Thinking about creating systems for your business can be overwhelming.

It’s natural to think you need to get everything done all at once. But trying to do too much will likely result in you not creating any systems. There are better ways.

Here’s how to start:

Start with the important

Start with the 3-5 core competencies of your business.

What are the important things you do that make you money? We are a trial law firm and knew what worked in litigating cases. We thought about what it was we were already doing and what worked. Then we put that into writing. Just like that we had our first system.

Repeat the process for your next big system, like how you generate business, or how to communicate with clients.

Start with some small policies

These are more policies than they are systems, but getting a bunch of small ones out of the way can build momentum.

Smaller policies may not necessarily generate money but are important to running a business. For example, if you want everyone answering the phone the same way, create a simple policy for what that sounds like. Or a uniform way of naming documents when saving them. Keep the overall system you’re trying to build in mind when creating these to maintain cohesiveness.

Starting small is a good way to overcome the mental hurdle of thinking you have to create every system for the entire business.

Don’t worry about being perfect. Just getting started is the most important part to creating systems.