Dave:
What do you do? What kind of things do you think you'd like to systemetize? What stage is your business at right now?
As you'll understand as you read through E-myth, when I think systems, I think McDonald's. I worked there a few years ago, much to my shame at the time, but it's proved an incredibly valuable resource as I develop businesses. Those people systematize EVERYTHING. I can't tell you how many times I got in trouble for assembling a hamburger incorrectly -- I let the pickles touch. You know you've got yourself a franchise when you could train a monkey to do the job.
As for developing them, I find that training is the easiest way to do that. If you have a partner, ask them to show you what they do. They'll whip through it and it will all make sense at the time .... but the next day, you'll find that you have no idea what they said. So have them go through it again, and write it down this time. That's your system.
To systematize the stuff you do, find someone to train. This can be your partner, your wife, or some random kid off the street (the younger the better. If your 5-year-old son can do it, you've got yourself a franchise.)
Walk them through the process, and then write down what you want them to remember. They'll smile and nod, and think they understand... and the next day, you'll find that they have no idea what to do, because your lovely, neat, carefully written checklist means nothing to them. Rewrite it. They'll learn. That's how you get systems.
I'm currently VP of Operations (an impressive title that means I answer phones and try to keep our finances together) of a small computer-repair company. We hope to roll out a turnkey (franchisable) low-cost computer-repair business in January. The systems we know we'll need so far are:
- How to deal with customers What do you say when the phone rings? How do you set an appointment? What do you do after you set the appointment? How do you keep track of appointments, so you can follow up afterwards?
- How to deal with money When do you ask the customers for money? What do you do when they send it to you? What do you do when they don't send it to you? How do you purchase hardware and software? How do you collect sales tax? How do you tell if your business is about to take off or go bankrupt? How do we create a budget?
- How to deal with employees How do you find them? What do you want from them? How much do you pay them? How do you train them? When do you know that it's time to get another employee? How do you determine when it's time to let someone go?
- How to deal with corporate requirements When do we have shareholder meetings? What do we do there? When do we file paperwork? How do we pay taxes?
- How to deal with marketing How do our clients find us, anyway? How can we encourage that? How do we tell what's effective?
Don't feel bad if you don't like the ready-fire-aim approach. While there will always be a certain amount of on-the-fly tweaking, there's nothing wrong with preparing for it also. Steve's strength is optimizing systems, so he chose a method that plays to his strength. My strength is creating systems, so I use a ready-aim-fire-aim approach. (In an ideal world, it would go ready-aim-fire, but in the real world, there will always be adjustement after the fact.) Do what works for YOU. The only approach that's wrong is ready-aim-aim-aim-aim.....
For telephone scripts, I would use Steve's method of recording yourself. Make a call, and then write down what you said. Decide what worked really well, and what sounded really stupid. (And what sounded really stupid, but also worked really well.) If you missed something really big, decide where would be the logical place to insert it.
I don't ever use them word-for-word; it makes me sound like an automaton. My scripts often look something like:
Hi, this is Amanda...
Bad time?
3 questions
Computer fixed?
Did he listen?
Him again?
Questions for me
Thanks!
Then when I call, I would expand it with my own language to something like,
"Hi, this is Amanda with 21st Century Computing... did I catch you at a bad time?
I'm just calling to make sure you're still pleased with the service you recieved yesterday. Could I have 5 minutes of your time to ask you 3 quick questions?
Did we get your computer fixed, and is it still working the way you want it to?
..."
This is one of my favorite things to do (I know this makes me sick and twisted) so PM me if you want to talk more about it.