Doing the Mundane to Win

I’ve always been accused of being a rule follower. Sometimes it’s meant to insult me, other times it’s meant to encourage me. More than once, it has saved me! When it comes to business, having and staying within the rules may not bring the flashy results, but with 39 years under our belts, I have solid evidence that it brings lasting impact.

As we look across our successful clients, we see lots of patterns. One of them is that these clients, their staff, those in leadership, do the mundane, weekly, monthly, and annually. They surround themselves with others who believe in doing the consistent, sometimes boring tasks that ultimately create a solid foundation for success. Maybe that means growth; maybe it means profit (no margin, no mission!); maybe it’s community impact; maybe it’s a contribution to your industry.

We’ve built up some pretty boring routines at Syscon. Larry reminded me of many years ago when he and I had ‘words’ about turning in his time, which was late. Back then, all of our work was T&M, which means to do any billing, we had to have the time spent and the description detail to create and send out the invoices. This one delay caused a domino set of frustrations and problems. After we ‘spoke,’ it was agreed that turning in time, on time, was a hard and fast routine that when followed, brought many benefits to the company and reduced frustration for our clients. We have been consistent with this discipline ever since! For you, it might be getting the invoices out weekly for service calls, T&M Jobs, or the monthly progress bills that have specific due dates if you want to be included on the draw request.

What are some mundane tasks at your office? What would you risk if your team (and you) wasn’t following them? Some that come to mind are matching receipts to the credit card statements; completing new hire paperwork, on time, correctly; filing (electronically or paper) AP invoices; balancing the bank statements each month; reviewing the Work in Progress each week, or at least each month.

Why do these matter? Credit Card fraud can be expensive and subscriptions no longer in use need to be cancelled. A client mentioned a friend whose construction office was visited for an I-9 audit when the owner was out of town, and they had to produce the documentation. Then there’s a sales tax audit when they request copies of invoices to show you’ve paid sales tax at the time of purchase. How many of your AP payments are ACH these days, payments you never see since you no longer sign these checks? Not to mention check fraud where the payee has been changed, or the dollar amount altered and the check cashed.

Last month, we were named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list for the second year in a row; yes, very exciting. When we shared the news with our teams, I reminded them that to qualify the first time, we had to show a three-year history of growth, so this announcement covers a four-year history! It seems like a one-year success, but it’s actually several years of consistent effort, routines, and faithful (not fast) follow through with clients, team members, and our vendors.

So where are some places you could focus? What are some routines and mundane tasks that could help maintain your company’s health, its growth, its culture, its success? Consider which of these would be your responsibility (we always advocate for the owner to do the bank reconciliation!). Which can you/should you delegate then verify?

What about on a personal note? It’s tempting to let a few small things fall through the cracks. Rarely is there an immediate impact. But over time, these decisions, good and bad, add up. Consider your health, your personal finances, family relationships. Think about what mundane routines could have a long-term impact on these areas. Are you in?? –CMW