house property used for business

hey there, i'm mel abraham, the author ofthe #1 best-selling book, the entrepreneur's solution and the founder of business breakthroughacademy, where we teach you how to design a business and create a life: a life of financialfreedom and peace of mind. and welcome back to this episode of the entrepreneur'ssolution show and in this episode, we're going to talk a bit about business systems. i knowyou say bingo, "oh business systems" but they're the key to leveraging your time. they're thekey to allowing you to remove yourself from your business for times so you can have timeto yourself and in fact i took 92 days off last year and allowed my business to operate.so, when we come back after this brief introduction we're going to talk a bit about,what's the keys to a good system?

what are the characteristics?and what types of systems you need to think about for your business to make sure thatyou get them in place over time. so, when we come back we'll do that. but beforewe leave, just want to let you know that every episode, as you know, if you've been withme for a while, you know that every episode comes with a tool, a template, some sort ofguide, something that is a tool that you can download and go use to accelerate your success.and for this one you just simply go to, melabraham.com/session035 to get it.and if you're not at your computer, you're out running around or doing something, justtext. text mylegacy one-word with no-spaces mylegacy to 38470. we'll get you the downloadlink, so you get all the benefits that you

can and we get a chance to support you inyour journey. so, i'll see you right back after this briefintroduction and we'll get into business systems. see you soon. bye.welcome to the entrepreneur's solution where highly successful entrepreneur mel abrahambecomes your entrepreneurial mentor. here mel reveals his business building strategiesand even gets a chance to answer your questions. mel abraham. a cpa by education, but an entrepreneurby exhilaration and a true believer in the entrepreneurial way of life. it's throughentrepreneurship that we create community, support society and live our dreams. it'swhere possibility meets reality again and you can have the life and lifestyle you want.one of freedom, and peace of mind. welcome

to this episode of the entrepreneur's solutionwhere it's time for you to be bold, dream big and live life your way.hey there, mel abraham here, the author of the #1 best-selling book, the entrepreneur'ssolution and the founder business breakthrough academy. and welcome back to this episodeof the entrepreneur's solution show. and in this episode, we take a little time to startto look at business systems. what are the kinds of systems you need?what are the characteristics that should be existing to have a really good system?and in a lot of times, you sit back and go, "systems? this is really boring". and i getit. i get it. when you start talking about some of those things but that's the infrastructureand the structure that's going to allow you

to get your time back. it's the way that weget a chance to leverage the things that we do.so for instance, in my world, in some of my businesses, i have people that are team membersthat support me and do some of the things that i'm not doing. so, there's aspects ofmy business that i used to do that are very detailed and they were time consuming butthey weren't where my value was. they weren't where i should be placing my time becauseit wasn't the highest use of my time. my best use of my time is working with you.it's creating content. it's about doing the training.it's about interacting with my customers, my clients, the community and building entrepreneurs.

it's not about the admin.it's not about the billing. it's not necessarily about the customer service.now, i do take on the role for customer experience but from a customer service standpoint, i'vegot some of the best people out there. i know that if you've ever dealt with my team, yousit back and go, that we've got a world class team and i thank my team if they're watchingor listening for what they've done. and so, the key is then really understandingwhat goes into an effective business system? what's the anatomy of a good system?and then, what systems might you need to look at putting into place; now i'm not sayingthat you need to go run out and put all kinds of systems in place right away. that wouldbe overkill in many cases if some of you might

be solopreneurs, some of you may just be simplystarting out and so when you look at your systems, you're the one doing all of it. andthat's the way all of us typically will start out.but over time, we start to look at things and say,what's the core elements that you need to do?what's the core elements that i need to do? what's the core elements that really createvalue? that transmit value. that allow you to interactand work with your clients and your customers at the highest level where you can give thevalue. and that stuff you want to keep control of.then the other things that are support elements

that allow you to deliver at the highest level,that stuff what you'll do is typically create systems in place and allow someone else tomay be manage it while you oversee it. i don't ever want you to take your fingerscompletely off the pulse of things because that's when things go awry. that's when potentialembezzlements happen or big mistakes happen or really kind of bad stuff really start tohappen when you're not checking the pulse on the patient on a regular basis. we wantto do that. the key though is to understand what goesinto a system. then we're going to look at what systems that are typical in a businessthat you might to look at? and then asking yourself the question of,where your highest value is?

