Systematize Your Business To Protect our Health

There are challenging times ahead for small business owners related to personal and organizational health.  With the current global health crisis, you are going to need to develop a few new systems to protect yourself, your family, your customers and your team.

Besides the recommendations by Health and Government officials, there may be some other measures a small business owner need to consider.

First, according to the Canadian Government on COVID 19 you have the best chance of staying healthy and preventing the spread of infections by:

• washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds;
• avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands;
• avoiding close contact with people who are sick;
• coughing or sneezing into your sleeve and not your hands; and
• staying home if you are sick to avoid spreading illness to others.

Second, consider now the impact of the both the spread and the fear of the COVID 19 on your business health. New systems can be developed now to reduce the negative impact. These might include:

• Staff working from home system. How will this work? What do you need to put in place to make this as successful as possible. How will you communicate and measure results. What supplies will you need for this system.
• Monitoring revenue system. If you do experience a decline in revenue, you will need a response plan. A 20% decline in revenue might mean everyone working only 4 days a week instead of 5. Are your books up to date? If you don’t have a financial monitoring systems in place now is the time to get one.
• Meetings system. If you currently meet your customers in person, consider meeting them virtually using a platform like Zoom.
• Customer Service systems. Costco has recently stopped giving out samples as a change to their customer service and marketing system. They have added open packages of disinfectant wipes to the ends of food isles and encourage their use.

If you are in one of the harder hit industries like travel, I feel for you. Having been a travel agency owner I know your pain. I also know that this will pass. Now might be a good time to work on your data base and marketing systems. Scoop up deals on products you can sell in the future. You will be glad you spent the time planning for healthier days ahead.

Big picture, the most important health systems you can put in place now are for YOU!

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.” -Herophilus (Greek physician)

Entrepreneurs tend to put their mental, physical and emotional health on the back burner to a long list of priorities.

The ironic thing is that without your health, all those other “priorities” are the least of your worries.

Business owners tend to spent the better part of their lives working to increase their financial wealth, at the expense of their health. In turn, they spend their accrued wealth, to heal their bodies from the damaging effects of stress and neglect of their fundamental needs.

The #1 thing business owners neglect is themselves.

There are real health problems related to not having systems, structures and schedules in place to protect your body and mind. These are;

You get the point.

What is it about the word health that is important to you? A deeper question, if you are open to considering this, might be “what is your life’s purpose,” and how does your health impact your ability to live this purpose?

And what does this have to do with systematizing my business??

Everything is a system. Small business owners may be working way too hard in their business to notice the very systems that are hurting them. An example would be not stopping for lunch. Taking a lunch break is a system! Or working through a cold, not taking time to wash your hands, or rest when your are tired. It all adds up.

Systems have feedback loops. If you smoke your lungs will be damaged and you will not live as long as you would if you stopped smoking. That is a feedback loop.

Like all actions that happen in an organization, when we are strategic and align our purpose with our priorities then design actions to achieve results we have the best chance of achieving success.

For a small business owner this can be as simple as scheduling to stop to eat something in the middle of the day.

A quick strategy to find space for your health:

Make a list of the specific things that stand in the way of your good health. As you do this, consider your mental, social, and spiritual health as well as your physical health.

What, in your current lifestyle works against a healthy you?

Now make another list of specific things that make you feel well and healthy in each of the same categories. What keeps you from these activities? What choices are you making?

Let’ say you add yourself back in as a priority, right up there with customers service, training your team, developing your product, or collecting receivables. What changes do you need to make?

Business owners have told me they feel guilty when they take time away from their companies to go to the gym or enjoy some downtime on the golf course with friends.

They don’t eat, they loose sleep due to worry and or feel like they have to keeping fighting to keep the business going. Even at the expense of the most important family relationships that they cherish.

What’s with that?

Working strategically on your business to organize it so that it runs more independent of you will give you the time and freedom needed to take better care of your health.

Without systems you are at risk of always having to jump in and be your hardest working, least cared for employee. Getting everything working on time, every time , exactly as promised feels great..

This is more than just a dream, it’s possible.

Hey, take care of yourself, you are worth it. We have created a confidential business assessment available for you to complete if you would like to see what still needs to be done in your company to get some of your freedom back so that you can take better care of your health.

Included is a free 90 minute confidential meeting with one of our Certified Systems Business Coaches to talk about what matters most to you.

This might be the best time to get help systematizing your business. What systems do you need to put in place today to protect you and your organization?

What new systems will you be putting in place to deal with today’s health crisis that you are open to sharing? We are in this together!