One more module and I'll shut up about time management! In the effort to streamline your business for efficiency, there are some things you can start to put into effect. This is not going to be a once and done deal. You'll grow a little, and adjust a little, grow a little more, adjust for that and so on.
In the beginning, you won't have the budget to hire staff most likely, but there are still some things you can do to get your workload down to size even more.
However, we get into this thinking that we are the only ones who can do things in our business, or that it takes more time to train and manage someone than to do it yourself, and in some areas, that may be true. In other areas, you'd be better off hiring some expertise. If you are the expert in all areas of your business, you have a big head.
You need to think about how your business can scale up to making the money you need to be making. If you are in a service based business, there is only so much of you to go around, so you'll need to get creative.
You'll want to work out systems that are as simple as possible for the repetitive tasks that you have to do. My order filling process used to be something else! It took me quite awhile to get it down to the process it is now, which still requires a flow chart for newbies.
My point is, this week, please look at the repetitive things you need to do in your business and optimize your processes for efficiency. Once you've done that, you'll make a checklist to follow, so that not only do you maintain operational consistency, but if you decide to hire help or worse, you have a sick day and family is trying to make sense of what you do, it will be possible for them to do a good job.
The stop in between is getting software in place. You may not be able to afford to hire out your social media, and your ROI may not justify it, but you can probably pony up the $20 for some software that posts content for you. You may not be able to pay a receptionist, but you can install some appointment booking software on your website. Anything that does not require human intelligence or have an emotional component can be automated, and probably with more effectiveness than a human can do it.
The first step is to optimize. If you're making it more complicated, and then you or your employee repeat the complexity, you will be overspending on time. Make sure that that action leads to profitable results, then find a way to streamline it.
Next you automate. If at all possible, get some automation via software involved. If this can't be solved with software, then you might want to delegate. Let me just say that there is software for everything, and if there isn't, you hire somebody to create it.
Delegate only the things that you have very clear instructions for.
Templates
Every time you write an email, proposal or document of any kind, ask yourself "Am I going to write something similar in the future?" If so, save a copy in a folder called "templates." You won't have to reinvent the wheel next time.
Autoresponders
These can be used for many different things, but basically they are an email or sequence of emails that gets sent when a certain thing happens. That may mean that someone purchases something in your store, signs up for your newsletter, or enrolls in your class that is delivered by email. This is my favorite thing. Saves me hugely!
Autoresponders are so smart when properly set up, that based on the readers opens, clicks, purchases, or lack thereof, they get sent different messages.
Recordings or videos
These can be handy in certain scenarios. Perhaps one of your repetitive tasks is explaining the same thing over and over again to your newbies. I have my autoresponder drip out answers to all their questions, and make sure new customers know what they're doing with my product. Some things are better shown or spoken. A new client "orientation" video, or a "watch this before our appointment" will help you slice through all the redundant explanation.
Industry-specific software
This can save your butt. My aforementioned order filling process. I don't still have the old checklist, but trying to pretend like you are a professional store without the proper software is rough. I started my business on Weebly using PayPal as a checkout, and there is nothing wrong with that... Until you actually start doing some volume.
Now, when an order comes in, my store sends a message to my phone to let me know. Assuming it's not custom and I can just get it boxed up, I then head over to my shipping software, who has already imported everything from my store and has a packing slip and shipping label all ready to go because it knows the weight and whether I will ship first class or priority. I print those out and it notifies the buyer and gives them the tracking number. All that info goes back to my store and my email software as well so I have it on file. My store keeps track of what stage the package is at in it's transit. If it's a brand new person, my autoresponder kicks on and they get an email a day for the next 7 days explaining how essences work, how to take them and what to do if there are any negative effects. 3 weeks later, my on-site review software emails them asking for a review and bribing them with a coupon. It will follow up with them as many times as I want or until they write a review. Then it's going to let them know when their coupon is about to expire. My other autoresponder continues to email them once a week with informative stuff and soft sales pitches for other products. I used to do all of that manually, and not very well. The store and email software also keep track of each customer's order history, which I frequently need though not everyone would. This is possible because I used a web company that specializes in ecommerce instead of a generic website.
I wrote out that whole shipping spiel a couple years ago when I did all that myself. I have a person who does the packing and shipping now. I also can outsource the whole thing to a fulfillment company.
The more independent you can make your business, the better.
Essential Homework:
1 Identify at least one repetitive and complex task and create a checklist for it.
2 Write a list of everything that has to happen in your business. On your list, go back through and highlight all the things you love to do. Next highlight the things that you are a genius at. Then highlight what is the most profitable. Everything you did not highlight is a job description for somebody else. I'm not asking you to hire it out now, but start thinking about how you might do that. Post your outsource jobs below.
3 How are you going to streamline your operation? Post below.
4 Check out Integrately, IFTTT, or Zapier, and set up one cool automation whether it's for your biz or personal life, just to get your mind exposed to the possibilities of such things. It definitely is a new way of thinking. Tell us what you did!
Optional Homework:
4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.
The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
Doing More By Doing Less
Ari gives a great example of how he’s automated his podcast. It sounds complicated, but automating a process doesn’t have to take a lot of time – or cost a lot of money.
- At 6:00 – Ari talks about the two key points of the system he created. First is the 80/20 rule, and second, the external brain, which is a system you use to capture your best ideas and organize them. You might have heard of these ideas, but Ari talks about how to automate and outsource them.
- At 8:00 – Ari talks about his ‘Less Doing Peak Time’ app that measures your productivity with a simple tap test, and what you should be doing with your peak time. Hint: It’s not the things you don’t like doing!
- At 16:00 – Ever wonder how to take your first step into mindfulness meditation, and what it even has to do with productivity? Ari give you a great starting point and the reasoning behind it.
- At 18:00 – Hiring staff can be expensive, and Ari addresses which services and tools are available—many of them FREE—to get you to a place where you’re spending more time doing what you love.
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