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Setting up processes and automations with the right tools, at the right time in your business
An important part of building and scaling your business is ensuring it’s sustainable. Business ownership and everything it entails – from marketing to lead generation to content creation to sales to customer service – is all about the long game.
That means automating processes when it makes sense, hiring support and asking for help when you need it, making data-based-decisions, and implementing new tools and systems to improve efficiency.
However, these tools, automations, and processes are only useful if you implement them strategically and at an appropriate speed.
A few of my favourite productivity and creativity tools for small business owners
To build a successful business you need to focus on sustainability.
To support you in your pursuit to accomplish more in your business, without running yourself into the ground, I’ve compiled a few of my favourite productivity and creativity helpers.
I use these frequently in my business and with my clients for increased efficiency, and to help ensure I have a more manageable workload!
The importance of documenting business processes (even for small businesses and entrepreneurs)
By laying all of the steps you take to accomplish various tasks or complete recurring projects out in a document or program, you've created a basic standard operating procedure (SOP) that will help your business thrive.
Documenting processes and procedures, even as an entrepreneur or small business saves time, and can support productivity, business growth and hiring, consistency among outputs, and regular review and analysis to improve efficiency.
What kinds of goals can you set for your business?
We've talked about setting goals before. The importance of establishing your company vision and the direction you want to move in, gaining clarity on your business and marketing goals, and how to use the S.M.A.R.T. framework to define your goals with more intention.
But what are some of the different kinds of goals you can set for your business? And how do you decide what to focus on? Here’s how to get started.
The DOs and DON'Ts of automation
While you’re likely always going to have to do some things you don’t love in your business, if you’re spending all of your limited resources on tasks that are draining your energy, your motivation to work on your business is going to wane quickly.
Automation can support you in saving your time and energy, easily generating data, and improving customer or user experience. However, automation is also one of those things that can be a curse when done poorly.
Here are a few differentiating factors to help you determine what to automate, and what’s best left done manually.
How to start creating systems and processes for your business
What do the workflows in your business look like? If you’re like many small business owners, the structures you have in place to manage your tasks are vague or nonexistent. I get it. When it’s just you running your business it can seem like a waste of time and money to invest in automation or document your processes when you can do everything on your own, with each step (somewhat) organized in your mind.
Here's why building systems and processes is worth the effort
Creating systems and processes in your business may seem daunting, but it’s well worth the time and effort. With the right systems and processes in place, you can drastically cut down on the amount of time and energy exerted over many of these tasks, meaning more efficiency, time freedom and profitability down the line.
Setting up these structures may take more time up-front but the investment will pay you back enormously in the long-run, as long as you’re intentional and diligent about documenting, adhering to, and regularly reevaluating the guidelines you create.
How to use project briefs to plan for success
Just like you need goals to direct your energy and efforts in your business and to ensure you’re moving in the right direction, you also need a plan for how to get there.
Because setting a goal without taking any action steps to make it happen is like saying you want to go on vacation somewhere but never actually booking your plane ticket. It’s ineffective, to say the least, and will leave you stuck in the same place year after year complaining about how you never got to go on your trip or achieve that thing you want to.
Projects don’t magically happen. They require a plan, schedule, and communication to be successful.
Reclaim time with delegation: How to choose what you can outsource
Whether your business consists of one person or a team, the decision to outsource different parts to someone who has expertise in that area is simple math. When you or your team free up the time you spend doing work that someone else could do for you, it gives you more time to service clients or bring in new business. What tasks would you like to outsource?
Content process: You have more to say than you think you do
So many business owners hold back from producing content because they don’t know how to make the time, don’t think they have valuable things to say, or they think they’re going to run out of things to say. But establishing a process that works content into the flow of your business is one way to keep the flow going and not have to worry about finding time.
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