The rat race is something Americans struggle to escape every single day. They think that the harder they work and the more they add to their plate the better off they’ll be. The truth is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Taking on more than one should handle and trying to be a jack-of-all-trades is not only incredibly tasking, it is also extremely inefficient. The truth is, the better option is to work on your work rather than in it. This can be done through the organization of systems that work like well-oiled machines that take the guesswork and head scratching out of the daily grind and replace it with consistency and predictability. A good system can make or break your attempt to escape the rat race. So how does a system create streamlined productivity anyway and how can you implement it into your life?
Setting up systems that work
In the book The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, he talks a lot about the franchise model. He uses the example of McDonald’s to illustrate his main points and shows how McDonald’s is the franchise prototype for the world to model itself after. McDonald’s may not have the best hamburger in the world, however it delivers predictable, uniform results to their customers every single time. The end result produced by each McDonald’s is identical and that end result is a success when it comes to growth and scalability. The processes in McDonald’s are written and organized in such a way that anyone can learn and perfect them in a short amount of time. Delivering predictable results is the goal of any good system. Whether it be in business, entrepreneurship, fast food, or anything that you so choose to pursue, predictable results induce overall success. To begin, start to develop uniform processes for anything you want to add more predictability to. Then, measure processes and quantify results based on the degree of success your new processes achieve. Do this over and over again to fine tune your system as it should be a continuous work in progress to tweak and improve when needed. This is applicable to pretty much anything you can think of that directly relates to creating more wealth and freedom for yourself. Let me give you an example from my own life of how systems have changed my business and how they continue to do so.
A system from the bottom up
When I first started real estate investing, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew one thing, I had to get leads. I tried all sorts of different methods. I looked on the MLS, I drove around and knocked on doors, I cold called, I posted on social media, and I saw results that were few and far between. From this process I was able to generate a few leads, but nothing significant enough for me to actually do something with. I knew that in order to become successful at this I needed some consistency, predictability, and uniformity on how I did things. Along with two partners, we decided to hire a virtual assistant to cold call lists of potential sellers for us throughout the day. From those lists, she would send leads directly to our calendar for us to follow up with, underwrite, and try to put under contract. This has produced better results than the previous approach because of the consistency we now have in doing one thing, and from that we’ve been able to close a few deals. However, the system has shown more flaws after a few months of this process. In order to build even more predictability and consistency to our system and to ensure we scale, each of us have settled into roles in which we can make sure deals close in a timely fashion. One of us negotiates with sellers, then a partner underwrites the deal to make sure the numbers work, next we raise capital to close, after we find a property manager in the area to run the show, and finally we close. These processes have allowed us to be super efficient and predictable. We’ve put more deals under contract last week alone than ever before because of this system! We intend on adding even more predictability and consistency to it in the near future with PPC ads for more lead generation that will be able to fill our pipeline and keep fueling our system with quality leads.
A replicable process
A good system needs to be able to be repeated over and over again with reliable results. In my real estate business, my goal is to keep getting leads to the closing table and I will continue to fine tune the process until it becomes almost second nature for everyone involved. Systems make things scalable, and scalability creates massive amounts of success. If you have effective systems in place, getting overwhelmed should not be a concern. If it becomes one, you know you’ll need to either bring more people on to work your system or tweak the system to fix whatever isn’t working. Systems work because they allow your business to work harder without you working harder. They are the sole reason a business will be able to scale or not. They are the separator between freedom and creating another job for yourself. A good system can and will bridge the gap from where you are now to where you want to and need to be.