What Is Our Company’s Service?

Recently, I wrote an article about how my awareness of earning money has increased. When I ordered my first Porsche, a 911 Carrera T, at the end of last year,

“If the loan application doesn’t get approved, I’ll give up. It probably won’t pass… Considering my current financial situation, it’s better to buy it two or three years from now.”

I thought that, and to be honest, I even thought, “It might actually be better if the loan doesn’t get approved, because if it does, that would be a big problem…” (Hey!).

However, thankfully, the loan was approved, and suddenly buying a Porsche became a real possibility. That’s when I switched into “I really have to earn well!” mode.

With that, I started dedicating myself even more to my company’s work. To get advice on growing the company, I consulted with senior business owners, and one of them gave me a shocking comment.

“Your company doesn’t have a service right now.”

He asked me to “tell me about your company’s service,” and after I explained it with passion, I honestly didn’t understand what he meant when he said, “Your company doesn’t have a service.”

Clearly confused with a “Huh? What do you mean?” expression, the senior continued like this:

Right now, your company’s offerings have you personally embedded in them, don’t they? And quite heavily.
Because it’s so personalized, efficiency is low, scaling is difficult, and the more work you get, the more your personal burden grows.
A service means something that doesn’t rely on the owner or specific individuals. It’s a system where anyone can provide roughly equal value.
In other words, unfortunately, your company doesn’t have a service right now.
If you want to keep things as they are, I won’t say anything, but you want to grow your company and earn more, and help your team earn more too, right?
If so, you have to build proper systems.

That was the message.

I see. I was a bit shocked to hear such a pointed critique about something I had been working so hard to shape through repeated thinking, action, and improvement, but looking back, it was absolutely true.

Advice from My Husband

Recently, I shared this story with my husband, and he laughed and said:

Yeah, that’s exactly right. I think it’s spot on. This is a great story—you should write a blog about it.

So that’s why I’m writing this blog post now, following his advice (lol).

When my husband started his own business, he faced a similar situation. From there, he seriously thought about systematizing, and now his company runs smoothly even without him.

In fact, he said, “I was shocked that I bought my dream Porsche after all these years but had no time to drive it because of work, so I seriously thought about systematizing.” (laughs)

The Benefits of Building Systems

After receiving that shocking advice from the senior, I began focusing on creating systems within my company.

Specifically, I started visualizing project processes, creating manuals, sharing intentions and goals in meetings, trying things out, and making improvements whenever issues arose…

Turning what had been a black box into visible processes one step at a time takes a lot of time, and I still have to handle negotiations and production deadlines as before.

With only 24 hours in a day, I’m constantly thinking hard about “how to proceed efficiently, maintain quality, and work sincerely and carefully”—it’s truly a daily challenge while on the move.

However, since starting to build these systems, my mindset has clearly changed. That change is a growing awareness of “paying others to take on tasks.”

Until now, I was the type to just charge ahead alone.

I ran my first company almost entirely by myself, and even though my husband and I run this blog together, I liked doing everything within my own reach alone, and I wasn’t really good with teams.

But to build systems in my current company, I have to delegate, and delegating means paying higher fees. When fees go up, I need to raise service prices, and to raise prices, improving quality is essential. For that, I realized we need to strengthen the system and training so that anyone who joins can maintain the same quality.

While thinking about this direction, delegating work to others has allowed me to focus more on sales activities, and my workload has started to increase.

I’m deeply grateful to the team members who run alongside me despite my reckless, headstrong ways and frequent mistakes. I still have a long way to go, but I feel a positive cycle is gradually starting.

Becoming a Person Worthy of a Porsche

At this level, there are fewer people who will give you frank advice.

But through the shocking advice from that senior, I was able to reaffirm the importance of systems in company services, and by working on this, I can see a path for the whole company to grow.

From now on, as a business person, I want to constantly review my mindset and actions, keep challenging myself, and not be afraid to learn from those around me. By accepting feedback, I want to grow both myself and my company.

And with the delivery of my Carrera T approaching (I’ll write more about that later), I want to become a person worthy of a Porsche… and above all, be in a position to easily afford the loan payments (right now it’s tight, and I even jokingly say that if I can’t pay the loan, I’ll have to sell it!). I’ll keep working hard.