Creating profitable systems is at the very core of every business.
Almost everything we do and and have is a system – from brushing our teeth, or turning on a tap, or cooking a meal, driving a car, the car itself, road etiquette, refining the fuel etc etc.
Think about this for a second and you will realise the truth of it.
Also, the vast majority of systems work automatically without much intervention. We just have to maintain them sometimes or tweak them, but essentially they just keep working. Our bodies, the electricity we use, the shops we buy goods from, the transport we use and so it goes on.
There are millions of ‘systems’ that make money for the people that own and run them. Your task is create one and, once you have it working well, to get it to run without too much intervention from you i.e. to automate as far as possible.
This latter objective is particularly important if you wish to create a saleable business asset. If your ‘business’ relies too heavily on you then it could be argued that all you have created is a job. The value of your business will be determined by the value it creates for others, including an eventual purchaser. And establishing systems are incredibly important in creating that value.
No two businesses are exactly the same. Even though they may be superficially the same e.g. franchise networks, there are always unique differences e.g. location, different staff members, different systems (although franchises will try to replicate systems as far as possible because this is the true value of buying a franchise.)
Here are some highly profitable ‘systems’ that you might not have considered:
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Government – an incredible system for tax-farming the population. It has complementary systems for keeping the population compliant – the police, the military, the judicial system, education, media (like the BBC!)
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Religion – all religions are systems that create power over the people and to generate wealth for the institution and the clerics. A system that relies heavily on brain-washing and thought control (although it will also readily resort to killing, if necessary, to increase its power and influence!)
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Democracy – a system that fools the population into thinking it has some power but in reality the choices are limited and easily manipulated by the elites who control the system (- watch what happens with Brexit!)
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Money – a system for exchanging value. However, money in and of itself is worthless – it has no real physical backing by gold or any other asset and can be created simply by Banks offering credit. The Bankers who control the money supply have found it exceedingly profitable to operate this system and ‘tax’ the population through interest,charges, fees, exchange rates, and many other financial instruments.
Hopefully, you can begin to understand the importance of systems when you think about their pervading influence on all our lives.
So how does this all relate to internet marketing online?
One of your tasks, if you wish to make money online, is to create, purchase and maintain systems that do the following:
- drive traffic (system) to
- your squeeze page (system)
- to capture contact details (system)
- in order to communicate with prospects & buyers (system)
- to sell (system)
- products and services (system)
- that should be part of a sales funnel (system)
There are of course, systems within systems.
For example, if you have a WordPress website, your domain is a system, hosting is a system, the WordPress script is a system, your theme is a system, plugins are systems, your content creation is a system etc.
At every level of your business you will need to create, maintain, document and backup your systems because these are the core value of your business.
Every system must build towards producing a desired result which can be measured – number of clicks, conversion %, sales revenue, cost per click, earnings per click, open rates etc.
You can only manage what you measure. Our main systems must be all be capable of measurement so we can manage the outcomes or results. So you need a system for measuring your activity and results accurately.
If we measure every system we will find out which systems produce results, so we can discard, or change, the ones that don’t perform and spend our time maximising what does work.
Most systems will not produce the desired result, so we must regard these as tests that move us in the direction of finding out what does work. This means that we do not ‘bet the farm’ on any one system. We start small, test the system, and then respond according to results by discarding, tweaking or maximising until we find a mix of systems that work for each of us individually.
Even if you copy my squeeze page exactly, your conversion stats will differ because you will have a different people looking at your squeeze page. You will need to test what works for your chosen traffic source. What I am saying here is that one size will not fit all because there are many nuances.
You will also need to review the security and reliability of your systems. If you use Facebook, Google, Twitter as systems in your business and they close your account, no matter how good your system is, you could find yourself out of business overnight (and plenty have!) So building resilience into systems by, for example, spreading your risk is part of your job when creating systems.
Your systems should be simple to operate. In other words, they can be operated by a young novice. This means that they can easily be delegated to someone else in order to free you from that task.
Most systems can be reduced to a simple linear step-by-step process that can be documented in text or video. Discipline yourself to do this so you have the option of delegating it if you want or need to.
Here are 3 great books to read on the subject of systems:
- The Emyth Revisited by Michael Gerber
- Work The System by Sam Carpenter
- The Systems Mindset by Sam Carpenter
Once you have read these books, it will change your business mindset forever and you will fully realise the critical importance of systems and how to create them.
A profitable business is no more than a ‘machine’ made up of a collection of sub-systems to which you and your team add the spark of your creativity.
Because each of us is a unique system that has different knowledge, beliefs, experiences, culture etc each of our business systems must reflect that uniqueness and will enable us to bring a different perspective and value to our prospects and customers.
Because we are all unique, what will work for some people will not work for others. In other words, you and your system will not be able to convert ALL your prospects to buyers. Each prospect and buyer is unique and different.
This is why there is space for you in your niche i.e. to bring your own unique perspective to the problems and aspirations of others. Some will love you, others will hate you – that’s life, so don’t worry about why that is!
Be yourself and do whatever your thing is to help other people and, through measuring and testing, you will find out works for YOU. That’s how you will create profitable systems and a business that works for YOU.
