Your Small Business has Grown. Your Business Systems Need to Grow Too
One thing I've noticed about running a business is that we get very used to doing things a certain way.
You answer the emails. You remember the invoices. You keep track of the diary. You know which client needs what and which job you promised yourself you'd definitely get around to this week.
And for quite a long time, that works.
Then the business grows.
There are more clients, more emails, more invoices, more things in the diary and approximately 147 little things that need remembering at any given moment.
Suddenly, the way you've always worked doesn't seem to work quite as well anymore.
And that's usually when we start blaming ourselves.
"I used to be able to manage all of this."
It's very easy to assume you've become disorganised.
Maybe you need a better planner.
A new app.
A more complicated colour-coded system.
Perhaps you just need to get up earlier.
Personally, I'm suspicious of any business solution that requires getting up at 5am.
Because sometimes the problem isn't you.
It's that you're trying to run a bigger business using systems that were created for a much smaller one.
The business changed. The way you run it hasn't yet.
And actually, that's OK.
Growth creates more than just more work
We tend to think about business growth as more clients, more sales and hopefully more money.
But it also creates more admin.
More communication.
More decisions.
More follow-ups.
More things to remember.
None of those things feels particularly enormous on its own, which is why they're so easy to ignore.
It's just one email.
One invoice.
One client to chase.
One thing to add to the diary.
But when you're carrying 50 of those little things around in your head, running the business starts to feel much heavier than it needs to.
Your Business Systems Should Grow with Your Business
You don't have to wait until you're completely overwhelmed before you're allowed to make things easier.
You can put a proper process in place.
You can automate something.
You can hand something over.
You can decide that something you've always done yourself doesn't actually need to be done by you anymore.
And you don't necessarily need a complicated new system either but your business systems should grow with your business.
Sometimes you just need to look at what's happening behind the scenes and ask:
What am I doing repeatedly?
What am I constantly forgetting?
What takes longer than it should?
What could be automated or handed over?
And what am I still doing simply because I've always done it?
Your business has grown.
The way you run it is allowed to grow with it.
Not sure where to start?
That's exactly why I created my Calm Business Audit.
It's a chance to look at what's happening behind the scenes and spot the areas that are taking more time, headspace or energy than they need to.
Because creating a calmer business isn't always about doing more.
Sometimes it's simply about finding a better way to manage what you've already built.
Start with the Calm Business Audit and see what your business needs now, rather than continuing to run it the way you always have.
Comments