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This guide will help you build an online company that operates without you

Oct 19, 2022

The idea of a business that operates in complete absence of you -- whether you're asleep, taking a vacation or engaging in various other projects that you love It's the ideal. Learn how to get it done in five steps.

Your desk is occupied contemplating better days.

Good news: You can. (No, really. You could.)

The best part is that we have the exact formula for your use today.

Check out this article if you'd like to learn everything you need to know about building an organization that operates without the need for you. We'll provide five easy steps to making it work.

Ready to get started? Let's begin by defining the term "self-governing" business -- it may not exactly what you're envisioning.

What is a company that manages its own operations?

Although a company that is able to run by itself as it is in its purest form- is too good to be real to be true we'll refer to it as an online business that requires very little attention from the owner of the company.

Basically, it's a business that lets you take on the task in creating, marketing, and growing your company to a point where you comfortably eliminate yourself from the process. The replacement is robots, employees, and/or a successor.

#1. Selling digital downloads

Make your business more productive and resolve your audience's problems by offering a downloadable product similar to House of Royalties' Sell Sheet Pro Templates , a bundle that contains editable and custom-designed templates.

Joy Cho, a successful entrepreneur and entrepreneur. How to Pitch an Idea for a book Idea is a great illustration of a digital download available for purchase. It's a 40-page workbook that teaches authors to sell their work.

If you're in search of an idea to create your own digital download so you can follow the same path as Joy take a look at our no-cost demonstration.

Turn your knowledge into an educational product like an online course or an ebook, similar to Amy Mitchell's Harness Your Hustle online course, which helps small-business owners learn ways to streamline their tasks.

Or, take a page from the book of Robin Harford with products like the The Pine Notebook  it's an ebook with 55 pages that reveals his in-depth knowledge of plant-based food foraging.

The reason why these digital services are good options is they, again, will require the bulk all the work up front. After you have created the product you want to sell and then set up the logistics for your venture there are only administrative tasks that you must manage.

Additionally, you are able to sell an unlimited digital products without having to manage any of your inventory.

It means that you can increase your client base by a significant amount, even if you don't add an additional product on your site.

However, the most important thing to making these solutions function for businesses that runs itself is for your company been able to operate on a system rather than the talent of your employees.

Why is this? The reason is that a business that relies on talent depends too heavily on key people to manage it. A system-based business is just like it sounds- a business that operates well by relying on systems and processes rather than people.

If you're ready to dive into the action plan Let's jump right into beginning with the first step : standardizing the processes you use.

Five steps to build a business that runs with no effort

#1. Automate your processes whenever is

Your first step for building your business to run smoothly in the absence of you is to automatize and streamline your business, which will assure that your business is operating at a high level.

In deciding what tasks you want to automate or systematize, a good guideline to follow is to separate growing tasks and tasks.

If the task is repetitive try to make it easier. If the task isn't automated make a system to automate it (more on systemsatizing in a moment).

Automating shouldn't be a problem in the majority of your tasks. Typically, repetitive tasks consume 80percent of your time  and growth-related tasks take up the remaining 20%.

It's worthwhile to mention that marketing is one of the most popular roles to automate, and more firms are anticipated to utilize marketing automation software over the next few years.

In fact, spending on marketing automation tools has been growing quickly and is expected to hit $25.1 billion per year by 2023, which is a drastic bump from the $11.4 billion spent in 2017.

If you're considering exploring the possibilities of marketing automation, take a consider HubSpot , Marketo  and Pardot .

If you're looking for methods to manage your projects, it's worth checking out Basecamp  it allows you to make to-do lists, messages boards, and calendars. Their business plan sells for the price of $99 per month, and includes unlimited projects and users, and 500 GB of storage space.

An alternative that is more powerful can be Asana  the software that provides any team with a process that they can adhere to. Their features are suited for a variety of roles such as designing, marketing, product and management, finance, sales, engineering as well as event planners department, IT, human resources, and company-wide.

Based on the needs of your business Pricing ranges between $10.99 depending on your needs. Prices range from $10.99 to $24.99 for a month per user.

If you're looking for a cost-free option, try Trello . The free version of their service allows unlimitted personal boards and cards as well as lists. If you need teams boards, they can provide you with 10 boards, along with one power-up for each board. Larger plans run $9.99 to $20.83 per user per month.

After you've put automated processes in place now is the time to automatize the other (non-automated) parts of your business.

#2. Systematize processes and create SOPs

Your next step in building a business that runs itself is to establish the standard operating procedure (SOPs) as often as you can.

Do you know the processes and jobs that aren't possible to automate? This is a good first step to begin with SOPs.

The most important thing to remember when writing your SOPs should be as clear as possible. After all, the purpose is to let someone else perform the work in your absence isn't it?

So write them out like you're unable for any queries. It is possible to include directions for managing automatized processes within your SOPsto ensure that you're covered for all bases.

If you're looking to take a formal route, there's an international standard to format SOPs. It's called ISO-9000  that includes five sections  that include introduction, the purpose and responsibilities, scope and procedure.

Of course, this isn't the only format SOPs may adopt. You can get creative and use visuals as well, for example, the flowchart layout which Process Street uses.

Or you can go to the audio-visual option and make screencasts. This video guide from ActiveCampaign is fantastic example of a SOP which demonstrates the procedure of creating a welcome email automation using a computer's screen.

Screencasts are super simple to follow, doesn't it?

The essence of the matter is:

Set up systems and SOPs that cover any and all tasks you could possibly have within your company. Whether you use audio, written, or visual, or video as the structure, you must be clear in your explanation.

Now that you've got your SOPs completed You're ready to distribute them to colleagues.