and how you can create value for your customer?and how putting people in place at the right place, at the right time will allow you tothen give more to your clients? so, let's just look at some of the characteristics,the anatomy of a good system. and the first is that, it's customer focused.everything we do needs to be customer experience focused. what we want to look at is, if we'reputting a system in place that creates barriers,obstacles, frustrations,friction, resistancein our customers having a relationship with us�the system's no good.it's a problem that's going to get in the

way of commerce.it's going to get in the way of them becoming clients.it's going to get in the way of the relationship. if i'm in a relationship with someone andi'm constantly putting obstacles in place and i'm making it difficult for them to bearound me, at some point they're going to turn around and say, "i don't want to be aroundyou anymore". and so, what we want to do is look at a systemand say, is this customer focused?does it improve the customer experience? does it change and shift and transcend thecustomer's experience? does it affect their lives in positive way?and we want to create the system with that

in mind.the second piece is that your system ought to be based on best practices.and there's no reason that we should be creating systems that are second rate. if we're goingto create a system, it should be world class. and that doesn't mean that, what concernsme when i say this is that sometimes we get into this perfectionist syndrome. the perfectionistsyndrome, it's a paradox because we say, "well i'm trying to do the best. i'm trying to createthe best thing for my customers, for my clients, for my team and for my business".and in the process what happens is that we don't create anything. we simply don't move.we don't act. we don't put anything out there because it's not perfect. guess what? it'snever going to be perfect.

so, the key is that let's get the best practicesthat exists now and be flexible and be willing to do a version 2.0, a version 3.0; becausetrust me, i mess it up repeatedly and i then i go, "ah! should have thought about it. ilearned something. " let's shift it,let's tweak it, and let's adjust it, andlet's make it better. that's the key.but we always want to look at it and say, "what are the best practices in this arearight now?" what are the best tools and the things thati can do to create a world class system so i can have a world class organization, soi can have a world class relationship with

my team, my vendors and my customers.and the other thing to think about is to build your systems for where you're going. in otherwords, i want systems that can go grow with me. now what i'm not saying is to go and buyall kinds of stuff that you don't need. but within a range. if you're going to get a systemand put a system in place that you're likely going to outgrow in six months, you probablywant to do something different. but then again, i don't need you to go outand create some system that's going to last for 10 years because the business and theindustry and everything's going to change too quickly. but can i put a system in placethat's going to grow with me for the next say, 2 to 3 years, and then we look at itto allow for that growth. so, i do want something

built for where i'm going.the second is that, the system needs to have a single outcome.and if we, when we look at this and some of you have been in my trainings where i talkabout prime indicators and what i want it to be is singularly focused. when i createa marketing system, that marketing system is to attract a specific customer; for a specificreason; for a specific product; for a specific unit.it's singularly focused because then we can measure it and do some things with it. so,your system is typically going to have a specific outcome focused on it.it's also going to have singular ownership. again, this is something that i talk aboutwith the prime indicators is that: someone,

1 person is absolutely responsible for thesystem. for making sure that the system is being respected.for making sure that the system is working as it should.for reporting the results of that system. now, at the beginning it's probably goingto be you. but as you grow it's likely not going to be you on a regular basis. you'renot going to own the system in the sense of doing it all the time.you're going to monitor it. you're going to keep tabs on it.you're going to get reports from it. but you're not the one that is specificallyresponsible over time. but at the beginning, in all likelihood, you'regoing to be running everything and that's

just the way it is. until, you start to getthe cash flow and give you the latitude and the ability to put some systems in and whatthose systems are and we're going to get�and when you put your systems in, i'm probablygoing to put systems in one of two places. is what's going to relieve the majority ofyour time while not giving up the core elements of value creation for your business. so, it'sthat where i'll start putting systems in first. and the other place i'll probably put systemsin is in the support functions. those that will relieve me from the detailsthat probably aren't value creation things like some of the record keeping, and someof the processing. if you've got physical products that you shipping out. i'm not inthere doing shipping and receiving. i'm going

to have someone else do that and i'm worriedabout something else or doing something else that is a higher value element.then the other thing is that, your systems need to be simple. if they're not simple,they're not going to be followed. if they're complex, convoluted, cumbersome; then they'renot going to be respected, they're not going to be followed and so what's the use in havinga system that isn't going to work? the other thing is that you want it to bedocumented. i want it to be documented because 1) if someone gets sick and they're runningthat system, and i need someone to step in, i've got the documentation in place in a waythat someone can follow it. so, yeah it takes time to get things documentedbut it saves you just a boatload, a boatload

of aggravation, frustration and expense onthe backend if someone gets sick or decides to quit or something happens then you havea system in place that someone can pick up and run with or you can pick up and run withit. so, we want it to be simple so they use itand they use it regularly and we want it to be documented so anyone can pick it up andstart to run with it. and the last piece is that it needs to bemeasured & rewarded. in other words, the system has to be measurablebecause if it's measurable then we can manage the inputs.we can manage the outputs. we can manage the process.so there needs to be something that is measurable.

