E15: How to Set Up Systems to Make your Business Run Smooth

To-do lists, project management software, contracts, Ahhhhh there is so much to keep up with when you are running your own business.  But, if you don't set up the correct systems, you can find yourself struggling to keep up  with your work. 

One of the hardest things to do when struggling with ADHD is to stay focused and organized. So when you don't have systems in place, you can feel overwhelmed, anxious, and confused on what is next. 

Is this episode, we discuss 3 ways to help set up systems in your business to help it run smooth. Stop doing the same thing over and over and get yourself set up with a proper systems. It will change how you work greatly. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is the GSD podcast. I'm your host, the wizard of Iz for those of you that this might be your first podcast. I'm here working with business owners who struggle with ADHD, trying to get focused and thrive in their business, because this is something that I went through.

[00:00:20] This is something that took me. Gears to figure out that this is something that plagues me and many, many more people that are out there and how difficult it was to sometimes focus. on my business and know the right things I needed to do. Today, we're going to talk about how to set up systems to make your business run smoothly.

[00:00:43] I wish I knew this in the beginning because I wasn't the best with it, but now... Where we're at. Oh my gosh, this is perfect. You're going to love this. We're going to jump in. So when I started my business, I worked on things as they came in. Somebody sent me, signed through [00:01:00] email, got it, jumped on it, worked on it, did it.

[00:01:02] Somebody called me, jumped on it, worked on it, did it. Yada, yada, yada. Hey, in the beginning, it's easy. But as you start to have a lot of clients, you can't do that. Because next thing you know, you're sitting there for three days with nothing to do. And then all of a sudden, everything comes in and they all want it done ASAP.

[00:01:19] So it's not going to work. So if you have some systems in place, this is going to help that stress when everything comes in on one day. I didn't have a system. I just took care of whatever it was when I got the job.

[00:01:34] Soon, I found myself repeating some of the same things over and over and over, such as when I first started doing a business, I was more on the audio side, so I was doing a lot of recording sessions. I would keep repeating how I set up my session, how I would print out a track sheet each time. I'd have the artist sign the contract when they came in.

[00:01:58] I would upload their [00:02:00] tracks after that. There's a lot of redundancy in every session. So this became redundant and it started to eat up time. I was doing the same thing over and over and over and I said, there's gotta be an easier way. I soon learned that I can create a template. Once I did that, I could pull up the template every time for recording.

[00:02:23] So I created this recording template and then I pulled it up every single time. That was one thing that I did. I realized I can print out a stack of track sheets and have them ready to go. I emailed the contracts ahead of time. and had them submit their tracks beforehand. So I went from doing all of this right when the artist got in, to having most of this done ahead of time and all prepped and ready to go, which saved me so much time up front, which got us into the recording session a lot sooner.

[00:02:58] It was such, [00:03:00] such an easier way to handle things. So once I noticed I was setting up a system to record. As I said, it saved me time. That which turned into saving money. And it actually made me more money because I wasn't wasting time doing these other things. So in recording, for those of you who don't know, your artist usually pays for the time that they are working.

[00:03:24] So they pay once you start working on the session or the clock hits. So, it's up to you. Do you start the clock as soon as they walk in or do you start the clock when you get through everything else? I started the clock once we get through everything else and we're actually doing the work. So, as I said, once I set up the system, it actually saved time, which saved money and actually made more money because there's more time to do these things.

[00:03:48] I had another, another issue too, when I was running a business, when I started to get more clients and do more work, I started to have to plan out my days of like, what do I have to do today? What's on the [00:04:00] agenda? You know, what, what do I have to get to? And I started to think to myself, well, I can't just make a bunch of sticky notes all day.

[00:04:08] Well, I did in the beginning, a lot of sticky notes. But then I realized that's not going to cut it. So then I just got a, you know, a little notepad and I started to do a daily to do list, which I'm going to tell you right now. Those of you who have ADHD, creating a daily to do list at the beginning of the day to know what you have to do for the day is so pivotal and vital in getting through your day without feeling stressed, without feeling exhausted, without feeling confused.

[00:04:38] To do lists are great. So I did that and that worked great, but then what happened was crap. I left my to do list at home. What am I going to do? Because now my brain can't function on what's there. So to stay to the theme of this podcast about setting up systems for your business to run smoothly, I ended up finding an online digital [00:05:00] project management tool.

[00:05:01] There's a lot out there. Like some of you have probably heard of monday. com. In the beginning, I used one called productive. com, but it was spelled like P R O D U C T E E V, something like that. Now I use Asana. com as well, and they're just like these digital project management tools where I can go in there and I can set up a client and everything that they need.

