Michal Michalowicz is one of my favorite small business authors. I would recommend any of his books, but I especially love Clockwork. I listened to the audio book first, then went back and read the hard copy so I could mark things up and add my own notes. There are so many great ideas in Clockwork and I can’t wait to share some of my top takeaways with you. I’ve outlined them for you here, and you can watch my video book review for more details on how to create a business that runs like clockwork!
The Myth of Personal Productivity
If you are always working to improve personal productivity, you are still doing everything yourself. Switch your focus and work to improve organizational efficiency. The result will be a business that runs itself. Mike’s goal is for you to be able to plan and take a 4 week vacation from your business.
4 D Time for Your Entire Company
Mike explains how each person and your business as a whole spends time in one of four ways:
- Doing the work
- Deciding
- Delegating
- Designing
I especially liked his explanation of the difference between delegating and deciding. I’ll talk more about this in the video below. Do a company time analysis and start moving towards the ideal for yourself and the company. Remember, this is a throttle not a switch. Lean into the changes you want to make.
Queen Bee Role
I always love Mike’s analogies! In Clockwork, he describes the vital role that a queen bee plays in a hive, and how without her the hive would die. Just like a queen bee, you need to define the task or function that is most vital to your business. Everything else must support and protect the queen bee role.
Capturing Systems
As you probably know by now, I’m passionate about creating processes that simplify and automate businesses. Most businesses already have a certain way of doing things. The steps just need to be defined, written down and shared with your team. I love Mike’s methodology for collecting and capturing the processes you already have in place. Remember, the way you capture your systems does not have to be in a particular format. But having those processes in place is essential for effective delegation.
Mike outlines these key steps in the delegation process:
- Hand off task
- Hand off decision making
- Delegate responsibility for the result
- Delegate responsibility for the larger impact on the company
Job Traits Analysis
This is another great way to look at how your business is working. First, determine what traits are vital for each job or task in your business. Second, search for the best people to fill those traits. As a result, this encourages you to think of people not by their titles, but instead to consider their best traits. Again, I’ll share more about this in the video below.
Dashboards
Business owners must have the best information in order to make the best decisions. Michalowicz recommends having simple dashboards to keep your eyes on business these four key business metrics:
- Attract
- Convert
- Deliver
- Collect
I recommend using a CRM with reporting to get these numbers. Knowing what numbers to track, essentially your KPIs, is key to understanding how your business is working.
TIP: Only tweak one thing at a time so that you know what specifically works and what doesn’t. This takes patience, but the feedback you get will be much more helpful.
The 4 Week Vacation Test
Finally, Mike suggests you plan for a four week vacation where you commit to not working at all. Plan for this 18 months out, and then work to make it happen. Revamp your business, and test with smaller vacations where you can step away and see what happens. If you’re ready to build your clockwork business, he even breaks down the whole schedule to help you make this happen.
I really enjoyed listening to and reading Clockwork. I’ll share more about these favorite takeaways in the video below.
So are you ready to Clockwork your business? If you love processes as much as we do, check out our Facebook Group: Process Rehab. We share tips, tricks, and free resources to help you systematize your business.
If you’re ready to transform your business through automation and systematization, we’re ready to help! Our Power Process overhaul includes software maximization, SOP manual and training for your team. Learn more here.