by Angela Darar
Every December, I find myself climbing up into the loft to pull down the Christmas decorations. They live in big plastic storage boxes that get pushed further and further back each year. I always think I have organised it well, but the truth is, only I know where anything actually is. The baubles are inside an old carrier bag, the lights are in another box mixed in with things from years ago, and the wreaths and tree toppers somehow end up nowhere near the rest of it.
The strange thing is, it makes sense to me because I put it all there. But to anyone else in the house, it is complete chaos. It would take them ages to find what they needed. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised how often the same thing happens in business.
Most business owners have a mental version of that storage box, that little corner in the garage, or that cupboard only they dare open. They know how everything works because they built it that way from the ground up. They know how quotes are done, how certain clients are dealt with, where the files live, what to do when a specific thing goes wrong, and all the unwritten steps that keep the business moving. A lot of these things sit inside their head, quietly holding everything together.
But if only a few people know the system, it is not really a system at all. It is a dependency. And dependencies limit growth. They make delegation difficult. They stop your team from stepping up because they don’t actually know how things work.
Sorting through the decorations this week, I started properly organising the storage boxes. Pulling things out, grouping them together, labelling a few bits for next year. It took a bit of effort, but straight away it felt clearer. Anyone could open it now and know exactly where everything belongs.
That is what a system does. It creates calm. It saves time. It gives other people the confidence to help. And it gives you the space to think clearly rather than micromanage everything you once tucked away in your own mental storage box.
December is the perfect moment to think about doing the same “systemising” in your business. What needs writing down. What needs simplifying. What needs shared instead of stored.
A little organisation now can make next year feel completely different.
Guaranteed Investment
Everything I do is bound by my SOLID GOLD GUARANTEES. Regardless of which programme we work on, if you do what you said you were going to do, when you were going to do it, you will get a return on investment guaranteed. If not, then I will refund you the difference. Yes, I am guaranteeing your investment. I’m totally confident in what I do, the rest is up to you...
