DIY: How to Organize Your Business in a Week

It’s a phrase that every business owner has said at some point:

“I’ll organize my business when I have some free time.”

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And then, unsurprisingly, you never find (or make) the time. Your calendar gets booked, you have to meet a big deadline, you’re busy putting out small fires...the list goes on and on, right? We’ve all been there.

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But all of that doesn’t change the fact that you still need to organize your business. So, how can you finally take on such a big task without spending weeks on it — or only finish bits and pieces that don’t actually make a difference?

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We’re breaking down how you can organize your business in just a week — and the tangible steps you need to take to get there.

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Put it on the calendar

First thing’s first, you need to put the time on your calendar. What we plan for, we make time for. No exceptions!

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For the actual week of organization, plan to set aside 2-4 hours per day, so you have the time and space to be as thorough as possible. For the tasks you’ll do ahead of time — all in preparation for the big week — plan for a few hours. Whether you space that time out across several days or do it all at once is up to you!

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The week before:

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Identify your biggest pain points

One of the biggest hurdles business owners face during organization is not knowing where to start. That’s because they haven’t taken the time to figure out what needs improvement. So, the week before you take action, you need to identify your biggest pain points. Think of daily obstacles, hurdles, and frustrations you face in your day-to-day tasks. Things like:

• Your inbox. Is it overflowing and bursting at the seams? Do you miss important emails because you can never dig yourself out of your inbox? If so, mark this down as a pain point. Then, download our Free Inbox Zero Training and plan to train yourself the following week.
• Your everyday tasks and projects. Are your to-dos all over the place? Do you have multiple channels of communication? Are things slipping through the cracks? If yes, then it’s time to invest in a Project Management (PM) tool. Our personal go-to is ClickUp, and we have a free ClickUp 101 Guide for you to get started with.
• Onboarding clients. Do your clients have a smooth onboarding experience, or is it disorganized and inconsistent? Do you have onboarding documents? Do you send everything manually? If this part of your business also needs help, it’s also time to invest in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. We have a CRM Toolkit right here for you to spend some time with. Don’t forget to schedule this time on your calendar!

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Identify your current systems and rank them

What current systems do you have in place now — if any — and how are they setting you up for success? Take note of every single tool, program, app, and anything else you use to get work done. Then, identify what’s working and what’s not. Which features do you like, and which ones make it harder to do your job? Here are some questions to get you started:

• Are you struggling with your current PM tool? What features and functions are difficult to navigate?
• Are you using any tools that automate tasks for you? What tasks could be automated?
• How easy or difficult is it to communicate with team members?

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Do a task audit

Tasks are every single step that’s needed to complete something start to finish. From project execution, client emails, or your weekly to-dos, go through all of your processes and write down things like:

• Tasks you don’t perform or skip over
• Tasks you don’t have documented but need to add to your process
• Tasks you can delegate
• Tasks you need to automate
• And anything else you can think of!

This will be incredibly helpful when it’s time to craft your organization plan! Speaking of...

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The week of:

Now that you’ve done all your pre-work, it’s time to put things into motion and get organized!

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Set up your accounts to new tools

If you’ve decided to invest in a new PM or CRM (or both!), it’s time to set up your new accounts. Then, start transferring everything you need into them. Processes, tasks, templates, documents...everything. Then leverage the features of those tools to set up triggers, automations, and workflows.

For example, if you have a process for writing a client blog, set up a workflow! Document each step of the process and add them to a template. That way, the next time you need to execute that project, everything is already outlined for you from start to finish. No need to create manual tasks each time — it’ll just take a few clicks!

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Test everything

We cannot stress this part of the process enough: test, test, test! If you create templates, test them. If you create workflows, test them. You can even tap into your teammates and clients to test things out, too! Through this process, you can identify any issues or places you get stuck, so you know what to fix.

Remember: This process isn’t going to be perfect from day one. It will take a lot of testing and optimizing to get everything in a place that works for you. That’s why having a dedicated week to work on this is crucial! Our goal for you is that by the end of the week, everything is set up and functional — not halfway put together (only to be forgotten about the following week).

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Invest in more help + education

Bottom line: Organizing your business top to bottom can feel overwhelming. Even though it’s totally doable, there are always new things to learn and improve upon. That’s why we created our very own ClickUp + HoneyBook courses to help you get organized and stay organized.

These courses have everything you need to successfully organize your entire business, like:

• 52+ On-Demand Video Lessons with step-by-step instructions and first-person tutorials
• Access to our Systems School Community on Facebook, where you can get weekly tech support from the DL Team
• Plug & Play Templates ready to upload into your ClickUp account
• Lifetime Access to everything listed above (including future course updates!)
• Amazing Bonuses

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Our ClickUp Systems School courses are only available a few times a year. If you want to be the first to know when enrollment begins, make sure you get on our waitlist! We’ll also share tons of free resources to help you rock your ClickUp, HoneyBook, and to organize your business while you wait.

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JOIN THE WAITLIST

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