In this article, I am going to share with you some of the key things you should strongly consider including when you are documenting your routine tasks and activities, and I’ll explain how using these key structures as I like to call them, will greatly affect your ability to systemise your business quicker, easier, and more successfully.

1. Entrepreneur Systems Tips, Strategies and Advice by Kim Morris, Systems
Expert and Chief Efficiency Optimiser
Documenting routine tasks and activities to systemise
your business
Documenting routine tasks and activities to systemise your business can be a
complete nightmare if you don’t know where to start, what to do first, how to write a
procedure, what to put into a procedure so others will be able to follow it – how much
is to little, how much is to much.
In this article, I am going to share with you some of the key things you should
strongly consider including when you are documenting your routine tasks and
activities, and I’ll explain how using these key structures as I like to call them, will
greatly affect your ability to systemise your business quicker, easier, and more
successfully.
The first “key structure” for your procedure is to name your procedure
correctly. Since the nature of a procedure is a step by step sequence of events that
will lead you from point A to point B, and describes “how to do something”, you
absolutely must name it correctly. Therefore your procedure should be titled “How
To …………” For example “How To Prepare A Quote”, “How To Follow Up On An
Initial Customer Enquiry”, “How To Sign Up A New Client”, etc. A name that doesn’t
reflect what the procedure is about, is not helpful to you or the person performing it
and will only cause confusion.
The second “key structure” is to include in the top of the procedure a
description of what the procedure is. This just needs to be brief. One sentence
would do so the person performing it can read the description immediately
understand what it is they are doing. Without a clear description, the person may not
fully grasp the overall context of the procedure.
Closely related to the description, is the third key structure, the “expected
outcome”. This is something that is like leading the person performing the
procedure to the treasure at the end of it, because you are telling them what the end
result should be after they have completed all steps in the sequence outlined.
Including the expected outcome is telling them if they didn’t get that expected result,
then something is not right, either the procedure is not right, or they have not done it
right.
Either way, the expected outcome is your standard for what you expect at the end of
the procedure, but on the flipside, you also need to include enough detail in your
procedure to be able to lead the person performing the procedure to the pot of gold
at the end.
The fourth “key structure” is a procedure template. Whether it’s just you, or if
you have other people in your business that can help you write procedures, start out
with the same consistent template and you will be well on your way to building your
company’s Operations Manual.
1 An Entrepreneur Systems Resource | 2012 | www.entrepreneursystems.com

2. Entrepreneur Systems Tips, Strategies and Advice by Kim Morris, Systems
Expert and Chief Efficiency Optimiser
Ensuring that you write down procedures consistently from the outset will ensure that
you are building up the intellectual property of your business and increasing the
value of it, not to mention the amount of time you will save because you now have a
business that is being run by systems and procedures.
If you have people working for you, they will not only be doing the right things
(because you are now clear on what the right things are) they will be doing them
right (because they are written down) each time, every time.
Kim Morris is a Systems Expert and Business Efficiency Optimiser. Kim provides simple
systems and solutions for service based business owners to help them systemise and
streamline so they have more time and more fun in their business. For you FREE
Systems Development Blueprint with bonus templates and action plan visit
http://entrepreneursystems.com
2 An Entrepreneur Systems Resource | 2012 | www.entrepreneursystems.com