How To: Organize Your Online Business (These 2 Systems Will Change Your Life!)
Let's be honest...running a business can be a little overwhelming sometimes.
There are so many pieces to keep track of.
As entrepreneurs, it's perfectly natural to do all the things and wear all the hats by yourself when you first get started.
But there comes a time when the way that you've had your system set up for you so far, whether that's using Excel spreadsheets or Google docs, or writing things down manually, is no longer going to serve you and it's actually going to hold you back.
Taming the Overwhelm
We want to take away this feeling of "everything being everywhere".
This feeling of there being a little bit of everything in every different place, and you're having a hard time keeping track of everything. and where it's supposed to be and where it should go.
There are a lot of moving parts and there are too many things to kind of keep track of in your head all at the same time, and it can become very overwhelming very quickly.
→ Our goal is to have a streamlined system set up for you behind the scenes so you gain back your time to focus on the things that really matter.
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What exactly is a “system” ?
First things first - you might be wondering what exactly is a system.
I've said this word a lot, let's actually break it down.
Essentially, a system is something that takes a mess and turns it into a structured and organized setup.
Taking all the things in all the different places and putting them in one concise location, that you are then able to follow or you can actually pass off to somebody like an assistant or your team to manage and allow you to sit in your CEO seat.
The two types of systems that you need set up in your business are going to revolve around client management and project management.
Let's dive into both and break them down so that you can understand exactly how they're going to support you behind the scenes, and if you need to sign up or upgrade ASAP.
Client Management (aka a CRM)
Client management, also known as a CRM, which stands for a client relationship management tool.
A CRM is something that takes all of your client communications, and it puts everything in one concise spot.
☐ contracts
☐ invoicing
☐ scheduling
☐ emails back and forth and project communication
☐ onboarding
☐ offboarding
☐ forms
☐ intake, etc.
…All of that can be handled in your CRM behind the scenes of your business.
Honeybook vs. Dubsado
The two CRM platforms we love when it comes to service-based business owners are HoneyBook and Dubsado. They both are fantastic platforms. It kind of depends on your business and your needs behind the scenes.
HoneyBook
This platform is a little bit more user friendly, jump right in.
It's an easy to set up platform for project-based and event-based businesses. If tech is not your thing, Honeybook is a great place to start.
Dubsado
This is what we use behind our business, and it’s a bit more robust.
Everything can be super customized from your messaging to branding, which also means a bit of steeper learning curve. But I find that it really shines when it comes to our next point- automations.
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Automations
The best part about using a CRM is you are actually able to automate part of this client experience, so you can take a lot off of your admin "in the business" every day place, and move that to an automated system that allows these things to happen streamlined and seamlessly behind the scenes.
Let me paint a picture for you...
Imagine that you send a new lead their project proposal, contract, invoice - all the goods to get started on a new project. But it's a Friday afternoon and you're going offline for the weekend.
So, you send somebody this information and they sign it, they pay...and then crickets. They don't hear from you until Monday when you're back online in front of your computer.
How would that make them feel?
How would that make you feel if you were in that experience?
VS - if you have a CRM set up behind the scenes, you can have something that will trigger automatically when they sign their contract or pay their invoice and welcome them into your sphere and let them know what's happening, how to onboard, what the next steps are, when the project will kick off, etc.
No matter if they are in a different time zone, or if they're working over the weeknd when you're not in front of your computer, it's still moving the project forward.
And the client is having an amazing white glove experience and you're not having to do anything or lift a finger to make sure that's happening.
Project Management
The second tool that you need behind the scenes of your business is a project management tool.
Project management essentially keeps all of the stuff in here or written down in one concise location. All your tasks, all your client projects, all of your big goals and ideas, everything, it's all in one concise location.
This means no more random post-it notes or three different notebooks managing all of your to-dos and tasks.
You can actually create tasks, assign them to yourself or to other people, give deadlines, and actually hold yourself accountable and make sure that you are actually working on the things that you need to be working on to reach your goals and things are not falling through the cracks.
That's a big one.
If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night in a panic at 3:00 AM thinking, oh crap, did I send that email? Or, I didn't finish that thing, or I didn't do that task...
This stress ends when you start to optimize using a project management tool.
We personally love and use ClickUp behind the scenes of our business, but there are a lot of great tools out there that you can utilize. Some other great platforms include Asana, Notion, and Trello.
Team Management
You might not have a team yet, or you might just be starting to work with and assistant or VA, but when it comes to organizing and managing projects with other people involved, when it's not just you, things can get out of hand very quickly.
With project management tools, you are actually able to comment on tasks and have conversations about the thing that you're working on collaboratively in the place where all the references are.
So, you know exactly what's happening, you know what you're talking about, and it doesn't get messy trying to jump into your email, and then maybe a text message or a Voxer message...and you're bouncing from place to place, trying to keep track of all of the things. (keyword: trying!)
This way it's all in one concise location.
There you have it!
Those are the two types of systems that you need behind the scenes of your service-based business that will help you support your clients, your team, and projects seamlessly without anything falling through the cracks.
Check out the links below for our favorite tools that we recommend so that you can actually go scope out and see which platform might work best for you and get signed up today!
Ready to get signed up?
☞ Click here to see all our favorite tools, and save $$$ off your first year!
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