Building business systems doesn’t have to be complicated — in fact, the simpler they are, the better.

In this episode, I’m breaking down six key questions you can ask to design systems that reduce chaos, save time, and support sustainable business growth. If your current processes are draining your energy instead of freeing you up to lead, tune in to discover how to fix that.

Key Takeaways:

• How to clarify roles and responsibilities when creating systems
• The six questions every mompreneur should ask before building a process
• Ways to measure and evaluate whether a system is truly effective



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Hey friend. You're listening to Harmonious Mompreneur, where faith, family and business come together.

I'm your host, Phylicia Pough, a Christian wife, mom of two, and life and business system strategist for moms.

If you've ever felt like there just aren't enough hours in the day, or find yourself craving more time for yourself but feel guilty about it, you're in the right place. While many strive for balance, I believe it's harmony, an integrated flow that works for you, that truly sustains.

Each week, I'll share insights from my personal journey and practical strategies to help you design systems that bring peace to your business and home life. So give your kids another snack, take a deep breath and let's dive into today's episode where we'll start creating your harmonious mompreneur life.

Today, we're talking about something that can feel overwhelming or intimidating for many mompreneurs, and that's business systems. Here's the thing though. Systems don't have to be complicated. In fact, simpler is better.

Simpler is easier to track, easier to implement, and it's just easier on your energy overall. In this episode, I'm going to give you six key questions you can ask when building any business system.

These questions are simple, they're practical, and they will help you gain clarity without overcomplicating things. Now, just a heads up, this episode is specifically about business systems.

Later in the next episode, I'm going to talk about why business systems alone are not enough. But for now, let's just focus on business systems. Now, why does this even matter?

Because without clear business systems, the work that you're doing can start to feel chaotic. Tasks can slip through the cracks, projects can get delayed, you might be constantly putting out fires, you're not able to focus on growth.

You end up relying on your memory for a lot of things. You have last minute fixes and this ultimately is going to drain your energy and increase your stress levels.

When you have business systems in place, you are creating structure, consistency, and some level of predictability in your business. It's going to help you save time for sure. You're going to be able to reduce errors and also make it clear who is responsible for what.

When you have these systems in place, you can focus on the work that truly moves your business forward instead of getting stuck in the busy work. It's important for me to talk about business systems here also, because it is a core part of my Harmony by Design framework.

This framework is what I use to guide you in designing a Harmonious life. Whether that's one to one, in my Harmony by Design, private partnership, or through my membership, Harmonious Mom Legacy Lounge.

A harmonious life cannot exist without systems. So let's get into these six questions. I kept it super simple for you. The six questions will sound familiar because I'm taking it back to the basics.

I don't know if you remember, but in grade school they gave us these six questions. I don't even know what they were in reference to, but it was who, what, when, where, why and how.

I'm going to go through each one in relation to how you should be asking this question in reference to your business systems. Okay, so let's get into it. Number one is who? This is a two part question. It's double sided.

So first part is who should be completing or overseeing this process?

So you want to think about the person that has the skill set and they also have the bandwidth or the capacity to handle everything that comes along with the process. The second part of this question is who is on the receiving end of the process? Okay.

And this matters because when you are building your system, the system should be built with the end user in mind. So I always give this example. Let's say you have a client who are in the baby boomer age range.

Now, if you have a client experience system that is highly technical, this may present some friction or some challenges for a baby boomer old schooler who is not as tech savvy as, let's say, a millennial.

So you want to make sure that you keep in mind who this process is for so that they can have a good experience while they are going through the process.

Okay, so that is the first part, understanding who should be completing the process or overseeing the process and then who is on the receiving end of the process. Once we know that, we can move on to what the actual process is.

So number two is what, what are the chronological steps in the process from start to finish? Let me pause here for a second because I have been using the word process and system interchangeably.

So just for clarity's sake, when I talk about a system, I talk about it in terms of the system being the larger ecosystem of your process, your tools and your people. So those three components make up the system. And so sometimes I do interchange and say process, because for me the process is the core part.

It's the foundation of the system. Okay, so now going back to our questions. Number two, what, what are the chronological steps in the process from start to finish?

You can think about this in the Same context as a GPS or a recipe. They both are trying to get you to an end goal or an end product.