for instance: if we're talking about productivityand we're doing an assembly line, if we turn around and we are measuring the output ofthat assembly line, they got a 100 units in this one shift out. well we now manage it.we can adjust the system. now all of a sudden they got a 110 units. that 10% increase makesa huge hit to the bottom line. so, i need to be managing it. but i also wantto reward for it. so, if they went from a 100 units to 110 units, their productivitywent up. the system is working and the system is growing and it's allowing us to be moreprofitable. i want to reward for it.i want to acknowledge them for it. i want to incentivize them for running thesystem and doing it correctly and doing it

better and better and better.remember, it's about value creation so the team that's working for me is creating moreand more value then i want to give them more and more value in return. i want to take careof them. and i'm not talking about just monetary rewards. there's a whole host of ways to makesure that your team is taken care of and that they feel rewarded in that context.so, when you're looking at a good system, i want to make sure it's customer focused,that we're focused on best practices. that it is focused on a single outcome and oneperson is responsible for running that system or responsible for making sure the systemis running correctly and being respected. that it's simple and documented and that ismeasured and rewarded.

when you bring those characteristics intoa system, now you've got a system that's usable,that's feasible, that's valuable, andthat is going to shift and change your business. which ultimately shifts and changes your life.because think about it. just imagine for a moment that you have some systems in placethat give you freedom back. that give you time back.that allow you to go and say, you know what, i got these systems in placeand they're working. they're bringing in sales, they're converting. the deliveries are goingout; the products are going out. customer service is being taken care of. the recordkeepingis taken care of.

and you look at your wife or your husbandand you say, "honey we're taking 10 days off and we're going on a cruise and we're justgoing to disconnect." and it's the systems that are going to allowyou to do that. so, if we look at systems, what are the key systems?now you may have others but these are the key systems that i think we need to thinkabout as we're growing our business. as i said, you don't need all of these at one timeto systematize them. you're going to be doing all of these functions from day 1 but thenwe can build systems around them as we go. so, if i have my business, the first systemthat i need to think about is my attraction system.this is a marketing system and when we say

marketing, it's not about business cards,it's not about ads, it's about a system to attract:the right customers, the right clients,the right people. into our sphere.so, do you have, ask yourself: do you have a client attraction system? a marketing system?that's really a system, a process that's being done day-in, day-out on a regular basis. ifit is sporadic then it's not a system. if it's sporadic then it's a promotion at best.but what we need is a constant flow of people, of customers. we need to be constantly connected.what's your system and your process for doing that?the second system that i think we need to

think about is this conversion system. whenwe attract them and we get their attention, how do we convert them?how do we shift them from interested to buyer? how do we shift them from, "hmm! got theirattention" to a client, to a customer, to a buyer.so, do you have a conversion system in place? a way to convert them. now, you may have salesreps; it may be you doing one-on-one types of calls, evaluation calls, consultative calls;those types of things. it may be meetings.it may simply be a series of emails. it may be a series of videos.it could be a lot of different things. but do you have that conversion process inplace? a sales process in place?

the next i would say is your delivery.so, now i've got their attention. they've bought from me. but now i got to get it tothem. these are your operating systems. is it shipping and receiving?is it done by a fulfillment house? do you got a, do you have to take a physicalbook like this and package it up and address it and take it to the post office. i havea system for this. i have a fulfilment house that when you place the order, the systemkicks out the order to the fulfillment house and they take care of it for me. so, i don'teven see the orders coming in right away. i see the monthly reports and i keep tabson it but as long as the system is delivering it properly and taking care of it properly,we're okay.

so, attraction conversion delivery and thenconnecting. now connecting, it's really about a peoplesystem. now, we have the marketing system which is really with the customers. this connectingi'm talking about with my vendors and my team and as well as the customers but most of myvendors and my team. because i need team members. my success isnot going to be a solo pursuit. it's going to be a team pursuit.there's a lot of people. the launch of this book; to be able to get this book to becomea national #1 best-selling book, it took a group of people. it wasn't me; i may havewritten it and even the writing of it was a team effort.the marketing of it.

