In this episode, Tara reveals the 4 essential systems that every business needs to thrive. Listen, most of the time people create a course too early – before some of the core or foundational pieces are in place to make it a viable product within a business. Learn the 4 essential pieces that you can’t forget to ensure you succeed whether this is a new business or your side hustle.
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Transcript
Hey, everybody, it's Tara Bryan and you are listening to the
Speaker:course building secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach or a CEO,
Speaker:the success of your team and clients is based on your ability
Speaker:to deliver a consistent experience and guide them on the
Speaker:fastest path to results. This podcast will give you practical
Speaker:real life tips that you can use today to build your online
Speaker:experiences that get results and create raving fans. Why? So you
Speaker:can monetize your expertise and serve more people without adding
Speaker:more time for team to your business? If you're looking to
Speaker:uncover your million dollar framework, package it and use it
Speaker:to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Good
Speaker:morning, course creators just jumping on to record this
Speaker:episode for you today. I just was listening to one of my
Speaker:mentors. And it was fascinating what she said today. And I
Speaker:wanted to just quickly jump on and record this episode because
Speaker:I think it's so timely is that when you're starting an online
Speaker:business, and really looking at how do you package your
Speaker:expertise? How do you get clients? How do you start, you
Speaker:know, packaging and selling what you are best in the world at,
Speaker:there are a couple of things that you need to think about.
Speaker:And I think that one of the biggest challenges that I see my
Speaker:clients have is, is not necessarily truly understanding
Speaker:all of the parts and pieces to how this works. And so when I
Speaker:was listening to this, this woman today, how so good because
Speaker:she broke it down into four different categories. And in
Speaker:terms of what it means to start and run a business. And so I
Speaker:just wanted to share that with you today. Hopefully, it will
Speaker:serve you because say, you know, you could be running an offline
Speaker:business right now you could be very successful in your
Speaker:business, which is awesome, you're looking to maybe grow and
Speaker:scale through offering online services, or you could be
Speaker:completely new to this whole game. But there are there are
Speaker:four key areas to having and running and building a
Speaker:successful business. And I think that a lot of times, if you're,
Speaker:you know, perhaps listening to various people, you know, give
Speaker:advice about things, some of these things are not given in
Speaker:their entirety. And there are really four different
Speaker:categories. One is, you know, what are your business systems?
Speaker:How are you setting up your business, to achieve your goals.
Speaker:So, you know, most of the time people go into business, it
Speaker:especially in an online business, or trying to package
Speaker:their expertise, when they're looking for more freedom, right?
Speaker:Something that, you know, maybe it's a side hustle or an actual
Speaker:business, where they're trying to get out of a corporate
Speaker:environment, or they're trying to, to, you know, go out on
Speaker:their own and play by their own rules. And that doesn't happen
Speaker:by just creating a business, right, by just creating a
Speaker:product and, and starting to sell it, you actually
Speaker:intentionally have to create systems and systems and business
Speaker:systems to make all of that happen. So that's in like, you
Speaker:know, having a plan, knowing kind of the direction that you
Speaker:want to go in, who are you serving? What kind of business
Speaker:do you want to create? What are the systems and structure that
Speaker:you want to put in place for that business, those are the
Speaker:business systems, all of those things need to be set up really
Speaker:before you you create a product or you create a service, you
Speaker:have to think about what kind of business are you in, you could
Speaker:be a sole proprietor where you are just going out and and
Speaker:serving people one on one as a 1099, or as a single entity
Speaker:contractor or something like that, or freelancer, right. So
Speaker:that's one business entity. That's
Speaker:one structure that you could put in place, you could put in
Speaker:place, more of a corporation, right, where you're the boss,
Speaker:and then you have employees, and you're building the business
Speaker:that way, you could be more of a hands off Corporation, CEO,
Speaker:right, where you're, you're contributing the money and the
Speaker:the infrastructure but you're hiring somebody else to to run
Speaker:and lead it right there. Lots of different ways to think about
Speaker:business systems. Those are the things to set up first, and make
Speaker:sure that you have that structure set up. So when you
Speaker:start to build things, you're not kind of working backwards
Speaker:and trying to figure out how do you you know, how do you
Speaker:structure what you're doing? So that's the very first thing that
Speaker:you think about when you're starting a business or, or
Speaker:moving into an online business a lot of times and I think I have
Speaker:had this sort of notion when I first started this because I had
Speaker:an agency. And then I started to move some of the things I was
Speaker:doing online. And I think that I, I went through that process
Speaker:of oh, well, I'm actually recreating a whole new business
Speaker:by moving a business online and adding additional products and
Speaker:services. And so instead of using the same approach I did to
Speaker:create my brick and mortar business, I just kind of went
Speaker:for, you know, went into this new business without considering
Speaker:those things. So if you are transitioning, remember that
Speaker:you're still creating a business, you're still either,
Speaker:you know, creating something from scratch, or you're sort of
Speaker:pivoting your current business, you still have to have those
Speaker:business systems in place. What does that look like when it's
Speaker:not all? Live in a brick and mortar office? What does it look
Speaker:like when it moves online? What kind of things do you want to
Speaker:create? What kind of structure do you want to create? What kind
Speaker:of environment do you want to create? All of those kinds of
Speaker:things happen in that first one, which is the business systems?
