Getting Your Sh*t Together

 

After working as an entrepreneur in some capacity for the last 16 years, I have learned that flying by the seat of your pants in business is not the most efficient way or practical way to run a business.  It leads to burnout very quickly and if you do that for enough years, it will most likely lead to health issues down the road, as in my case.

So after leaving a full time job 6 years ago to refocus on building my side gig into a larger business and raise my daughter, I have finally found a groove in how to effectively plan and prepare with less stress in your business.

So I am proclaiming 2019 as the year to continue to get my sh*t together in my business, do you want/need to join me?

So I am going to share with you my system to staying organized and reducing the overwhelm in your business.

Step 1. Plan

If you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time.

It’s important to set goals, no matter where you are in your business. From revenue goals to helping pay the mortgage, to helping make an impact in your client’s business, it can be anything that you want! Now, write it down. Write that big goal down and think about how you can get to it. Work your way from the big goal down to smaller tasks that will help you get there.

I also started implementing Quarterly Goal Setting meetings with my Project Manager to make sure we are on track to hit our goals.  It’s also important to look at things that are not working in your business and how you can improve them or come up with something that will get better results.

Now, once I have written my goals down, I break them down! Big goals can feel very overwhelming and working backward from it can feel difficult, but breaking each down and planning it out can feel so satisfying in the end.

To do this, you need to create small actionable items that can be repeated either weekly or daily until you reach that mini goal, finish that project or task. Use a system that help you keep on track, such as Asana or Trello. A few ways that have helped me are: planning my whole week ahead of time (including personal time) and using Asana to keep tasks organized and fleshed out.

Step 2. Prepare

I am all about using systems in business to help stay on track and organized. I will be sharing all about the tools I currently use, in a more in depth post, but make sure you find the ones that works best for you and how you work. My top 3 systems I use are: Asana (a project management software), Google Calendar, and 17Hats (invoicing and accounting software). These systems allow me to stay organized in so many ways!

Step 3. Execute

There are many facets of execution, but the two biggest for me are: leaning on my team and using a content calendar.

Leaning on my Team

This has been a hard one for me but has always been the biggest area of growth as well.  If you ask my team, I probably still have a lot more growing to do. I can be a perfectionist so I have to fight the urge to do everything myself.   

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

I hit a peak in my business where I either had to raise my prices, or get help.  Well I wasn’t about to raise my prices because I hadn’t quite found my worth yet (I’ll save that story for another time).   I was one person and working day and night just to keep up with the demand. This will lead to burnout really quickly, I can attest to it. My husband kept telling me I needed help to scale and I fought against it for so long. I am glad I finally took his advice and I don’t think I could ever go back to doing it alone.  Entrepreneurship can be a lonely place and working with a team as made all the difference.

I know what your thinking, I can’t afford help.  Here is how you break it down.

You are worth a certain amount of money per hour for your genius (what you do best!!).  Now I know you can think of a handful of things in your business that are not your favorite and are time consuming.  Whether it’s scheduling content for social media, doing your books, project management, etc etc. How much more money could you make at your genius if you could pay someone to do all the things that you don’t many any money at??   So you take your hourly rate, minus the amount you pay a VA or contractor to do tasks that don’t make you money and that gives you X amount of dollars. So in the end you are still making money, when you hire someone else to do those tasks for you.

So now I can focus on all the big items in my business that bring in the most money like strategizing with clients and custom designing Shopify sites, instead of scheduling social media, resizing graphics, or balancing my books.  

Content Calendar

Something new in my business that I am using is a content calendar. If you aren’t sure what a content calendar is, mine is a calendar literally built in Google Sheets that gives me areas to drop content ideas throughout the month. My project manager and I  map out the full month of content in one area, so all we have to do is execute each month. Let me tell you, this is a game changer.

If you are struggling to get your shit together in your biz, I feel you! Just remember: plan, prepare, THEN execute! It has taken me a long time to get to where I am, and I am still learning. Having team members to lean on has been super helpful, especially figuring out what works best for my business. If anything I have shared resonates with you’d, I’d love to hear what it was. Feel free to drop a comment below, or DM me on Instagram @cormarketing.