Episode 003: Why You Should Be Documenting Yourself Out of a Job!

Welcome everybody back to the succeeding with systems, shell, for anybody who is new, who is new here. This is my kind of weekly show I do on Tuesdays that talk about succeeding with systems and being able to help you build the lifestyle of your dreams.

This is the community that's helping you design the lifestyle, freedom of your dreams, utilizing systems, processes, and automation. So that way you can be sustainable.

Your business can be here forever, and you can have the time that you want to be able to do whatever you like.
I am your house. Khadirah Muhammad. I am a systems implementation engineer. I do this for a living and I like to help companies be able to just expand and actually have the ability to be here forever.

Because a lot of times we build companies without thinking about the end in mind and what it takes to actually get there.

So my goal for actually today's show is we're gonna be talking about how and why you should be documenting yourself out of a job.

And I find it hilarious that we don't ever wanna do this. And I heard it up here today. Somebody made a really good analogy and I'm totally gonna steal it.

But I use a different one, but I, I like this one. I think it's Connie S Falls cuz I, I heard her say it before.

I'm totally gonna take it, but everybody checks you go check her out. She's been doing this much longer than I have.
And so she really knows this as well, but she gave a really good example of when we are like most mom and pop small businesses, let's say they're a hair salon.

Let's say they they own some type of like barbecue plays a restaurant or something like that. And we have like that secret ingredient, right?

You have this secret ingredient, you have this way that your business runs and people love it and everything like that.
Right? But the issue being that only, you know, how to make the secret ingredient only, you know how to make the secret, you know, not the secret, but the, the, the favorite meal or you're the only person that knows how to treat that favorite dish or the only person that all the customers like talking to.

And you never teach it to anybody at your business. You never teach it to your children. And because you're scared, somebody's gonna take it.

You you're scared somebody's gonna duplicate it. And I extend past that where we're just kind of scared of being successful in being able to duplicate ourselves, even when that fear prevents us from really being able to be successful and being able to pass down what you know, to your children, to your loved ones to the people who are gonna be at ideally taking this a step further.

And now you are the person who you're at retirement. You don't really wanna be up working every single day at the exact same way, putting in the hard work, but you have to because nobody else knows how to do what you do.
And We get a lot of times we get a lot of fear because we think if nobody else, you know, if I'm the only person that knows, that means nobody else can take this from me, that means nobody else can, can steal this from me.

And the thing is, is how likely is it that somebody's gonna wanna steal it? But the, it also shows kind of how kind of kept our thinking can be, because let's say somebody does want to use your secret sauce.

Somebody does wanna make your secret, you know, the, the Mo the best meal that everybody likes to, to buy all the time from you, let's say somebody else does want to do that.

You can allow them to do that. If you license your item, you license your knowledge, you license your secret sauce to them, and then you can get paid for them using it.

That's an easy step forward, right? That's the easy way to still get paid for what you know, but you no longer have to fear that people are trying to take it, right.

Let them take it, let them do that. Let 'em, let 'em have it and give them the ability to do that.

But you have to document what you're doing in order for that to happen. If you can't, you know, realistically write down and put together the flow of how things run.

That means everything is on your shoulders. And you know, I kind of got wide shoulders, but they're not that wide.
They can't handle all that. <laugh> they really just, they just can't handle all that. And so if we want to have businesses that are here forever, then we owe it to not just ourselves, but for our future selves, you owe it to your future family or your current family.

You owe it to the people who are ideally gonna take it, take over the business, or else you either leave it to just kind of close down and nothing happens, or you sell it for less than what you potentially could have gotten.

If you had actually taken the time to document your processes, I know that firsthand because one of my clients actually buys companies like this.

They will buy companies that are in a particular field. He, he works in a very specific sector and he buys companies that are like, they're kind of smaller mom and pop, but they're kind of owner absentee, meaning the owner isn't there all the time.

But sometimes they are some, it'll be either fully owner absentee or semi owner absentee. And just because their absentee doesn't exactly mean that there's processes and systems in place.

It just means that they might have gotten the right group of people who just kind of know how things are handled.
And therefore they're the ones that do kind of all the work. And they, you know, the owner can just kind of chill out a little bit.

Maybe they have like a family member or something in there. But the companies that don't have any processes, they don't have any procedures.

They don't have any way of generating new cash flow. They don't really maybe know the seasons in their business. Then those are the ones that are valued less.

Even if their revenue says that they should be valued more, right. Your companies can be valued less if you don't have the right processes.

A lot of people don't know that your, your companies can be valued less if you don't have the right processes, that that prove that it should be valued more.

And so instead of having, and, and I hope I, you know, actually my desire is to kind of change what we feel and what, what we think about when it comes to our businesses and sharing what we know and documenting what we know.

And, and a lot of us think we're giving people the ability to, to rip us off the P the ability to take our knowledge and run with it.

And, and some of us consider like our own employees and everything we may think, oh, if I teach my employee how to do my job, they're eventually gonna take it.

And then they're gonna start their own thing. That's really relevant now, cuz we are in this age where we think everybody wants to be an entrepreneur and that's not really the case.

And you know, maybe I don't have as much experience as anybody else, but honestly, in what I've seen, most people don't wanna do your full job <laugh> they don't really wanna do it cuz you're doing a lot of work anyway.