Speaker:Then the second major component of a business is? What are your
Speaker:sales and marketing systems? And how? So basically, how are we
Speaker:going to get customers? How are they going to learn about you?
Speaker:And how are you going to convert them into buyers? Right? That's
Speaker:your sales and marketing system. That in itself is a whole system
Speaker:of you know, skills and tasks and various things that need to
Speaker:happen in order for you to get in front of your perfect people.
Speaker:So you can ultimately develop a relationship with them and sell
Speaker:to them. And so then the third thing is the client success
Speaker:systems. So Client Success systems are how do you fulfill
Speaker:on the promise? How do you fulfill on that product? How do
Speaker:you fulfill on that service? How do you build a relationship with
Speaker:your customers? And so they stay? How do you create an
Speaker:experience? Like, what does that look like from before they start
Speaker:working with you to during the time that they're working for
Speaker:you? After the time they're working for you? What is it that
Speaker:you're producing? What is that that product or service
Speaker:framework that you have that teaches somebody or shows
Speaker:somebody or works with somebody to help them become successful,
Speaker:whatever it is that you're providing to them? Right? What
Speaker:is that Client Success System? That's really where we play that
Speaker:space we play in when we talk about, you know, customer
Speaker:experience, we talk about gamification, we talk about how
Speaker:do you help people actually get through your program, so they
Speaker:can become successful? All of those things? That's part of the
Speaker:Client Success System. That's how you fulfill on the promises
Speaker:that you've made in? And, you know, how do you fulfill on the
Speaker:thing that you've sold? Right, that you did in the last? In the
Speaker:last system? Okay, and then the fourth one is implementation,
Speaker:right? How are you implementing these things? On a day to day
Speaker:basis? What is your what is your foundational structure look
Speaker:like? Where do people go to participate in whatever you have
Speaker:to offer? What kinds of things are you doing on a day to day
Speaker:basis? What does it look like to implement your ideas and your
Speaker:dreams and your passion into your business? So So when you're
Speaker:thinking about building your online business, it is really
Speaker:looking at all four of these components. And so often when
Speaker:you go and, and start working on building a product, or sort of
Speaker:packaging, your expertise, oftentimes, it's just about that
Speaker:thing you want to package, it's not looking at taking a step
Speaker:back and looking at the big picture of here are the systems
Speaker:that I need to have in place in order to really build a business
Speaker:around what what, you know, you're trying to accomplish what
Speaker:I'm trying to accomplish. And so, when you think of, of that,
Speaker:time was such a powerful sort of reminder today, because, you
Speaker:know, I'll tell you, one of the biggest challenges that we have
Speaker:in working with our clients is the the sort of breaking down
Speaker:the MIS perception that all you have to do is, you know, sort of
Speaker:give information to people and put a price tag on it. And then
Speaker:you know, the masses will come and want to take your course
Speaker:because they want to learn from you. And that may be the be the
Speaker:case for you know, a small handful of people who already
Speaker:know like and trust you. But when you are looking to actually
Speaker:create a business, you're actually looking to create
Speaker:something that becomes bigger than you, you know, say say, you
Speaker:know, common common thing is, well, I want to build a million
Speaker:dollar online course business. Great, you know, that's awesome.
Speaker:But I think that the challenge is, is that it's more than just
Speaker:throwing a course into a platform like Kajabi or
Speaker:Thinkific or whatever, and hoping that people come to you.
Speaker:And then, you know, just really looking at it from a long game
Speaker:perspective that there are these other systems, these other
Speaker:things that you need to be doing in order to set the foundation
Speaker:to grow that business. So there you go. That is my course
Speaker:building tip for today. But it was so powerful to really think
Speaker:about it in four different buckets, right? Business
Speaker:Systems, sales and marketing systems, Client Success systems,
Speaker:and implementation systems. Right? How do you do what you do
Speaker:every day? Those looking at it from those four lenses helps you
Speaker:actually build a sustainable business that will help you
Speaker:actually become the CEO of your online business and help you
Speaker:control it help you grow it and help you be able to scale it to
Speaker:the place that you want it to be as you get into this game of
Speaker:helping people with your expertise. All right, there you