This week shows how to turn choices into plans and then into systems.

Systems For Everything

I’m bullish on systems.

Breaking down your firm into identifiable systems makes growth faster.

It makes troubleshooting what’s not working easier.

I use a 9 system framework.

The top 5 systems are client-facing.

This is where most firms focus all of their attention.

The bottom three seem like ambiguous pillars.

But this is where people build sustainable firms that scale.

But Mark, why make these three functions into systems?

Are they even systems? There are no ‘tools’ or apps to plug them into

They’re just decisions, right?

Yeah, they’re decisions, but they determine your firm’s velocity and scalability more than anything else.

They’re guidelines that keep you and your team focused.

Treating them like systems gives structure to the unstructured.

It stops you from ‘flying by the seat of your pants.’

It gives form to disorganized ideas and mental plans that cause us to grind, unsure of what we’re building.

Many get caught just thinking about what they want from their firm. Even hoping.

The system approach gets you to write that stuff down. Formalize it.

It gets you to elect and follow a direction.

Where To Start

Here’s what to formalize:

Strategic direction

• Who is in charge or revisiting this system quarterly?
• What are your goals?
  • Revenue, time and flexibility (seasonality)
• What is the unit price and type required to reach those goals?
• What is the work we’re going to do?
• What is the niche/ problems we’re going to solve?

Process and Workflow

• Who is in charge of monitoring this system?
• What accounting tools are we using to solve that problem?
• What operating tools will our clients use?
• What AI and automation can we use/leverage?
• What’s our plan to continue to evolve our workflows?

Talent Hiring and Development

• Who is in charge of hiring + development?
• What roles do we need now, in 3, 6, 12, and 24 months from now?
• How are we cultivating a talent pipeline?
• How do we hire?

Let’s talk about how this impacts fulfilment for a sec:

Many pound the desk on efficiency.

But the war for efficiency isn’t won or last in the fulfilment system.

It’s not won based on how fast your team matches all the transactions or closes the month. Those are just battles.

Winning the efficiency war starts way before.

Let’s say you want to offer bookkeeping.

That should be a strategic direction decision, first of all.

You’ve decided that bookkeeping is or is part of your offering.

Next, you decide that you’ll only do bookkeeping for remodelers.

Again, that’s a strategic decision.

To make the economics of the engagements work for your goals, you’ll only work with remodelers who make $2M+ annually and want project and back costing.

Revenue recognition is a big deal for these clients.

You’ll charge at least $1,500 for bookkeeping and month-end close.

You’ll work with businesses that use BuilderTrend and do 5 -7 projects per year with a head count of at least 5, with the business owner on site about 50% of the time.

Given the size of the ideal client, offering back office support makes sense.

You provide vendor payments, payroll and workers comp monitoring for another $1,000/month —

–Still cheaper and more thorough than the owner’s friend’s girlfriend as their office admin being paid double that.

If you plan and intend for this type of client, a team that removes you from fulfilment is 5x easier.

They can repeat and troubleshoot the system setup, client system integration, chart of accounts, month-end AJEs, management reports, vendor pay process, and payroll because they’ve done it before and ALL the documentation and systems are built for it.

Who and when your next hire will be is abundantly clear.

 

If you don’t remember anything else from this newsletter, remember this:

 

The greatest factor in scaling your firm is not getting the fastest proposal tool or maximizing average revenue per client. It’s client uniformity.

 

Client uniformity is the cheat code for efficiency and scale.

And it is only achieved through the strategic direction system.

It’s the way to charge $2,500/month and not be involved in delivery.

This is the last weekend to get the Firm Systems Audit.

Candidly, most firms that purchase the Firm Systems Audit have all the right tech.

But all of them are missing structure around their foundational pillars.

Their efficient tools lack an overall system effectiveness.

This is the last weekend to get a deep second opinion on how your firm is built.

Reply ‘Systems Audit’, and I will send you the details.

Mark