You’re a busy entrepreneur.

You barely have time to sleep.

In fact, sleep feels like the enemy because you know that if you don’t do the work it will never get done.

You want to grow your business but you can’t take any more work on your plate.

Maybe you feel stuck… like it’s never going to end.

Everyone tells you that you need to be working on your business instead of in it but you can’t seem to figure out how that’s even possible.

In this blog post I’ll share 4 business systems that will help you get out of your business and give you some breathing room to take your family on vacation for the first time in forever.

How does that sound?

Good, let’s dive in…

ACDC Framework

I’m going to share a valuable lesson I first learned in a book called Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz.

In his book he talked about the ACDC framework.

ACDC is an acronym for Attract. Convert. Deliver. Collect.

ACDC is an easy acronym for the 4 business systems you’ll need to be focusing on building in your business so that it can finally start running itself. 

Here’s how each word relates to the systems you’ll need:

• Attract = Marketing
• Convert = Sales
• Deliver = Operations
• Collect = Cash (Accounting)

Cool right? 

And the best part for you is that if you have a team you already have a lot of the systems you need in place. 

A system is just a method to get something accomplished.

Hopefully you and your team have been getting things done for a while, all you need to do is have your team record their own processes. 

If they work on a computer you can make recording their work simple.

There is tons of screen recording software out there that you can use to record and talk over your recording.

Once you get it recorded you can make sure your team goes back and teaches what they are doing step by step so that anyone can watch the video and know exactly what to do.

This will allow the team members to do the work creating systems while also getting the actual work done - you don’t lose any productivity!

Here is some screen recording software you can test for yourself:

• Loom
• Screenflow (for Macs)
• Quicktime
• Vidyard
• Camtasia

Okay, let’s explore each of the parts of the ACDC Framework…

Attract

If you’re already established, a good place to start with this system is by asking yourself or your team how you are building a list of leads or how you’re attracting new people to your website. 

What are all the ways people discover your business and get involved in your ecosystem?

What social media channels are you on, what are the processes for each channel?

What does your content process look like?

How often do you run new marketing campaigns?

How many and what trade shows do you attend?

What do you do with new email subscribers and leads?

Who is in charge of quality checking everything?

These questions should help you and your team start to identify the different systems you already have in place to market your products and services.

Convert

When you are thinking about systems for your Convert department – ask yourself questions like…

How quickly do we contact each new lead?

What is our follow up process?

How do we qualify leads?

What exactly do we say to every prospective customer on the phone and in messages to help them get closer to a purchasing decision? 

Do customers buy directly on the website or can they only buy after a phone conversations?

How do you convert someone who knows who you are, knows what you do, why you do it, how you do it (that’s the job of marketing)?

I think you get the idea.

All these answers can be documented with video and screen recording software.

Deliver

How do you deliver results to your clients and customers?

After the sale has been made who sends the invoice?

Do you send a thank you card? Who writes it?

What does it look like to deliver each of your services?

How often to you communicate with each client?

These systems all have to do with how you deliver on the promises that were made.

Administrative systems also live in this piece of the ACDC framework (Like office cleaning, supplies, etc.)

Collect

In this section of the ACDC framework ask yourself how you collect money from customers and what gets done with that money.

What accounting systems do you have in place? 

What software do you use and how do you use that software?

Who does what and at what time?

Again, all these questions that you can ask in regards to money and cash traveling in and out of your business should be documented in the Collect piece of the ACDC framework.

Conclusion

Can you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Using the ACDC framework will help you get the systems already living in everyone’s heads out and documented.

ProTip: Once you record a system and hand it off to one of your team members, empower them with the ability to update the process themselves.

It’s okay for them to have questions but try to challenge your employees to come up with their own creative solutions to their questions.

You must trust them.

Reward them for taking responsibility for the process.

You need them to feel empowered to make decisions so that you can take that vacation, remember?

Employees will always come back to you asking you to make their decisions for them if they fear being or looking wrong. Let them know that owning the task is more important that being wrong.

Are you going to give the ACDC framework a shot?

Where are you going to book your vacation? :)