[00:05:27] I can set up the task, I can make notes, due dates, all that stuff. I would start to create these systems once I realized I had too much work and I was all over the place. Cause again, last thing you want. So sit at your desk or wherever you're working, your Starbucks, your Panera, your local coffee shop and thinking, what do I have to do?

[00:05:47] Because what's going to happen is you're going to do that busy work that we talked about in last episode, where You're just doing work to work, but it's nothing productive. So what are some actionable items that [00:06:00] you guys can take to fix this? So let's talk about it. I have three things that you can do that will help set up systems for your business to run smoothly, especially if you're like me with a crazy ADHD mind, this will help bring it together if you stick with it.

[00:06:16] So, let's jump in. Number one, think about what you do repeatedly that you can make as a system. Is it a contract you write? Is it a welcome email for new clients? Is it an onboarding process? Think about that. I can't tell you how much time I've spent writing contracts from scratch. Oh my gosh. I've written probably, I don't know, 10 15 contracts from scratch before I had a template.

[00:06:44] And each contract ate up 3 4 hours. Think about if you don't get that job. You just spend three to four hours of your time writing a freaking contract. So, what is your time worth? It can be anything, I don't know. I'll just give you a [00:07:00] dollar per hour. Let's say 50 bucks an hour is what your time's worth.

[00:07:02] Some of you might think like yeah, I want 50 dollars. Some of you might be thinking Mark, that's, that's way too low. I know. We're just gonna go with 50 dollars an hour. Let's say your time is 50 dollars an hour for your business, whatever you do to eat up expenses, grow. If you just spent four hours writing a contract, you just spent 200 of your time, and then the, you know, client doesn't close, you're out that money.

[00:07:25] So think about that. Can you create a general contract that works that you only have to update client's name and specific client info for that? It will go from four hours of work to 30 minutes of work. Boom. Do that. Do you have an onboarding process? Do you talk to your clients and say, Hey, you know, what is your unique selling propositions, which we've talked about in an early episode?

[00:07:50] What's your unique selling propositions? What makes you different? Maybe you have a two to three word document side note. I do that actually asks [00:08:00] all these questions that also asks for logins and passwords. It's so much easier than this constant back and forth and beginning like, oh, can you give me your Google login?

[00:08:08] Oh, can you give me access to analytics? Oh, can you give me access to website? Oh, can you give me access to your ads? In my industry, that's what it is. So I have a document now that literally says here's what I need Fill it out get it to me and now it puts it in their hands saves so much time. What do you do repeatedly that you can make into a system?

[00:08:27] That's number one Let's jump to number two. Number two. Is there work that you do that you might not be the best at?

[00:08:35] I know there is for me. You know, is this something that you can outsource? It may cost you money at first, but it can give you back time. And now you can get more work, and then you can charge the right price. To help to outsource that work. So what what is there? I've met a lot of people over the years who are like I can't stand social media.

[00:08:56] I can't either I just don't have the time for it, but people [00:09:00] are like I don't know. I can't come up with ideas I can't do this. I can't do that They used to come to me for that work and then after a while just like this is too time consuming So I didn't like doing it anymore. So I actually found someone that I outsource social media to they would write All the content for me and they will put it together.

[00:09:18] I mean, I would post it up and I would be the middleman, but I had someone do the work. So I would charge to have this additional person to do the work and then obviously make enough where I got something for my time that I put into it too. This can be extremely helpful if it's something you don't like to do.

[00:09:36] I myself, I, I sell a package to clients. For those of you who might not know I'm in marketing. I didn't want to get into marketing. I kind of fell into marketing I'm an audio video guy. I played in a band for years. I love recording music. I love creating music. I love sound design I love creating video. So I am in video marketing, but I also got into Google Ads and I got really good at it.

[00:09:59] And what [00:10:00] happened is I Created a system that I found that works for certain industries and that's the people I go after and that's the services I sell and I have a whole package But, you know, there's always one client that wants a little bit more than that one package I sell. And I usually don't find that out until we're already working.

[00:10:18] So when they want that. I'll, you know, charge them for that additional stuff, but I outsource it because it's not something I do. It's not something I want to do. It's not something I good at, so I find somebody else to do it. So that's number two. If there's work that you're not the best at, maybe you can outsource it to somebody else.

[00:10:36] Maybe this one client you don't make enough off of to outsource it, but at the next one, charge that price so you get that. Number three. The last one, set aside time. It's not fun to create these systems because you usually are not making money doing them, but it'll save you from doing busy work. [00:11:00] So pick a day, maybe it's a Friday, maybe it's a Friday before a three day weekend and a lot of people that you work with are taking a four day weekend.

