Business growth can largely be attributed to the systematization of your business processes. For many of us starting out though, that can be fairly difficult. I recently sold a product that is time-intensive and it occurred to me that I was limited in selling these by how much time I have. That got me to thinking about business systems and about taking advantage of getting things organized and systematized to be able to expand.

I'd like to ask you guys: share what you've systematized in your business and hopefully we can grow our businesses together! (And then I can grow faster and buy you all out. Hehe ... joking, joking.)

By the way, kudos to Rishil for inspiring the idea. Also,major props to Eli and his SEO Empire (see also part 2) for further getting me thinking about systems. And I couldn't forget good old Brendon Sinclair of Tailored Web Design, who is a brilliant businessman and the author of Sitepoint's Web Design Business Kit (now in its second edition, and I strongly recommended buy if you know what's good for your business).

Anyway, so far, I've systematized my needs assessment and my proposal planning. Here's roughly how it works:

1) I get a lead, have a chat, and then shoot them a series of generic questions. Once I get those answered, I dig deeper as appropriate. Most of the follow up questions are also cookie cutter, or at least outlined.

2) Once I've gotten that info, I write to them to paraphrase what they've said in my words and see if I've understood the gist of their thoughts. Usually this is a yes and I can continue to step three. Otherwise, I keep asking questions and presenting my understanding until we have substantial agreement that I understand their needs.

3) I have a look at the site to see how it's doing. A common issue is that newbie SEOs sometimes create a poor user experience. (Ever heard of keyword stuffing and bolding? It gets real ugly...) This will help me further assess what is required.

4) I've got a template for proposals, including levels for toe-in-the-water, wading, and full out immersion in SEO clients. I cut and paste as appropriate, and tailor the solution to their needs. It's partly pre-written (everyone needs reporting, for example) but there's roughly 50% that is also original to each project. Essentially, I'm looking to meet their needs as closely as I can, without going overboard and spending 10-15 hours writing up a document, which, in all likelihood, will be revised anyway.

Send it off to the lead, and call a few days later to follow up. 

What systems can you guys share? (And speaking of sharing, how about some comments on suggestions for protecting yourselves from Google if you sell paid links?)