the delivery of it.the customer service of it. all of that, it was a team. i, probably, adozen or more people have been involved in that process since we launched the book andi think that we need to realize that that's important. that our, they call it in businessspeak, human resources but i think the human element of business is alive, it is well andit is probably the largest thing that we can nurture and cultivate in business is our peoplesystem, is our connection system in that process. so,do you have one? do you have a way to evaluate people?do you have a way to support people? do you have a way to nurture people?do you have a way to coach people?

do you have a way to bring people in?so, once i have that then the last is the tracking system. and i don't mean last inthe sense that it's least important. i'm an accountant so i'm going to say, "you got totrack it right from the get go". but if i'm not tracking it that means thati'm not measuring it. if i'm not measuring it, i can't manage it.if i'm not managing it, i can't improve it, i can't monetize it.so, this is your tracking: of your productivity.of your profits. of your cash flow.of all of the elements of your business it's accounting.it's data.

and it's a necessary evil in business.and i know many of the people that are probably watching this are creative types and theygo, "oh my god. data and accounting, and columns and rows and numbers. i'm not a math person."i get it but this is the life's blood of your business. this is what's going to tell youwhether you're healthy and, we got to get a check up on a regular basis.we got to check the pulse on the patient on a regular basis.we need to know what we're doing, how we're doing and why we're doing it.we need to track the numbers because the numbers don't lie.so, these are the five systems that i think at a minimum you're going to need as you startto grow your business:

an attraction system.a conversion system. a delivery system.a connection system. and a tracking system.and when you build those systems with the six characteristics that we talked about earlier,now you've got some beautiful systems in place. you've got some great systems in place thatwill serve you, support you and allow you to start to give yourself more freedom todo the high value things that are meaningful in your business.to grow that business. to have a larger impact on:your customers, your clients, andyour team as you move forward.

and it's going to shift the things in yourlife over time. because this is going to allow you to remove yourself from some of the functionsand the details. so, you can have the freedom and the peace of mind to do the things thatyou really want to do with sharing life with those that are important to you; which isi think is really the ultimate is that through business. remember, it's about creating communityserving society and living your dreams. so let's create system that allow you to createcommunity, serve society, and live your dreams. so, i hope you found this of value and i hopethat you'll go out and examine some of the things that you're doing, and look at thingsand say, "are there systems that i could put in place that will leverage my time and giveme some more time back to do the things that

are more valuable either emotionally, financiallyor otherwise?" and do that. and really take a hard look at it becauseyou'll be surprised when you start to build those systems how cost-effective it may beto put some systems in place for you to alleviate that process.so, i hope you found this of value and if you did, do me a favor? share it with a friend.i'd love to get some of this information out there and expand the reach and help peoplecreate what i call these micro economies, these micro entrepreneurs that are out there,making a difference, living a life that they design for themselves and they're doing thingstheir way. and if you haven't done so already, subscribeso you make sure that you get all the tools,

all the tactics, all the strategies that ihave as i'm giving these things to you on a regular basis. every week i'm releasingnew episodes, new information and i want to be your entrepreneurial mentor through theentrepreneur solution show and this is one of the ways.and if you want to get the downloadable tool, template or guidebook from any episodes; forthis episode for instance, go to melabraham.com/session035. you can download it. if you're not at thecomputer and you can't download it immediately, go ahead and text mylegacy one-word no-spacesmylegacy to 38470. and if you have some questions about success,about wealth, about business, entrepreneurship, any of that, go to askmelnow.com. leave meyour question. we'll make sure we get it answered

on one of the upcoming episodes.so, i hope this serves you. i hope you go out and make a difference. i hope you go outand build it. i hope you go out and turn around and say, "how do i put systems in place andwhat systems should i put in place to allow me to live in a bigger way, to serve in abigger way, and to have that bigger life that i deserve."and until we get a chance to see each other in the next episode,may your vision be grand, may your journey be epic and your legacy significant!see you soon. cheers. bye!! we hope you enjoyed this episode. make sureyou subscribe so you get access to all of mel's business and success tips. if you likedthis episode share it with a friend. if you

have a specific business or success questionyou can ask it at www.askmelnow.com. remember it's all about being bold, dreaming big andliving life your way because the world needs you. until the next episode, may your visionbe grand, your journey epic and your legacy significant.