You Are Only as Good as Your System

I see the same things from trainers over and over again. How do I handle all of these leads, how do I generate more leads because I have too much open space, how do I hire new staff I need somebody right away, what do I do in this situation, and the list goes on.

These are all valid questions and concerns, the first couple times, beyond that they are road blocks, excuses, sticking points, and a waste of time. (Or however you wish to look at it.)

Most people, not just trainers, are really excellent technicians. In laymen’s terms good at doing the basic work that drives the financial engine of your business. Now there’s nothing wrong with this as long as you realize you don’t really own a business but rather have just created yourself a job.

If you are reading this blog I make the assumption that you’re not happy just punching a clock and doing the same thing day in and day out. I am assuming that you not only want to make more money but that you are perhaps even a little like me in that you want to control your own clock. You see truth is if I had to get a real job where I had to show up at certain times, had to stay all day, had to request time off and could only take so much each year I’d probably get fired. I’m going to tell you a little secret, something I don’t think I’ve never really shared with anyone, even though I may work a lot I’m really not very good at it. I have a hard time focusing for long periods, and my mood greatly determines how productive I can be, if it’s not right something that should take 20 min can turn into hours. Because of this if I had to work on someone else’s terms I’d be a sporadically productive second rate employee. My ability to thrive is based on being able to work on my own terms, so for me building a business that works when I can’t or don’t want to is critical, how about you?

December at One-to-1 is policy and procedure month, this month I gather up all the bits, revisions and changes to our various policies. We discuss them, re-write them and then over Christmas I print our update operations manual. I believe that single manual is one of the biggest reasons for our continual success. How did it get created? Well just as painfully as you are thinking, but you know what it was worth every penny and more.

You need to sit down (even if you are a solo trainer) and make a list of all the things you do in a day related to your business, no task is too big or too small. You then need to begin creating a step-by-step list of how you complete each process, and as you do imagine having to repeat that process 100 times or more. Now this doesn’t mean its set in stone it’s simply your process right now and as you discover the flaws in that process you can revise it. In some cases rather than physically writing it down the quick and easy way to document it is to use your flip cam and make a video of you doing it and explaining it. Imagine if you ever hired someone to replace you, or if you yourself were hired by a company if you had a book and video library that showed and explained every single process right down to how to answer the phone, take cash, run a certain promotion, sell a product, etc. How fast could you learn? How quickly could you become the star employee?

Even if you will be a solo trainer for many months yet to come this is still critical. By setting your own policies and procedures for everything you do you minimize the mistakes you make and reduce the number of, often costly, emotional decisions you will make.

Systems are critical for taking control of your business and ultimately your life, live it on your own terms, because if you’re like me you’ll never be anything more than average if you don’t.