And it gives you step by step instructions for what you need to do in order to get to that end destination or that end product. And so it's the same thing with your processes in your business.

What are the steps that you need to go through in order to build a lead capture system?

Right, so a sample lead capture system could look like having an opt in a welcome email, you know, deliver the content, have a follow up and then you schedule a call. So you get to build your system for however it makes sense for your business to operate. Okay, there, there is no one size fits all with this.

You just need to know what are the actual steps that go into this process. Moving on to number three. Number three, you want to ask yourself, when, when does this process start and when does this process end?

Okay, now having a clear start and an end point allows for a level of accountability if you have a team. So people know where their work begins, where their work ends, when it's being handed off to another person.

Also, understanding when the process starts and ends allows you to have clear boundaries for when you are going to track your metrics and measure the system's impact over time. So this gives you some uniformity in the data that you are collecting so you actually can correctly track those metrics.

All right, so we've talked about who, what when. Number four is where. So where will this process take place?

And when I say where, I'm more so talking about the tools and the platform that you choose to execute your process or to support the execution of the process. So what are you going to be using for email marketing? What are you going to be using for project management or client relationship management?

And the tool does matter, right? But I will say this about the tool. You don't want to choose a tool just because everyone else is using it.

You want to pick a tool that makes sense for your business goals, your business budget, your business operations, and also how you operate as the founder of the business working in the business. Okay, so where is this process going to take place?

What are the tools that actually support your process without adding additional friction or unnecessary steps? Efficiency is what we are striving for when it comes to selecting tools. Next, the next question you want to ask yourself is why?

Why does this process exist? This, even though it's listed number five here.

When you are actually building your business system, this is the first question I want you to ask yourself. So why does this process exist, what problem does it solve?

So, for example, let's just say you post on social media and you have created a social media content creation system. So why does that system exist? Maybe it exists because it's saving you mental energy. It's preventing you from posting last minute on the fly.

And without it, you realize that posting for you felt chaotic and stressful, so you created a system for it to relieve some of that stress and chaos.

Now, when you understand the why, this helps you and if you have a team, your team also to be able to execute with intention and maintain the standard of the system, maintain your high quality, super important. Okay, and then the final question that you want to ask yourself is how, how will you measure success and evaluate effectiveness?

So we have these systems, we have these processes, we're using these tools, we have people supporting us, but is this even effective? Okay, so you, you want to determine how you're going to measure success and evaluate effectiveness. Are you going to do employee satisfaction surveys?

Are you going to do client surveys? Are you going to look at metrics like percentages that increase or decrease?

If you're talking about clients, like how long does it take your clients to complete your client onboarding tasks? What's your client satisfaction rates?

And so when you have this data, if something takes too long, or if a client or an employee, they express confusion about something, you are in a position then to tweak the process. Okay, so when you're asking yourself this question, also consider, does this save me time? Is this going to reduce errors?

Is this improving the experience? Okay, how are you going to be measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of the system? Because if it's not going to be effective, it's wasted effort.

You need the system, but you need it to be effective and efficient.

Okay, now if you want step by step support and a training on building business systems, then I invite you to join the Harmonious Mob Legacy Lounge inside.

I walk you through creating systems that are going to free up your time, free up your energy, and you'll also get access to a community of moms who are on the same journey as you, integrating and navigating their faith, their business and their home life. And so click the link in the show notes to join or learn more. So let's do a quick recap of the questions. Number one is who?

Who should be completing or overseeing this process? And also, who is on the receiving end? Number two, what are the chronological steps from start to finish? Number three, when does this process start?

When does the process end? Number four, where will this process take place? Number five, why does this process exist? What problem does it solve?

And then number six, how will you measure and evaluate the effectiveness of this process?

Okay, so I hope that you have written down these six questions and that they are helpful for you as you are building your business systems, which is a key component of you experiencing harmony in your life. Friend, thank you so much for tuning in. With grace and gratitude, I will see you in the next episode.

Hey friend, I'm so glad you tuned in today. Before you go, will you take a moment to leave a review?

Leaving a review ensures other mompreneurs like you can find this show and get the insights and strategies they need to create harmony between their business and home life. I appreciate you so much. With grace and gratitude, see you in the next episode.