It was 2017.
I was a hard-working virtual assistant with a dream client. Said dream client was a high-ticket business coach (think $40,000 programs) pulling in somewhere north of $400k per month.
Her coaching programs included luxury retreats to places like Costa Rica, Italy, Hawaii, and Portugal. As a team member, I was invited along. Like I said, dream client.
Here’s the bit that changed my business, though.
This client did all her lead gen through Facebook ads. The ads promoted webinars which led to discovery (read: sales) calls. Part of my job was tracking the effectiveness of the ads.
Enter, the spreadsheet. ❤️
Each day I’d record the previous day’s ad spend along with the number of clicks, webinar attendees, calls booked, and sales made.
With those numbers, she could track the exact cost of customer acquisition, in other words, how much she spent to sell a single coaching program. As long as that number was lower than the cost of the program, scaling up was just a matter of adding more money at one end of the spreadsheet. The bigger the ad spend, the more revenue she earned.
Let me tell you. The Amalfi Coast was breathtaking, but that spreadsheet blew my mind wide open. It was my first glimpse at the power of a system, and how it can impact my business.
That spreadsheet was so much more than just columns of numbers. It represented a series of levers, and each lever controlled a part of the system. Move a lever, and see the results in the related data.
The audience lever determined the click-through rate. Show the ad to fans of Marie Forleo or Tony Robbins, get a better click through. Show it to a more general “online business” or “entrepreneurial” audience, and the click rate would drop.
The conversion lever controlled how many of those who clicked the ad would go on to sign up for the webinar. It was impacted by the copy on the landing page. A tweak here, a word change there, and you could watch the conversion rate climb or fall.
The sales lever was impacted most by the team member who took the call. If it was Jenny or Diane, the close rate increased. If it was Don or Sarah, not so much. Funneling more calls to Jenny and Diane improved the bottom line.
What that spreadsheet meant for my business
I’m not selling $40,000 coaching programs or running Facebook ads to evergreen webinars, but I learned a lot about my business from that spreadsheet.
I learned that a smoothly running, profitable business is made up of a collection of systems that all work together. The outputs from one system—a website visitor, an ad click, a call booked—create the input for the next system.
I learned that each system can (and should) be separately optimized for peak performance, and that when you look at a business as a collection of smaller systems, that becomes much easier to manage.
I learned that successful businesses identify and track their KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. This data is the health meter for each system in my business. I use it to course correct and improve. In Six-Figure Systems, I teach you how to do this in A License to Print Money.
Maybe most importantly, I learned that better systems management means I get to design the business and the life I want, instead of doing what someone else (read: a boss) has dictated.
The better and more efficient my systems are, the more free time I have, and the more income I generate. It really is that simple.
The BIG systems misconception
My friend Jonathon says, “I just want to be a better coach. I don’t want to learn to be a better business owner.”
I get where he’s coming from, but I think he’s missing the bigger picture: Creating good systems means he has the time and energy for being the best coach he is capable of becoming.
Another friend feels like systems stifle her creativity. They keep her boxed in, unable to follow the fun side-quests she enjoys so much.
I understand her concerns, too. My counter-argument is this: No system (well, unless we’re taking about physics, maybe) is written in stone. You get to change them up if they don’t work for you, but the only way you can know if they’re working is to create and track them.
The “fly by the seat of your pants” approach to business won’t give you the data you need to make better decisions. You’ll be too busy re-inventing the wheel every time you create a course or edit a YouTube video to plan for and implement new ideas. You definitely won’t maximize your earning potential, because you won’t have a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not.
The map is not the territory
To openly steal an idea from Alfred Korzybski, systems are not checklists and templates. Those documents are the instructions for how a system works, not the system itself.
Here’s why that matters: Thinking that a system is just a checklist might make you believe you have to create them, and that’s pretty overwhelming. The truth is, you don’t have to create systems in your business. They’re already there. You’re already using them every single day.
What you have to do instead is learn to recognize them and make them better.
Putting this to work in your business
Now that you know what a system is (and is not) and you (hopefully) have a good reason to clarify and optimize your systems, where do you even begin?
Right here. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
Consider your most recent business screw up. That thing that broke yesterday, or last week. I know you’ve got one, and I’ll share mine in a minute so you don’t feel bad (because we all screw up sometimes).
Now, with that mistake in mind, ask yourself, what is the system that resulted in that mistake happening?
- A broken affiliate link is a part of your larger email writing system.
- Poor audio quality is a part of your podcast recording system.
- A missed appointment is part of your scheduling system.
For me, it was a Zoom call reminder that didn’t go out on time, which meant that those who signed up for a training call didn’t receive the access details. That’s a part of my reminder scheduling system.
Once you know which system is involved, ask yourself, what can I do to prevent this failure from happening again in the future?
Will you test all the links in your email before you hit send?
Will you adjust your microphone settings?
Will you create reminders for important appointments?
Personally, I created a recurring project in my task manager to set up call reminders on the last Friday of each month.
That step of identifying and solving a problem is systems optimization. The more you optimize, the more efficient and profitable you will be.
One more thought
Don’t let the size of the screw up fool you. It’s easy to think that a broken link in an email isn’t going to make a huge difference in your bottom line. It’s a tiny little leak. No big deal, right?
Except it’s not just one tiny little leak. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of places where you can tighten up your systems, make them more profitable and more efficient.
Identify them. Fix them. Move on to the next one. That’s how you improve and grow.
P.S. If you could use some support, here are a few ways I can help:
- Join my Six-Figure Systems community and get instant access to an entire library of system-focused resources to help build, grow, and scale your business. You’ll also get live Q & A calls, mindset coaching calls, and monthly Action Labs to build momentum.
- Work with me 1:1. If you’re ready to nail down the systems that support your business growth, let’s talk about how I can help you avoid the overwhelm and frustration so you can spend more time doing what matters: teaching and coaching.
- Schedule a one-time, “Get Unstuck” call. Bring me your biggest frustration about your existing business systems, and we’ll solve it together. You’ll walk away with an action plan to get you to the next step.
- Need something else? Hit reply or email me directly at cindy@cindybidar.com. I read and respond to every one of your emails, and I genuinely would love to hear from you.
