Entrepreneurship comes with many challenges and so often in our daily work we hear frustrated business owners ask if there is a better way to conquer these challenges. Let me shout it from the rooftops -- YES!! We’ve got a few solutions that you can implement today to help streamline and automate your business. If you find yourself doing the same time-consuming work over and over, reinventing the wheel with each simple task, but you just aren't sure where to start or how to do it for your business, then this blog post is for you!

Grab a glass of sweet tea -- it’s summer somewhere, right? -- and let’s talk about mastering our to-do lists while maximizing our time! We’re going to find some time for you to breathe, dream, plan, and maybe even squeeze in a date night or two with that special someone! Don’t worry, we know the goal is to take your business to the next level while relieving unneeded stress at the same time.

Ready? Let’s go!

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Templates, Templates, Templates

The wheel was invented long ago and perfected many times since then, Friend! Haha! Let’s stop reinventing the thing and utilize it! One way to automate your business is to utilize templates.

Most likely you are creating graphics for Pinterest or social media on a weekly basis or sending a similar email reply over and over each day. Make a template (or two) that you love and that is easily tailored just a bit here and there to fit different situations and half of your routine work is already taken care of! There are a few different templates you need to begin with first and foremost.

Emails:

(We love the Canned Responses in Gmail! If you’re not already using this feature, take our advice and check it out.)

I would guess that maybe you have a folder somewhere that you copy and paste your most used emails from already. If so, high-five for you! Moving them to the Canned Responses is the next step to make things even easier!

If you truly are rewriting those same or very similar email replies each time, then let’s take care of that right away. Writing a very generalized email reply and saving it to repurpose for those questions you get asked often or information you share frequently will save you more time than you can imagine! It will take an hour or two to sit down and get all these templates written and saved, but that hour or two spent will multiply in time saved in the future!

Contracts, Invoices, Questionnaires:

The same truth from above applies here also! If you aren’t using a CRM (which we’ll talk about next), Google Forms is a great alternative for your questionnaires. Having a simple questionnaire ready to go at the push of a button makes things quick and painless when it comes to growing your business, improving client care, onboarding new clients, and more.

Graphics:

Whether you are working in Canva, Photoshop, or another editor, making templates for graphics you frequently use will give you back countless hours each week! When it’s time to get the next week scheduled in your content calendar, simply grab an already-created template, edit it very quickly to apply to the content you’re sharing, and it’s ready to go! Quick tip: you can even buy these on websites like creativemarket.com so you don't even have to make them yourself ~ if you so choose!

Your Assignment:

Sit down and brainstorm: mentally go through everything you do on a regular basis in your business and make a list of all the things you can make templates for:

Make sure your list includes all the emails you find yourself repeatedly writing!
Visualize how the graphics will look to complement your brand. You can even sketch a little drawing of what you’d like to create once you’re back at the computer. This saves your brain bandwidth and creativity for more important tasks! ...AND saves your very valuable time!
Schedule time on your calendar (Yep, schedule this right now!) to sit down and get your templates in order!

Automate your Business Using a CRM

This one is a game changer for you in life as well as in business!

A good Customer-Relationship Management tool helps to manage your client and vendor relationships and interactions and also keeps track of new inquiries and potential clients. Once your CRM is properly set up, it will not only help to keep track of every step you need to take for each project or client, but it will also help you automate as many of those steps as possible.

It is a place to keep all your canned emails, forms, contracts, proposals, invoice templates and send them out easily with the click of a button. They will include all your branding details and specifications and present your business very professionally in all your client and vendor interactions! Contracts can be signed legally with your CRM and most will also handle your invoices as well.

To really utilize a CRM and automate your business, it’s best to create workflows that are very specific to your type of business and the steps you take each day to ensure amazing customer care. Think about every step that needs to happen from receiving a new client inquiry to sending a contract to all the project steps in between. Write down everything you do from start to finish - even the baby steps you take that are obvious! When the time comes for you to grow your team, having each and every step in place will help your teammates onboard seamlessly!

Now you’re ready to create and implement workflows within your CRM. Once these workflows are up and running they will keep you on track with each client, simplify your interactions, and automate those tasks you do repeatedly for each client.

CRMs to check out:
17hats
Honeybook
Dubsado

Batch Tasks & Time Blocking

Time blocking has been revolutionary for me and my productivity! I used to just do whatever work popped up as I went through the day. I had a to-do list but I never seemed to get past my inbox, endless notifications, and meetings to the good stuff like writing, content creation, and other big-picture project items that help take my business to the next level.

This haphazard way of working not only put stress on me, but also my amazing team at Rock Solid. Christina, my beyond-incredible VA, had to have endured endless frustration as she watched items from my to-do list get moved to the next day every day. She would send reminders and complete as much of my work as she could, yet I wasn’t getting to the important things. Friend, this “chasing fires” type of work is a great way to burn your business to the ground!

So, I started time blocking. I made time in my schedule for the emails, contracts, meetings, and other admin stuff and I made time that was dedicated to my "project" work. I feel so much more productive because I am not interrupted in the middle of content creation by emails. It cuts the distractions and skyrockets your productivity, I promise!

Social Media Schedulers

This might be a no-brainer, but to automate your business find the schedulers that work best for you. When used well they will give you back so many hours each week all the while watching your awesome content go out and impact the world like it was meant to! Take the time to learn all the benefits of whatever scheduler you choose to be sure you’re really maximizing all the features. Using your time-blocking strategy from above, block out time right now to create and schedule content for the next week or even next month! Remember, you’ve got amazing templates in place to make this even easier!

This saves you time every day! No longer will you find yourself sitting there every day trying to come up with a post, searching for the right photo, or writing mediocre content just to get something out there. You can streamline the process, be intentional about what you are sharing, and really make an impact.

Try using:
Tailwind.com
Planoly.com
Hootsuite.com
Buffer.com

Delegating

Ok, Friend… OBVIOUSLY this is our favorite way to streamline and automate your business!

Hire someone who is a genius at all the things you do, you hate to do, and those things that cause you to procrastinate week after week! Just for a minute, really consider what you could do with the time you’ll save when you hand those tasks off to someone who truly cares for you and your business as much (or more, if possible) than you do!

We have the most amazing assistants in the US! They truly love to support others, are masters at setting up workflows, creating processes, and systemizing things for your business. They can take your processes and make them more effective. If you’re ready to automate, they’re ready to get it all in place for you! This doubles your time simply because you’re not the one setting up or maintaining any of these things like CRMs, templates, or scheduling social media!