You know you need them.

It pays to have them.

It costs you when you don’t maintain them.

What are they?

Business systems and processes.

Good systems eliminate inefficiencies from your business. They even provide solutions to inconsistent cash flow, employee turnover, and customer dissatisfaction.

A systems approach to building a company looks at how each system is interrelated. Most importantly, a systems approach replaces shoot-from-the-hip operations with performance standards, procedures and accountability.

Systems don’t have to be complicated to be effective. A business systems can be as simple as a checklist created to ensure customer satisfaction or more complex, like a CRM or accounting system. Like anything that is built, you’ll want to make sure that it is maintained.

We’ve all been there. You are caught by surprise because you didn’t have a system to monitor or to maintain a business process.

This point reminds me of the story of Tom, a CEO of a growing business. Tom was thrilled to have gotten out of the day-to-day accounting processing and into what he loved most, creating strategic relationships that scaled his business. He got focused on the sales that were generated, but didn’t have a process in place to keep an eye on the expenses.

At the end of the year, he was surprised at the additional overhead, labor and supply expenses. He learned a pricey lesson.

As you move out of the day-to-day activities, remember to develop processes to keep an eye on not only what’s coming into the business, but any waste or inefficiencies that eat away at your profits.

Better yet, create a regular process to ask your team what they could implement, improve, or eliminate. You might just be surprised at what you find.