[00:11:10] Maybe it's a Monday and you're waiting for stuff to come in. If you have a section, a block of time, set it aside. And work on creating these systems. Take a couple old contracts. Go through them, update them. Now, if you think you're never going to update your contract again, that's false because almost every client I learn something from to add in my contract.

[00:11:31] But adding a new paragraph in is so much different than adding in pages of a contract. So set aside time. Build your contracts. Build your, you know, daily to do system. Whether that's digital, whether that's on paper. And a side note, I actually have two. I have a digital system that I can access anywhere.

[00:11:56] That's the main work that I need to do for clients. But then when [00:12:00] I'm at my desk in the morning, I take 10 minutes and I look at all my to dos from my digital side and I write down an order of importance that need to be done first. So I actually still have a paper to do list. So my digital one is just what I have to do for clients, but then when I see what's due that day, I'll do a paper one in order that I need to do.

[00:12:21] Or, and I've realized this as someone who has ADHD, sometimes I do the easy tasks first, so I get that feeling of accomplishment, then doing the hardest one first, or the one that's going to consume the most first. I knock out the ones that are easier, so I have a feeling of accomplishment.

[00:12:37] To keep me motivated to keep going. So yeah, number three, set aside time because it'll be a lot easier to do and build your systems that way than it is just doing busy work, trying to fit it in. In conclusion, with all this, the more you can create a system for your business, the easier it will be for you to set aside or hand off work to [00:13:00] somebody else.

[00:13:01] Without these systems, you are technically redoing the same thing over and. Over and you can never pass work on to somebody without having to train them or explain everything to them You don't want to do that. You don't want to be like, oh, well, I'm gonna pass this work off to you But I I don't I I don't have any way to show you how to do it Unless I explain it and this is a trap that I fell in if I have to explain it to you I'm just gonna do it.

[00:13:29] Well, sometimes you need the time to explain it So then someone else can do it. So it's almost like double work, but if you create a system, then you can pass on the system to them and then they. Can work on it from there. And now you're just spending a little bit of time to review the work and tweak things from there.

[00:13:47] These systems, they'll make your work more efficient. They're going to save you time. And technically they're going to make you more money and free up the busy work. That's what we want to get out of. You want to get out of busy work. You want [00:14:00] to free up time. Like what's your goal for your business? Do you want to work 20 hours a week?

[00:14:04] But feel like you're making a 40 hour a week income, but you're only working 20 hours. Do you want to run a business where you're not doing busy work and you have people to pass things off And you can make more money because you're making the money for other people to do the work. I mean gosh That's pretty much corporate America.

[00:14:21] We all work for someone else's dream in corporate America. They're all paying us to do the work that they don't want to. So if you're a business owner, whether you have employees or work for yourself, you can't really get out of the, I guess you would say the issue of hiring people. It just depends on, do you make them an employee or are they a contractor?

[00:14:39] So I try to work. In terms of what I can handle and what I'm good at. But every now and then I have to outsource to someone. So I just charge for it. I charge the price that those people will pay for me to pass the work to them. And I charge a little bit more for my management time back and forth with the clients and anything else that I have to do.

[00:14:59] And that's, [00:15:00] that's the way you have to do it. But if you can systemize a lot of your work, that saves you time and money. It's easy to pass off work to other people. It's easy to get out contracts quick. And because of that, you can make more money quicker. You can actually take care of Your client's quicker, but the most important part is if you struggle like me with this ADHD, you can actually not stress yourself out by staying up late, long hours, constantly reproducing things that can be a system.

[00:15:34] I don't know. There might be other things. What are other things that you think you can do in your business that you can create a system out of so it's easier to work and function with? Now, follow up from today as a review, number one, think about what you do repeatedly and see if you can make that a system to see if there's work.

[00:15:51] You're not the best at, and see if you can outsource that to somebody else. And three set aside time to do number one, which is make those systems, whether it's [00:16:00] creating con. Contracts that are ready to go, whether that's like welcome emails, the year onboarding process, getting logins and information from everyone.

[00:16:07] Maybe that's even connecting with your client in person or on a zoom where you guys can go through all those things where you need to get authentication to log into this, or you need them to approve this, or they got to set up this account, yada, yada, yada. This will save you time and heartache in the beginning.

[00:16:24] So I hope you guys enjoy this episode. We got more coming up. We got the holidays coming up, so I'm going to jump into some. off topic, special ones that kind of can help you out. And again, I appreciate you all for listening and tuning in until next time. This is the wizard of is take care.

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