They're not interested in doing that. What they wanna be able to do is be able to just do their own jobs better.

I've talked with virtual assistant, I've talked with people who are on the teams that my clients are on just to interview them and get an idea of how they run their department or how they run their job and everything.

And they'll say one of the most frustrating things is when they don't have documentation or clear communication about what they're supposed to be doing, because believe it or not people wanna be able to do a good job when they're hired.

I, I think majority of the time, people want to be able to do a good job when they are hired, but they can't do a good job if you don't give them the tools that will allow them to do a good job.

If we don't give them the resources that will allow them to get things done appropriate in appropriate amount of time.

If you don't give people those resources, how are they supposed to be able to do that for you? If you're scared to give somebody the knowledge on how your business should be ran, how are they gonna do any of that for you?

How, how is your business gonna be ran? Then you're just gonna have a person there. You're just gonna have somebody who's there.

Who's filling a seat, but you haven't given them the right tools. So, so their job is just to sit in a seat.

And I said, and that's not fun. <laugh> that's not fun. That's not entertaining. That's not something that they want anyway.

And so you're not only doing yourself disservice, you're doing them a disservice. You should be documenting yourself out of a job.

You need to be writing down, doing a brain dump. You need to be thinking, okay, I've got this accomplished. This is what I do to do this task.

I have to do 1, 2, 3 to make a sale. I have to do 1, 2, 3 to fulfill a client's a program that they hired me for.

I have to do 1, 2, 3, and It doesn't happen in a day. Somebody asked me before, like how long does it take to put in systems in the business?

That's kind of like asking, how long does it take to eliminate weight a little bit like for a brand new business, the systems are probably pretty easy because there's not a lot of undoing that needs to be done.

Right? If you've been around for a while and this is the way that we do it, right, that gets done a lot.

This is the way that we do it. When you've been around for a while, there's a lot of undoing that has to happen, cuz it cuz putting in systems and processes, it's not just writing something out.

It's actually using them. And to the best of the ability that the company and the people can do them and then helping them get there because it becomes very difficult to not, I won't say difficult, eh, it can be, it can be difficult to teach people how to do something that's different than what they're used to.

And if you're introducing new technology, if you're interested in, in, oh my goodness. If you are introducing a new mindset and a new way of thinking that also changes the way that they are performing.

And that requires a change in the mind. So I can write out anything. I can, I can, we can record a video now and then, then we can just call that your system.

We can call that your process, but to actually put all your processes together in a systematic format that can take time, that can take time it.

And what also can take time is you actually documenting your processes. Cuz you have to remember to do that. You have to remember the document.

You have to remember actually to show people to how to do it and you have to teach it. So that's another thing that I think a lot of people miss, even I miss it sometimes quite frankly.

I'm a documenter, I'm a planner, I'm an organizer. I do all those things, but I forget that most people don't have my mindset, the exact same way.

Like the, you just don't and that's okay, this is my skillset. This is my gift that I have from God.

I have that gift of planning of organizing of executing on strategic strategies and stuff like that. But a lot of people don't.
And so I have to remember to build, even in my internal processes, in my internal systems, I have to build them.

So that way other people can do them and then I have to teach them how to do it. Right. I actually have to try to teach them how to do the thing.

And so that involves me not only creating the so P and saying, Hey, do this SOP. It also means that I have to go back and I have to say, Hey, have this SOP.

I want you to review it. You know, read over the the instructions and watch the video. And then we're going to do this together because in doing it together with them, now I can see, okay, wait a second.

I have them doing this task this way, but that's not, I don't know why I have 'em doing it like that.

We should change that. I'm gonna take that out. That's a bit too difficult. That takes up too much time for them.

It may not take time for me. It might be a value add technically, but it, it may not make sense for them to do it too.

It may take too much time and everything. Right? So that's something that I, I want you all to remember when you're creating documents.

You, you're not just doing it for yourself, you're doing it for the next person. Really. You're not at all doing it for yourself.

You're doing it for the next person who comes after you. So your documentation has to be like human readable. <laugh> it.

Can't just be like, however you like to do things you gotta consider. Can other people do the same thing that you do in the exact same way.

And if they can't do it the exact same way, do you need to change the way it's done? So that way the process can get done, but it's in a way that everybody can do it versus maybe just yourself.

Well, thank you everybody for listening to this podcast episode and listening to the succeeding with system show, again, my name's Khadirah Muhammad.

If you are ready to actually learn how to finally start putting in processes in your business and you wanna learn what it takes to make that happen.

I invite you to first get my free ebook. It's called the six figure, low tech guide. It helps you all know what is the tech stack that I use.

What's the software that I use in order to run my business and be able to save yourself 10 plus hours a week.

If you wanna get that, you can click the link in the description. If you're on my IG, you can click the link in my bio and you can click that.

It is absolutely for free. And if, again, if you're interested in that low tech guide, go ahead and click those links.
What you can also do if you're also interested in anything systems related, you can actually text me the where you can text me the word systems to 8 8 8 3 4 6 0 6 1 7 again, 8 8 8 3 4 6 0 6 1 7.

And you can text me the word systems and we'll also send you the ebook and plus a few other goodies.

So thank, you all for watching. My name is again, Khadirah Muhammad from the Succeeding With Systems & I will see you all in the next episode!

Bye!