Monday, January 31, 2005
System Steve’s IPSE System
Part One
We’ve talked about the critical role of systems in the odds of business success, and what hard and soft systems are. Now its time to look at where to begin to build a systems driven business.
It can be more than a little intimidating when deciding where to begin when just starting to systemize a business. Every thing needs a system. I first learned about the need to do it listening to Michael Gerber’s E Myth (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887307280/ ) book on audio.
Somebody must wear the hats of the CEO, CFO, Marketing Director, Operations manager, and Accounting Manager of your Business
One of the lessons I learned from Michael Gerber’s E Myth book was that Every business has to have an overall leadership for strategic vision and direction. Additionally every business must be engaged in the planning and execution of ongoing marketing, operations or production, and accounting tasks in order to continue to exist. Whether or not a business formally acknowledges this or it simply exists by default these duties are either being done or being neglected.
This hierarchy of leadership, organization and tasks should be envisioned as an organizational chart showing a CEO, department heads of marketing, operations and accounting, and employees in each area who actually do the work. To a lot of business builders, some who haven’t started yet, some whose business is already running, and some who’ve been in business for a long time, this is a dramatic revelation.
Mr. Gerber’s book is a masterpiece on the topic of the needs and roles of systems in business, but as a result of that listening I was in a deep depression. I’m not kidding. It is a sobering reality to fully understand the likelihood of failure if your business is not systems driven and the full magnitude of the task of creating them.
Knowing where to begin is daunting and intimidating. If you’ve never done it before, figuring out how to build a single system is a challenge let alone a whole series of interlocking systems that will run your entire business!
Introducing System Steve’s IPSE System:
Not long after the initial shock and dismay stemming from my now fully opened entrepreneurial eyes, I came up with an awesome system to figure out where to start, what systems to build and what the physical environment will need to be to support them.
In today’s post I am introducing the IPSE system and will explain the first step of the system and how you can do it in your business.
Step One: Ideal Customer Experience
The first step in my IPSE system is to ask a two basic questions that will drive the rest of the system.
Question One:
What is the ideal experience that I would want to have if I were this businesses ideal client or customer?
Question Two:
What do I (or business owners) want in the experience as owner of this business.
Start by trying to put yourself in the client’s shoes. Ask yourself (and your partners) to consider what the ideal experience would be if you were the client. Describe in detail how your first contact with the business would go. Who would you talk to? What would they say? Would I get a live person or an answering service? If we’re a web based business what would my starting page need to look like in order to provide that excellent experience?
How would I pay. What would my options be? If I had questions, what would my ideal customer service be like? How long would I have to wait for service or delivery? If this was repeat sales type of service or product how would my relationship with the business be managed? If it was retail store, how would the store look? What would the return policy be? How would the isles be laid out?
You get the idea. Be specific. Take notes and discuss the results with potential clients. Keep in mind that at this point you are only asking what the experience would be like from the customer’s perspective, not how you’ll do it or pay for it.
The other question for step one is to ask what you want your business to actually be. If you plan on being an internet business than you can’t exactly fulfill the ultimate customer experience if it includes hot coffee and a concierge in the lobby. The answer to this question should be brainstormed in detail like the first question.
Who is our ideal client? What do they want? Who is not our client? Who are we not set up to serve or sell to? Where will we do business, or ship? What is our ideal price range and market niche? How does that impact who our ideal client is and their ideal experience?
This exercise is powerful tool. Knowing the answers to theses questions causes you to become totally aware and driven by a matrix between the two most primary and essential desired outcomes of your business. Now, every resource of the business available can now be focused on the most important goals.
It defines in detail who the ideal clients are and aren’t, and what the business needs to be planning and preparing to do. It helps to illuminate wasted efforts and resources that may have gone toward trying to help customers that this business model does not service.
A great book that speaks about this subject is “Raving Fans” by Ken Blanchard. In the book Mr. Blanchard describes the process of creating “raving fans” out your customers by going through the process of asking these two questions. The process of adopting what is learned results in a business being able to say “That’s the way we do things here,” knowing that all efforts made by the business are targeted to the ideal experience for our clients and us.
In the next post I’ll discuss step 2 of the IPSE system.
