Page 42 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

Systems
2.1 Systemise (the hell out of ) everything
This will be one of the longest chapters in the book, as great systems are one of the main ingredients to a successful business. People who have worked for me during my career know I am very pedantic about systems.
When we bought the Solatube licence and set up Solatube in New Zealand, there were few systems in place. The model was also flawed. Although the opportunity was sold as a franchise, we had really bought a product, not a franchise system. We were basically on our own to sort it out. The limited model that we did get was not tried and tested, but luckily I had had the experience with in-home sales and installation to change the way of operating shortly after commencing. The original model was one of stock on consignment to installers and commission selling, with us being the invoicing entity. This was very messy and administration intensive. I changed the model to selling to licensees, who sold and installed direct to the end user.
Around that time, I went to a local seminar where Winston Marsh, a marketing guru, was speaking, and he was waving around a book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. It was about systemising things and basic franchising. Put a system in place and get a dummy to follow it. The seminar was so timely.
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