Your Admin Now

As I begin to understand more about how to balance multiple lifestyles while running a business, the more I also understand how important it is to have systems in place that can help us run our business to not only help us manage our day- to- day activities but to also help us manage our low energy days… when our days don’t seem manageable.

I recently experienced a traumatic event that caused me to fall behind far more than I thought it would. Although, my business isn’t in the stage I’d like it to be, the time off was very much necessary.

When I was ready to get back to work and start to plan out my workflows for the week, because I have project and task management systems in place, I immediately noticed how I could easily pick up where I left off instead of going thru notes, emails, texts, and multiple sources trying to figure out what I need to do.

Though the process to set up your systems is tedious and lengthy, as a new business owner, you have the advantage of taking your time to build out a solid foundation that works. When it comes to established businesses, you’re likely to have time on your side if you stop production and tackle all your systems at once. Of course, that’s not a profitable option unless you’re properly equipped to do so.

For both new and established businesses, I recommend building your systems as you go by using the following tips:

1. Identify your business tasks:
   • New business owners, you should make a list of your business tasks and organize your business tasks into departments.
   • Established business owners should make a list of tasks per department.

When I say tasks, I mean what you’ll be doing to run your business. From production to sales to management. You’ll likely have something like “Process Orders” or “Onboard New Client” and things like “Post on Social Media” or “Process Payments.”

Separate those tasks into departments like Customer Service, Marketing, Accounting, etc. These departments will be based on your business needs. For example, you may have HR if you have additional team members or Operations for daily operational tasks.

2. Set up workflows for each department based on your tasks.

Your workflow is the steps or phases of steps to get tasks completed. Using one of the examples from above, Customer Service, you may have a workflow for onboarding a new client or processing their orders. The workflow may go from: INQUIRY to CONNECTED to CONSULTATION to DISCOVERY to UNDER CONTRACT. Make sure you also account for out of the ordinary situations in your onboarding workflow like when a potential client isn’t interested, you may go from CONSULTATION to NOT INTERESTED or REMOVED. And if your work ends with a client, then you may go from UNDER CONTRACT to TERMINATED.

3. Work on one department at a time.

When you’re doing a task or begin a project on the department, take notes to figure out what steps you’re making and if you’re missing a step off your workflow sheet.

4. Test your workflows.

As you begin to implement your workflow into digital software, you may notice that some steps require modifications because the software may allow to automate some steps, or you may need to jump to a different app to complete certain steps. This is where you’ll also get the chance to modify your workflows for better results.

5. Document your processes and procedures.

When you document your processes and procedures, you put into effect a training guide for future team members and a way to refer to when it’s time to update your business practices.

6. Work on the backend of your business weekly.

Use your calendar to divide the work into the days of the week. Theme each day with a department and allocate time to work on they department during your “backend hours” use office hours for clients/client work, use backend hours for your own business. (3-5hrs/day for client work and 2-3hrs/day for backend work

7. Hire help when you need it and can afford it.

Hiring someone to help you transform your business can be hard to find and not so affordable, depending on the stage your business is in. Even when you can’t afford someone long term, finding someone who can work with your budget and get things done withing a longer time frame is better than prolonging the transformation altogether.

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