Summer can be a slow time for most businesses, but the back-to-school season is nearly upon us. If you're getting back online after a summer away, had a busy season with family or kids, or you're just ready for the last quarter of the year, you might need to organize (or re-organize) your business.
Just like you used to pack your backpack and lay out your clothes for the first day of school, we're sharing a few "back to basics" business organization tips here. These prep steps and tools can get back to your desk, back to your inbox, and back into the groove faster.
There's nothing worse than coming back from vacation or even an afternoon at the pool only to open your inbox and see 87 messages. It's like forgetting your homework on the table at home, right? This is why our first step in any business's organization process is getting to inbox zero.
When you see that chaotic inbox, we want you to:
If you don't already have a process for filing your emails with labels, make sure to check out our recent blog on reaching inbox zero.
Remember forgetting to do your homework? Yikes. That's what it feels like when you forget about a client deadline or project deliverable.
Plus, any time you're feeling a bit of a summer slump, you can bet that overdue deadlines, client projects, and even internal project deadlines are behind. Once you're fully committed to catching up, though, it's time to look at your project management system.
Do you even have a project management tool? If not, that could explain why you're running late. If you do, but you're still behind on tasks, it could be because you don't have your project management set up in a way that honors your business or your work cycles.
Plus, a really solid project management tool will help you have more foresight into what's coming so you can take summer vacations without coming back to tons of "Overdue" notifications.
Our on-demand masterclass, CEO Systems That Scale, can actually show you how to set up your project management tool for better success (and way less overwhelm).
You took the time off that you needed, or you're seeing clients trickle back from their own vacations. That's great, but... you might be realizing that this slow season has affected your revenue or booking goals. It might be time to book more projects or clients to reach your end-of-year goals. You might also realize that some of your potential leads went cold while you were out. Now's the time to buckle down and really figure out how to get more customers or clients in the door. It's kinda like studying for mid-terms, except with fewer flashcards.
This is where a customer relationship management (CRM) tool can come in handy. A tool like HoneyBook can help you:
We'll give a sneak peek inside this awesome CRM and how we use it to organize our clients' businesses (and our own) inside our free systems training.
While we might just be in back-to-school season right now, it's just a blink away from the holidays — and finals, if you remember those days. Time flies! You know that the same principle applies to your business, which is why you might be feeling a little panicky that you're not ready for your big Black Friday sale or other big holiday sale. You need a project plan stat — and you need tasks to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
If the holidays are a busy time for your client-based business, it's also important that you work hard now to make it easier on you later. You may need to create workflows to get a new client onboarded or managed, plus a project to track progress with your clients. And, when it's all over, you'll want to report on how the project went with a team review or even client feedback.
We'll show you which TWO tools can help you do just that in our CEO Systems That Scale free on-demand masterclass.
Let's be honest: summer isn't the only "season" in your business. Whether you have a busy and booked-out summer or a slow one, you may find yourself in an entirely different cycle as fall approaches. That's why it's critical that you actually know your capacity so that you can pursue new buyers or book new clients without eating through your inventory or your available time.
This is where we start to sing the praises of blending a CRM and a project management tool for your business. You need to be able to seamlessly onboard clients or projects, while also knowing exactly what tasks and deadlines you're looking at. When you use these tools together, you'll be able to see when things are slow and when things need to slow down.
Of course, we dig into how a CRM and a project management tool can make all the difference for your business in our CEO Systems That Scale masterclass. We have a special offer inside the masterclass that will make it even easier for you to use both a CRM and PM tool in your business — ASAP. Want to get extra credit? Watch our FREE masterclass now!
Ready to graduate to the top of your class — aka stand out in your industry and grow your business to new heights? You want to solidify your systems NOW so you can hit the ground running in 2022.
You know that your business growth isn't going to be an overnight success, and the same goes for your business systems. You're ready to put in the work and use tools that support your long-term goals. You also know that now's just not the time to DIY this with paper and pen or ugly spreadsheets. You need to really focus on systems that scale with you and that remove YOU as the bottleneck.
We're taking you back to school with our CEO Systems That Scale masterclass.
What will you learn in this free 50-minute training?
If you want to be a real CEO in your business and stop feeling so behind when you take a little time off or have a busy season, this is for you! Take this free, on-demand training to find the CEO Systems to Scale. It's free!
