Systemizing your business needs to be all about documenting the processes that make up your business. If your a business owner that has all her processes in her head, then you must make it a priority to get them out of your head an onto paper. Having the processes for running your business only in your head rally can't guarantee you that things get done the same time every time. But first, lets clarify what the difference between a system and a process. A system is a package of processes that all contribute to delivering the same result - for example your marketing system, or your product creation system. A process is a step by step sequence of tasks that must be performed in a certain order to reach a desired outcome.

Being clear on the difference between these two definitions will really help you to understand what it is you are trying to achieve with documenting your processes to systemize your business. Its also important to note that some systems will be bigger than others in terms of the number of processes needed to complete them depending on what your overall goal is with each system.

The only way to ensure true consistency and efficiency of your systems is to write them down into a template that you have specifically created to document your systems. So, to document your systems, the first thing you need is to create a systems template, and this will be the standard template that you use each time you need to document a system. The template is basically a document that contains the basic information that you need to capture about an activity or process.

Your template should include:

1. The System that it is part of

2. The name of the Process

3. The date that you created it

4. Who it is to be performed by

5. When it is to be done

6. Why it is to be done

7. The steps needed to complete the process

Its also a god idea to organise your systems and process documentation on your computer so that you can find what you need to each time you have to do that process. A good way to do this is to create a folder on your computer called "Business Operating Systems". Within this folder you should store your template and three other folders: Completed, In Progress, Pending.

The "Completed" folder should contain subfolders for each system you have created , and within each subfolder you should store the processes that relate to that system.

The "In Progress" folder should contain any processes that you are in the middle of documenting. This will be any processes that you have started to document using the template but are yet to finish. Once you have finished documenting the process, move it form the "In Progress" folder to the "Completed" folder under the corresponding system folder

The "Pending" folder contains process you know you need to develop to create a new system, or even processes you know you need to add to an existing system. This could be in the form of written notes saved as text files, or it could be that you have created folder structures or document names with the processes you would like to create for your business. In any case this is your holding file where you can store all your ideas for the processes you need to create to successfully run your business. When you have created a system for documenting your systems you will find that you can much more effectively and reliable capture the core operations of your business so that as your business grows you know that you have a tried and tested system with processes that work and because they are documented, you can then give them to someone else to do so you can free up your time.

One final note: Once you have documented your systems and processes, make sure you look at them at least once a week to ensure that you are following the steps as you have written down. This will ensure that you give yourself the opportunity to update the process document in the event you find a quicker, better, or easier way of performing the process.