How to Avoid Fire-Fighting All The Time in Your Business

One of the reasons you went into business was to create a lifestyle you enjoy while doing what you love, right? However, your business has grown some and it may feel a little like you cannot stop putting out one fire or the other.

Or maybe you have team members who seem unable to do anything without your direct supervision… which means your day is a mass of interruptions about the most minute concern to the larger scale problems in your business.

This, of course, cannot be allowed to continue!

It is not quite the life you had hoped for, right?

Your business needs to be systemized in order to release you somewhat from the daily struggle and prevent you from burning out.




Here are a seven steps you can use to make it happen

Make a list of all the problems that tend to interrupt you through the day
Sort them out and prioritize them based on how much they cost you or how frequently they occur
Where applicable, call a meeting with your team members and decide to work on one of these problems together.
Figure out the root cause of the problem – you can do this simply by answering the question ‘why has this happened?’ or ‘why does this happen?’ over and over again until you reach the bottom where there is the possibility of an actionable solution.
Create simple solutions for the root cause. It could be as simple as putting a message pad by the phone so that messages are taken on the spot rather than depending on memory to dealing with more major concerns within your business.
Use checklists to make sure that every step is detailed on the list and everyone concerned knows exactly what to do to complete a job or task within your business. Ensure it is really straightforward for anyone to follow. And never assume that people know what you expect because inevitably, it leads to confusion.
Have regular meetings to review how the changes are working for everyone and also to make any changes required to stop fire fighting all the time.

This is how you stop some of your business interruptions in their tracks. The next step is to create operations manuals that include all the processes in your business. This ensures that all the major processes in your business are documented. It also has an impact on how long it takes to train new team members because you now have people following a system that you have installed.

Take the initiative and create systems in your business before they are needed. This will help you accelerate the growth of your profits without you pulling your hair out.