How has 2019 started for you? Have you made a fresh start or taken a fresh approach with some routine aspects of your business or your life? Or are you already in some sort of a rut wishing things were different?

PEPP® = Purpose and/or Energy and/or Pleasure and/or Profit

If the ‘thing’, any thing in fact, that you’re doing doesn’t fulfil your personal or your business’ purpose, energise you, give you pleasure and/or profit then why are you doing it? It’s such a cliché now but ‘life really is short’. So many people just ‘exist’ rather than living whilst they are alive.

That may be because they are living with a mental illness. It might be because they are a struggling business owner. It might be because their cat just died, they’ve recently had a relationship break-up or some other stressful event.

When It’s a Drain…

Whatever the reason, some tasks and experiences ‘fill up our bucket’ and others are a drain. If it’s a negative, then the purpose of PEPP® is that you are stopped in your tracks and think about what or how the situation can be handled differently.

In business if you’re doing an activity that bores you to tears, frustrates you or drains your energy then think about why you are doing it?

Think about whether that task is absolutely necessary for your business to continue. If it is then think about who else could do it instead of you? Preferably someone whose energy will be lifted rather than drained by doing it – there really are some people who thrive on doing the BAS!

Systemise Before Delegating

Before you can delegate anything there needs to be a system in place. Yes, a documented procedure. It might be a written document, it might be online or it might be a video or a series of photographs. It doesn’t matter how you record the how just as long as you do. Somehow.

Delegating low level tasks is like the freedom a butterfly feels when it finally emerges from its chrysalis and flies away. It will lift your energy and ultimately increase the profitability of your business.

Your valuable time is better spent on higher level activities that you are unique at or you enjoy.

Work with your Natural Strengths

People are naturally more “left” or “right” brain: they tend to be more organised or more creative. If you try to do an activity that is outside your natural scope then it will be harder for you so it will take much longer. For example a bookkeeper or accountant may struggle to draw a picture and an artist may struggle to do their invoicing.

Sir Richard Branson doesn’t fly the Virgin planes or fix broken Virgin mobile phones.

Not everyone wants to lead or be an entrepreneur, thank goodness. Some are happy to follow instructions. Doing so 100% of the time without ever questioning though isn’t ideal – that would be similar to a robot and progress is made when thinking occurs.

There are dozens of personality profiling systems. Some are utilized by human resources specialists during team engagement to help identify potential success in particular roles.

For example Myers Briggs has descriptors based on:

  1. Extraversion vs Introversion
  2. Sensing vs Intuition
  3. Thinking vs Feeling
  4. Judging vs Perceiving

Systems and The E Myth Revisited

In “The E Myth Revisited”, Michael Gerber said “The system isn’t something you bring to the business. It’s something you derive from the process of building the business.”
And “Systems permit ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results predictably.”

When I co-owned a pet resort for 10 years, the first big change to move from overwhelm and lift our energy was a decision to systemise the business. We were “too busy” but committed to 90 minutes a day.

The Customer Service Manual was the first one to be written and it allowed us to then outsource answering the telephones. As well as saving money, this had the benefit of lifting the customer experience: the phones were being answered in a timely way, especially if several people called at once.

At the end of the day, to quote Gerber again “The purpose of a system – to free you to do the things you want to do.”

If you’ve already systemised your business I’d love to know what it felt like for you? Was it like the freedom the butterfly may feel, or something else?

I’m here to help you…

If the very thought of systemising before delegating terrifies you or makes you feel ill I’d be delighted to assist… Systems are part of PEPP® ing Up and that will increase the VITALITY of you and your business… making you feel like you have a more Vibrant Business and a more Vibrant Life.