We’ve talked about the critical role of systems in the odds of business success, and what hard and soft systems are. Now its time to look at where to begin to build a systems driven business.
It can be more than a little intimidating when deciding where to begin when just starting to systemize a business. Every thing needs a system. I first learned about the need to do it listening to Michael Gerber’s E Myth (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887307280/ ) book on audio.
Somebody must wear the hats of the CEO, CFO, Marketing Director, Operations manager, and Accounting Manager of your Business
One of the lessons I learned from Michael Gerber’s E Myth book was that Every business has to have an overall leadership for strategic vision and direction. Additionally every business must be engaged in the planning and execution of ongoing marketing, operations or production, and accounting tasks in order to continue to exist. Whether or not a business formally acknowledges this or it simply exists by default these duties are either being done or being neglected.
This hierarchy of leadership, organization and tasks should be envisioned as an organizational chart showing a CEO, department heads of marketing, operations and accounting, and employees in each area who actually do the work. To a lot of business builders, some who haven’t started yet, some whose business is already running, and some who’ve been in business for a long time, this is a dramatic revelation.
Mr. Gerber’s book is a masterpiece on the topic of the needs and roles of systems in business, but as a result of that listening I was in a deep depression. I’m not kidding. It is a sobering reality to fully understand the likelihood of failure if your business is not systems driven and the full magnitude of the task of creating them.
Whether or not a business formally acknowledges this or it simply exists by
default these duties are either being done or being neglected.
Knowing where to begin is daunting and intimidating. If you’ve never done it before, figuring out how to build a single system is a challenge let alone a whole series of interlocking systems that will run your entire business!
Introducing System Steve’s IPSE System:
Not long after the initial shock and dismay stemming from my now fully opened entrepreneurial eyes, I came up with an awesome system to figure out where to start, what systems to build and what the physical environment will need to be to support them.
In today’s post I am introducing the IPSE system and will explain the first step of the system and how you can do it in your business.
Step One: Ideal Customer Experience
The first step in my IPSE system is to ask a two basic questions that will drive the rest of the system.
Question One:
What is the ideal experience that I would want to have if I were this businesses ideal client or customer?
Question Two:
What do I (or business owners) want in the experience as owner of this business.
Start by trying to put yourself in the client’s shoes. Ask yourself (and your partners) to consider what the ideal experience would be if you were the client. Describe in detail how your first contact with the business would go. Who would you talk to? What would they say? Would I get a live person or an answering service? If we’re a web based business what would my starting page need to look like in order to provide that excellent experience?
How would I pay. What would my options be? If I had questions, what would my ideal customer service be like? How long would I have to wait for service or delivery? If this was repeat sales type of service or product how would my relationship with the business be managed? If it was retail store, how would the store look? What would the return policy be? How would the isles be laid out?
You get the idea. Be specific. Take notes and discuss the results with potential clients. Keep in mind that at this point you are only asking what the experience would be like from the customer’s perspective, not how you’ll do it or pay for it.
The other question for step one is to ask what you want your business to actually be. If you plan on being an internet business than you can’t exactly fulfill the ultimate customer experience if it includes hot coffee and a concierge in the lobby. The answer to this question should be brainstormed in detail like the first question.
Who is our ideal client? What do they want? Who is not our client? Who are we not set up to serve or sell to? Where will we do business, or ship? What is our ideal price range and market niche? How does that impact who our ideal client is and their ideal experience?
This exercise is powerful tool. Knowing the answers to theses questions causes you to become totally aware and driven by a matrix between the two most primary and essential desired outcomes of your business. Now, every resource of the business available can now be focused on the most important goals.
It defines in detail who the ideal clients are and aren’t, and what the business needs to be planning and preparing to do. It helps to illuminate wasted efforts and resources that may have gone toward trying to help customers that this business model does not service.
A great book that speaks about this subject is “Raving Fans” by Ken Blanchard. In the book Mr. Blanchard describes the process of creating “raving fans” out your customers by going through the process of asking these two questions. The process of adopting what is learned results in a business being able to say “That’s the way we do things here,” knowing that all efforts made by the business are targeted to the ideal experience for our clients and us.
In the next post I’ll discuss step 2 of the IPSE system.
