How to Save Yourself Stress, Time, Energy, and Money in Your Membership Business

The 7 Systems of a Growing Membership Business

Have you ever felt like something is missing in your membership business? For some reason, you can’t see the trees for the forest, but you’re not sure why. You get overwhelmed, clients are displeased, and your business is staying afloat rather than moving in the right direction.

I’m going to help change your situation. The solution to your problems is very simple: you need a SYSTEM.

 

What’s a System?

Now, before you dismiss this suggestion because it sounds so simple, let us have a look at what a system is. I like to consider the word “system” as an acrostic: every letter represents the first letter of a word. In this case, a good S-Y-S-T-E-M will:

Save
You
Stress,
Time,
Energy, &
Money

Does that sound out of reach? Believe me, it will require some work on your end, but I can guide you and give you a proven step-by-step process. 

Why Do You Need a “Healthy” System?

If you take a second to think about it, you will come to the conclusion that everything that works well and productively does so because it has a system. You can see this in everything that life has to offer. Let’s have a look at some examples.

When you wake up in the morning, you follow a routine. You get out of bed, take a shower, have breakfast, and brush your teeth. What would happen if you noticed you’d run out of toothpaste? It would interrupt your routine, and you’d have to look for another tube in the house or even run to the store to get one. It would cost you time.

Afterwards, you get in the car and drive to work. There are probably several routes you could take to get to your office, but you take the same route every morning. Why? It is familiar, and that familiarity relieves you from stress. After all, a good system saves you stress, time, energy, and money.

A bad system, on the other hand, can add more stress to your life. It will take away your time, zap your energy, take money out of your business, etc. Therefore, it is very important that you understand the necessity of healthy systems in your membership business.

Obviously, there are systems on a much more intricate level too. Just think of our body. I’m not just talking about one general system, but about all the separate systems that cooperate to make the body function. For example, there is the muscular system. We all have muscular systems, but athletes exercise and strengthen theirs in ways that most of us don’t. That exercise has a significant effect on the capabilities and strength of their bodies.

Why does all that matter? All these systems function together. If something’s wrong with one of them, the other systems are in trouble – and so are we. If you want a healthy life and body, you need healthy systems in your body.

The same is true for your business: if you want to have a healthy business, you need healthy business systems. The opposite rings true for unhealthy systems, which cause disease in your business (or as I like to put it, dis-ease, which is the opposite of ease).

As we go through the seven systems that exist in your membership business, you will notice that there is dis-ease in some areas. I want to ask you to make the commitment – right now – that whenever you notice dis-ease, you will chase it rather than ignore it. You will work on that system to make it healthy and remove the dis-ease. You can do that by using the following action steps and putting them into play.


 7 Systems of a Growing Membership Business

1) Content System

The content system is related to your menu of services. It covers what you deliver, when you deliver it, and how often you deliver it. The keyword is “it”. The “it” is your special sauce, your key for the way you do things. Once you know what your “it” is, you have to figure out how often you deliver it.

The Content System is driven by your Content Catalog, Content Categories and your Content Calendar.  When you have these elements in place, you’ll never be at a loss as to what to provide your members.

2) Assimilation System

The assimilation system covers what you want your members to receive, believe, and achieve when they join your membership program. You have to make sure that your membership is meeting the beliefs and expectations that made them join. Regardless of what membership business you have, your members want to achieve something by joining your program.

For example, my wife and I are members of a grocery delivery service. We use an app on our phones to make a grocery list, set a specific time and day, and receive our groceries at home. Why did we join this service? I am an entrepreneur, my wife is a teacher, and our belief was that this service would be convenient for us and that we would enjoy our time better by not having to go to the grocery store. Every time our groceries show up, we know that we were able to do other things during the time we would have otherwise spent looking at vegetables and picking out fruit. The service allows us to achieve things we otherwise wouldn’t be able to achieve due to a lack of time.

Whether you’re in a business coaching environment or a service-based environment, your members have certain beliefs that make them come into your business. You have to make sure you help them achieve those beliefs – or they’ll be gone before you can say “assimilation system”.

3) Marketing System

Some of you may think it makes more sense to start with the marketing system, but I’ll tell you why it’s only number 3 in this list. You want to have your content in place and be able to assimilate people before you start reeling them in. The worst thing you can do is get new members without being prepared – and I won’t let it happen. That’s why content and assimilation have to be taken care of first.

With the marketing system, we identify the right message delivered with the right media to the right market. In other words, it involves the relationship of your message, your media, and your market. If those elements don’t cooperate to guide potential members into the right direction, that leads to lost opportunities.

4) Retention System

This system focuses on creating a membership path where people believe, belong, and become your ideal member. You don’t just have to get new members, but you also have to retain current members. That’s why it’s crucial for you to figure out how to nurture that relationship as much as possible. When you improve your relationship and increase their results, your retention percentage will soar.

5) Ascension System

People will quit your business – it’s impossible to retain everyone. However, the ascension system allows you to try and change their mind. Instead of losing them as your members, you can offer them the opportunity to stay at a reduced rate, for a reduced level of services, or with another solution.

6) Strategy System

The strategy system evaluates all the systems and how they work together. We look at the interaction and how we can improve them. That way, we can identify opportunities for greater profit and more members of your business.

7) Leadership System

The final system is the leadership system. If your business is going to grow, you have to grow too. Therefore, you have to work on your leadership. You have to develop your personal leadership in order to become a leader of leaders, a leader of your membership base. As a business owner, you have to grow in your understanding of business, marketing, and overall leadership.

If you don’t have staff now, you should nevertheless prepare to lead them effectively when you do decide to hire one or more people. This system is at the very heart of your membership business. Growing businesses are led by growing leaders.


 How to Apply These Systems

The process of adding systems is similar to the period of stress and release that is vital for our muscular system. When you lift weights, you are straining your muscles. That is a good thing, but only when you also allow enough rest or ‘release’.

The same thing applies to your business: spend enough time working on your systems and improving them (stress) and then give them some time to be built up (release). Every time you work on them and release them, they will get stronger. That’s how I want you to approach these seven systems: stress and release, again and again, will allow your business to become healthy. Healthy membership businesses – grow.

So go ahead and make the decision today: look for the dis-ease in your business and attack it. You will make that system healthy, release it, and focus on the other systems. Then you will continue to face whatever causes you stress, steals your time, robs you of your energy, and costs you money. You will attack it and make it healthy so that you end up with a healthy, growing membership business.

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