhaps something rewarding in the personal sense, such as hanging out with friends.

Recently, my husband (Mike) and I went to Cabo San Lucas. On arrival I turned off my phone and threw it in the drawer. I have to say, it was the most relaxing and freeing vacation I have had in a long time. I read an entire novel that was not about business and my husband and I traveled all over that island without any digital distractions! When we went to dinner, I was not anxious to jump on my phone while he went to the men’s room. I was present, looking around and taking it all in. Mike and I even wrote out our entire Bucket List while we were out to dinner for my birthday.

I knew that my team had things handled. They wanted to prove to me that I did not need to check in – and I didn’t. Neither do you.

Here is a challenge for you: When you are away from the office, try leaving your phone at home. Once you’ve begun developing your dream team, give them baby-step opportunities to be independent and run things without you … and then watch them shine. People like to step up to the plate. It gives them a sense of purpose and value.

Establishing Entrepreneurs Within Your Entrepreneurial Organization

As you run your business, you want to be 100% certain you have clearly identified the people responsible for holding other team members accountable and for overseeing proper execution of tasks. The worst thing to happen in an organization is for something to slip between the cracks and then have everyone say, “That’s not my area.” All of a sudden no one knows how it happened.

I once heard someone say, “If you have to tell people what to do, then you have the wrong people.” There is a great deal of truth to this statement. You want a team of people who are masters of execution and get their jobs done well without churn, hesitation, and emotional wrangling. When people make inevitable mistakes, you expect them to own up to them, fix them, learn from them, and not repeat them. That is how an employee garners respect from you and her teammates. I know my team is dedicated and they work hard. They are passionate about our vision. Do they make mistakes? Yes. However, if they own them and learn from them so they are not continually repeated, they earn my respect even more.

Your role in these instances is to coach and mentor, not to dress people down or berate them for errors. If you treat people badly after giving them the opportunity to take ownership of a project, they will never admit to their mistakes again. Other employees who witness this will react the same way and constantly hide things and duck for cover.

Part of your role as leader of your business is to ensure that you have a team of people who take responsibility for their own execution and are held accountable for all of the tasks they manage. I always refer to my employees as team members. We are all working together toward the greater good of our Big Picture Vision. When people feel like they are an important part of your vision – that their role impacts the company in a big way – they are more likely to have buy-in and do their best because they care. This is the difference between someone who sees her position as a nine-to-five job, bolting out the door before 5:01 p.m., versus someone who gives her all, until the project is done. When this happens, we all win and celebrate together as a team. If your employees are constantly making mistakes or are unmotivated, they do not see themselves as part of your team. To them, this is not a career, it is a job.

My advice: Sit down with them and ask what motivates them. What kind of growth do they see for themselves? What do they want to achieve in their life and career? What is their why? Then, really listen so that they feel important and seen. Share your why, and remind them about the company’s Big Picture Vision. Help them to see they are big part of this vision, that they are here for a reason, and that you cannot do it without them. Then, ask them: “Now that you know how important your role is, how do you feel you can best contribute to this vision? How does it support your own vision?”

Unless that person is not a good fit or doesn’t have the potential to step into the skill set you need, she will rise to the occasion. Everyone wants to feel purposeful and appreciated. If you can accomplish this with your team, you will witness their energy and passion soar like a circus artist performing a double back flip on the trapeze or an Olympic snowboarder performing daring tricks in a half-pipe competition.

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer, poet, and pioneering aviator

Inspect What You Expect

I bet I know what you are going to say next: “I delegated A, B, and C to three different members of my team. A veered off in the completely wrong direction. B never got the job done. C screwed things up. How can I possibly empower people and trust them with important tasks when I know they won’t get them done right, if they get done at all?”

Ask yourself: “Did your employees receive enough training?”, “Were expectations made clear to them?” and “Did you have checkpoints along the way to ensure they were on track?”

Your team members are human beings and will make mistakes, just like you did (and still do). They don’t own the business, so they won’t do things exactly the way you would. They are not going to eat, sleep, and breathe your company the way you do. By the same token, if they don’t improve with all the training provided, then you need to make that difficult call. Remember, what got you here will not necessarily get you to the next level. You need to decide if the team you have will go the extra mile. These are often difficult decisions, so trust your gut; if you know the right answer, don’t wait to follow through. Time slips quickly through your fingers and, before you know it, another year goes by, and then another. When you finally make that much-needed decision, you ask yourself: “Why did I not make the move when I first had an inkling?” As you take that leap from entrepreneur to enterprise, take the team with you that is ready to fly high!

There’s no half-singing in the shower. You’re either a rock star or an opera diva.

—Josh Groban, singer, songwriter, and record producer

In my company, there are so many moving parts in all of our launches and product releases and events that sporadic “inspections” prove to be invaluable for everyone concerned. This type of quality control also demonstrates the important advantage of having an in-house staff rather than freelancers. It’s difficult to have regular inspections with freelancers because they work at their own pace and on their own schedules. It’s also difficult communicating SOPs – some of which may even be confidential – when you are working with independent contractors, even if you have signed confidentiality agreements.

I admit that execution may not be the most glamorous or exciting part of the scaling process. Even so, keep in mind that when an audience is watching athletic teams in action, all they see is the end result of everything: the execution. If your team follows well-thought-out systems and processes and acts like entrepreneurs, your products and services will achieve everything you envisioned and more. Your customers will applaud you and your team with rave reviews, repeat business, and glowing recommendations and referrals – all of which will lead to scaling and creating your dream enterprise.