#3. Give as much of your time as is possible to a trustworthy team

If you have a full-time employee as well as a virtual assistant or freelancers, the next step is to delegate all the standard tasks to your trusted team.

When you are looking to recruit the most suitable team members, it's important to be selective in who you bring on However, it's essential to prepare them to be successful. It is your goal to maintain your team over the long run as your business grows.

Which not a lot of businesses have to do. Unfortunately, turnover is increasing -and the percentage of small companies with an employee turnover rate that exceeds 20 percentage doubled between the years 2015 and 2017 .

These days, it's not normal to work the entirety of your career with only one company. For instance, millennials typically stay for 1-3 years in a job, whereas boomers have an average of 10 years at a job before changing.

Two ways to avoid the growing turnover and frequent-job-switching stats are:

Treat your team with respect and respect their opinion solicit feedback and pay them competitively

Make sure you invest in the growth of your team to help them grow by investing in their continuing education

Both of these actions will aid in gaining the trust of your team members -- crucial to keep the team's members in line over the long run.

Once you have the right team members on board It's the time to assign every one of your routine tasks. It is crucial to assign the appropriate tasks to the appropriate individuals.

Be sure that your automated systems are operated by the correct people also.

In this case, for example, your marketing deployment can be automated by an email service from a third party; however, you may have to delegate the administration and the writing of your email marketing content.

Final word:

Find trustworthy team members that can take over your standard tasks and processes over the long haul.

OK, that covers internal business matters. We'll now look at the outside-facing -- and most important -- part of your enterprise: your customers.

#4. Prioritize customer support

The other key aspect to running a business that runs without you is to make sure your service to customers is high-quality (and remains that way without you).

Why? An alternative to a bad customer experience isn't pretty.

Over half of Americans have canceled a planned purchase or transaction because of bad service, and 33% of customers change companies following a single poor service instance.

What's more, is an excellent customer experience could be the difference between your brand's marketing. Customers will inform an average of 15 about their bad service and, in the positive side, tell 11 individuals will tell about a positive one.

Marketers are well aware of what's riding on an excellent customer experience. This is why they're stepping up their responsibility to the same. 43 percent of marketers claim this responsibility this is a significant increase from 27% the year prior to that.

Not only does a good customer experience influence the new customers you are attracting however, it can also impact your current customers, so don't forget about them, too.

In terms of a specific strategy, concentrate your efforts in post-sale sales marketing and is turning into the norm. In fact, last year, marketers put aside around 30 percent of their time for post-sale marketing.

It's little wonder, too that loyal customers bring in higher revenue and costs less more than brand new ones. It's not much better then that?

For the sake of calculating the value of loyal customers is five times more likely to buy again, four times as likely to refer, and 7 times more likely to try another one of your offerings. On top of that the cost is more than five times more to win the attention of a potential client than to keep an existing one.

Okay. Now that you have the correct systems, personnel and priorities set and you're prepared for the next stage.

#5. Find the successor

The last -- and most likely to be the most difficult- step to building an enterprise that can run without you is to hire a successor to take over your role as the leader.

Letting go of the reigns is a major challenge to entrepreneurs since you've put the sweat, blood and tears into getting your company to a profit stage, and it's a shame to watch the whole thing fall apart.

In fact, chances are you won't. 40% of the new CEOs do not meet their performance expectations in their first 18 months.

But not to worry. It is important to embrace missteps and treat them as an opportunity for lessons. One of the last things you would like to do is coddle your successor and try to rescue the day in any chance of failure.

You should instead act like the "guide in the back" who urges your successor to discover solutions of their own. This can encourage perseverance, a highly rewarding quality which minimizes the risk of failure.

People who view themselves as resilient are 14.5 percentage more likely to have experienced severe setbacks in their lives, so aim for a successor who owns this quality.

To find the right successor, be patient. It is not enough to have enough time to review and choose the successor with care You also need to give them a time-out period during which you can train your successor and get to know the waters.

93% of managers say they need more guidance to guide their teams. Therefore, the development of leadership skills is essential in this case.

Another option is to locate someone who possesses these qualities :

Determined - Bring somebody onboard who's adept in making informed decision-making. In the absence of you having any involvement with your company, your successor will need to make the executive calls on their own.

client-centric Find an applicant who is a good fit for your customers. They need to know your ideal client at a deep level and truly are eager to help them solve their problems.

Get buy-in Search for an employee who is able to influence and inspire the team, and get their buy-in on your decisions and the direction of your enterprise.

All in all, finding an appropriate successor will not happen overnight. It's likely to require twice the time you want, too, but the rewards of the additional time and perseverance will pay off in dividends for both the bottom line of your business and for your clients.

Create a company that can run itself (so it doesn't require you to worry about it)

The best part is when you get your business up correctly, you could earn a profit from your business with minimal, if any, involvement once the gears are turning.

Here's the skinny and short version:

The online company that manages by itself can be scalable which you've grown to the level where you are able to take over your own business with the help of automatic systems and team members. These types of businesses are successful, such as selling digital downloads as well as selling info-related products.

In order to create a business that is self-sustaining having to do anything, start automating your processes that repeat, and reduces the workload of your business so it's working at full efficacy.

Create Systems and SOPs that could be referenced in your absence. This will ensure that every job can be completed correctly.

Once you have your processes implemented and automated, the next step is delegating as much as possible to your team.

Making sure that your clients are at the forefront of your operations can increase your customers' loyalty and repeat business, both that contribute to the revenue stream you'll be able to generate in the future.

The final stage in creating an online enterprise that can run by itself is hiring someone else to take your place.

Ready to start taking on the responsibility of establishing your own self-sufficient and well-oiled company so that you are able to let go of the reigns? We're here to cheer you on.