There is nothing better to me than spring cleaning, refreshing, or resetting a space, and this is also applicable to our businesses. I want to highlight some things that will help you increase productivity and efficiency in your business.
We have 10 Quick-Hit Tips for you today. Of course ten is a lot, so notice what is most applicable to you and take that as your next steps.
We have an accounting software where we can do this, but I regularly reference our ongoing tracking system for our high-level financials. I keep this in a spreadsheet and it has high-level numbers that are helpful for me to reference as I’m measuring our sales, what we have booked, and what is working well.
Some things we keep track of on a regular basis:
Business booked is a big one. You can see what you have booked for the year so far, and that tells you what revenue you already have secured beyond a given month.
But more than that, it allows you to see what your capacity is. Especially for those higher ticket containers where it's time-intensive, you will have a cap on how many people you can serve.
Creating a system where you can see the business booked for the year and your overall capacity has been really helpful for our clients.
I like to see this breakdown because, for example, let’s say we have a client that is working towards making her business predominantly passive. We would want to work towards a higher percentage of her revenue coming from passive sources and decrease the amount of revenue coming from those higher-ticket, intensive, hands-on containers.
If you don't have a project management system for your business yet, I encourage you to consider it.
We currently use ClickUp, but early on I used Asana. That worked really well for me as a one-woman show, but as our team grew, I felt like we outgrew that platform.
Your project management system can house the entire infrastructure of your business, your processes, how you work and coordinate with the team, how you coordinate in order to complete projects from a marketing, sales, client experience, or launch perspective.
We’ve gotten to the point where we have people on our team that can do some project management for their own positions so that I don't have to be the one project managing everything. But you can only get there if you have this in a system.
In terms of refreshing,
To me, there are few things that are as amazing as inbox zero.
In order to get to inbox zero, you may want to update your organization system within your email. For example, I have a set amount of folders that are for specific things, whether it be for private clients, our team, or from a development perspective.
If you don't have folders in your email yet, get those set up. That will allow you to get to inbox zero and keep some of the emails that are still relevant.
I remember when I first started this business and I was getting serious about lead generation and sales, I had this stuff written down in a notebook and a blank document. So it doesn't have to be fancy!
Although, I will say, setting this up in a spreadsheet or platform like Air Table will help you be more efficient.
When it comes to refreshing this, you'll want to go through and see how up-to-date your lead list is, for example. Do you need to remove any old leads that didn’t go through?
The beautiful thing about our system in Air Table is that, for example, if a client decides not to move forward, we’ll still keep a hold of their information and they will show up as “closed” or “lost.” That way we still have a record of the people that were interested in working with us, but maybe it wasn’t the right time. This allows us to continue nurturing those relationships or reach out at a later date to see if we have an opportunity to serve them.
Another thing to do is: Add new people to your list for the upcoming months. If you are good at staying on top of this, you may already have everything up to date. But if this is something that is just another thing on your plate, you will want to go in and ensure your information is accurate and up-to-date.
At a basic level, we want to ensure that your offers, pricing, and availability are accurate - even down to little details. For example, if you have a program that has a specific start date, let's make sure that the start date is updated.
We want to ensure all of this information is up to date so that if potential customers are going to your site, they have an accurate understanding of your offers, pricing, and availability.
I like to do this about every 6 to 12 months. But it also depends on your season of business.
If you're in a season of shifting or pivoting, you might do this more often. If you haven't done this in a while, audit your site and take note of those basic pieces of information I just noted.
But also look at the feel, look, branding, photography, messaging, and copy. These are things I find myself continuing to elevate time and time again.
The more you grow in business, the more that your messaging is going to expand and become clearer. So take a look at your site, update those basic pieces of information, and then make sure that you feel like your website is conveying the true essence and power of the work that you do.
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In my line of work, a lot of our clients are regularly communicating with their clients and students, receiving feedback via formal questionnaires, email, or apps like Voxer or WhatsApp.
Take all of that social proof, those screenshots that you may have in your camera roll, and organize them.
Having this organized by year, quarter, program, or offer is so helpful. Any time you need to pull that social proof for graphics or just to share on Instagram stories, you know exactly where to find it.
And this doesn't all have to be on your phone. If you can create an organizational system that is hosted in something like Google Drive, that is going to be extremely helpful for yourself and your team.
If you don't have an annual plan, that's my first step to you. So instead of refreshing, you’d be creating.
But if you do have an annual plan, look at your plan and goals, and evaluate what’s working or what’s not. Get clear on your upcoming objectives, efforts, and strategies for the next few months.
Some of your priorities might have shifted and changed, and maybe you’re adapting your annual plan. That is totally normal. For perspective, we drastically adapted our annual plan just a couple months into this year because we felt compelled to focus on some bigger projects that we had been pushing off.
So really tune in, take a look at that strategy, and evaluate what's working or what's not working.
Similarly to how we audited your site, take a look at your marketing presence.
These are things we like to keep track of in an ongoing KPI tracking system. We document key stats from all the platforms we're on so we can measure the effectiveness of our content.
For example, if we have a moment where we see a lot of growth or traction, we can go back and see what created the spike. This can inform your content creation moving forward.
Another thing to take note of is your upcoming launches or campaigns. How can we start getting prepared for those?
When we have launches and campaigns coming up, I love getting this set up in our project management software. For our podcast launch, we had a marketing plan and a really fun campaign that we wanted to run. I sat down with the team, we mapped it out, and then I plugged all of that into ClickUp. That way we knew what needed to get done, who was responsible for each task, and when it was due.
So take a look at your marketing plan and take note of your content. And if you don't already have a KPI tracking system, get something like that set up for the platforms you’re on.
If you find that you're lacking creativity or just wanting something new going on in the office to make you feel inspired, refresh your space.
One thing that I usually have on my desk is a diffuser so that I can diffuse lavender or orange essential oils, which is a favorite combo of mine for the springtime. I also have plants in my office that make things feel lively.
Find little things that inspire you and make you feel excited about sitting down at your desk. Refreshing your office doesn't have to be anything big. It could even be just moving things around a little bit.
There’s a fine line between the things that aren’t necessarily glamorous but are responsibilities that we must prioritize, and the things that are TRULY draining.
This could be people that you’re connected to or that you follow on social media. This could be time spent on your phone. But ask yourself… What takes your energy away from the things that ultimately need your attention?
As founders, we have a lot on our plate, but we have to remember the ultimate vision and mission. And we have to be willing to remove what is hindering us from honoring that vision.
For me, something that drains my energy is spending too much time on my phone, so I’ve integrated new boundaries with that and I delegate some things to my team. If you have a team, what can you delegate to them? What can you give away?
What can you remove from your life in order to take back some of your energy?
Listen to the Legacy Creator podcast on your favorite podcasting platform today! And, if you feel led, please leave us a review and let us know what you like about the podcast.
Ashton Smith is the CEO and founder of The Awakening, a platform dedicated to helping women in business build intentionally so they can leave a powerful legacy behind. She helps early-stage all the way to established entrepreneurs own their power as CEO, deeply connect with their vision, & sustainably scale their businesses.
