SYSTEMology for videographers – Den Lennie

Step 1: Create your organising chart.

• Den emphasizes that you create an organising chart rather than an organisational chart.
  • This step is about getting organised.
  • If you enter an organising mindset, systemisation becomes an easy process.
• Identify the most fundamental departments that must exist from the start to make your business running.
• Here are some of the departments Den suggests that you establish right off the bat:
  • Marketing
    • Start-off with something like a referral program, or even a word-of-mouth marketing should work.
    • As your business grow, aim to have a more predictable marketing strategy.
  • Sales
    • Once you've got prospects showing interest on your business, you need a department that converts those leads into buying customers.
  • Operations
    • This department is in-charge on your video production process (pre-production, production, post-production).
  • Finance and Legal
    • A department must exist to handle all your business's financial and legal obligations.
• You should delegate a head position for each of your department with a team working under these head positions.
• Every time you hire and expand your team, you'll have more time to work ON your business.
• Creating your organising chart will give you a sense of how your business might scale up in the future.
• Your organising chart will also ensure maximum efficiency of the people who will soon be working under each department. For example, the production team will be able to focus being creative as they won't need to chase after client payments (finance department's duty).

Step 2: Map your Critical Client Flow.

• A critical client flow is a chart that shows how you conduct your business.
• Den suggests using the following flow for a videography business:
  • Enquiries
  • Sales
  • Onboarding
  • Production - this is when you shoot the video.
  • Post Production - this is when you edit the video.
  • Follow-up - this is when you deliver the edited video to the client and ask if you can still be of help.
• Make your critical client flow simple and straightforward.
• Critical client flow creation is a creative process, which videography business owners will find easy to do.

Step 3: Add the details into your critical client flow.

• You don't need to complete adding details on your entire critical client flow at the same time.
• Identify which of them is your priority and start from there.
  • For example, you prioritise enquiries among the other critical client flow points. Map out the system on how you process your enquiries.
• Building systems is much like a tree -- imagine that your critical client flow point are your tree trunks and these trunks have branches.
  • These branches represent your sub-systems and sub-processes.
• You may also make use of stages to describe your sub-systems and sub-processes.
• Make sure that you stick to your systemisation and relay these steps to your clients for clarity as this will provide a lot of help at different levels.
  • For example, a client requested that you do a "quick" graphic edit after sending them the final and revised version.
    • This might just mean another hour of unpaid work if there was no system in place.
    • But if you have a system in place and you've informed your client about them, you may inform your client that you can do a "quick" edit which will be added to their final bill.

Step 4: Consolidate processes into your project management tool.

• Use a project management tool to help you map out these processes and systems and assign them to the appropriate department and team member.
  • Den suggests using systemHUB in conjunction with Asana.
  • systemHUB works as an integral system database which you can link into Asana cards and tasks.
  • If you change the process from systemHUB, the link will automatically update in Asana.
  • systemHUB also has Email Template feature which decreases non-revenue generating activity.
  • systemHUB has some aspects pre-built fit for video production business.
• If you consolidate your systems in a project management tool, you're lessening the chance of being single-person dependent since you can just easily redirect a new team member to your systems directory.
• Clients love certainty and consistency. Systemization guarantees certainty and consistency.

Step 5: Keep learning.

• Join a mastermind group and learn alongside other video production business owners.
• Den leads the Video Business Accelerator which allows him to help videographers.