Some Good Reading…Old Skool Stuff

Nearly 2 years ago Andre gave me some audio CD’s.

He said: “Dude, listen to this, it will help you understand about running your own business.”

Anyway, I listened to the audio and along the way I took notes. In fact I used Mindjet Midmanager to Map out the entire audio. (I found the map today, it’s massive!)

Yes, it was boring at times, and yes, it was a pain in the butt to keep stopping the audio to create the mindmap, but you know what…?

“It’s still one of the best things I’ve listened to”. Maybe it’s because it was one of the first things I heard about managing and running a business. That’s what we’re doing. All this online stuff is essentially our own business.

But don’t think it’s all about online businesses. It’s not. It’s about any business and some of it doesn’t really apply to online businesses.

However, this was the first time I was introduced to creating “systems”. Systems are the ‘nuts and bolts’ when running any business.

Have you ever started a job and they gave you a breakdown of what you should do, a process. The step by step process? For example: “How to deal with customers”

Let’s take a look at Call Centers. Most of the time half the people that work there don’t know what they’re talking about (no offence). BUT, they’re given a “script”. They use the script to ask you questions about your problem. They follow a process - A “System”. (Usually they still can’t solve my problem, but that’s not the point).

The point is, everything is documented and a mini-system is created for that procedure. Now this is what you should do…

Get an application like: Screen Steps

This is such an easy tool to use, for Windows and MAC. And when you’re doing something, like setting up a new domain, creating a new database, a new campaign, etc. Create a lesson in Screensteps and document it. Then a few weeks later, when you come to do it again, but you can’t ‘Exactly’ remember what you did.

You just fire up your process for doing it and “Vola”, it’s there!

Think of it as creating the document for a new employee, would they be able to understand it? Hey, you may even need an employee soon and the work of showing them what to do is already done.

Anyway, I took a few good things away from the audio set Andre gave me, in fact I even went out and bought the book: Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisted

It may not be everyones cuppa tea, and like I said, not everything applies to online businesses. But I remember it as being my first introduction to any form of “running your own business” and I think for a little over $11 it’s worth a read (or you can get the audio version).

Best regards - Mark

Tagged as: E-Myth Revisted, Michael Gerber, Screen Steps