3 Simple Ways To Get Shit Done In Your Business

Today's conversation is about how to tackle your goals and juggle all the different hats you wear in business and entrepreneurship. This is a conversation that I have had so many times recently. As someone whose day-to-day has been crazy, this is a perfect example of why setting yourself up for success is important. 

So we're going to talk about three very simple ways for you to set yourself up to get those things done, tackle all the to-do’s and get clarity on what the heck you should be focusing on as a business owner. Because at the end of the day, I think we all know that to-do lists can just feel like it's going on and on and maybe there's a few things we can cross off by the end of this episode. So let's jump on in. 

Figure Out Where Your Time Is Best Spent

First thing I want to talk about when you are figuring out where to focus your time and energy is where your precious time is best spent. You have to focus on money-producing activities. What do I mean by this? Great question. 

What things do you have to be the one to do? If you are a hairstylist, it's doing hair. If you're a photographer, it's taking photos. If you're an esthetician, it is providing the facials or waxing or whatever. I think you see the pattern here. 

So often, we get in this space as business owners where we feel like we have to do all of the things. The truth is there are certain things we absolutely have to do. There's certain things that we probably should focus on and then there's other things that we put on the expectation plate that maybe we don't need to focus on right now. 

A great example for me personally in my business is that it doesn't make sense for me to be on Pinterest. Is it something I'm going to focus on every single day? Is it the thing that I'm going to make sure I get done in my business? No, because the time and money I invest in Pinterest will take longer to have ROI. My time is much better spent elsewhere. 

If I were to walk down the street right now and knock on some doors and just have conversations with business owners, that is a much better use of my time. I know that. I have that awareness. 

How To Get Shit Done As A Business Owner

Know What Activities Only You Can Do

So step one in today's little convo about efficiency and getting shit done is an exercise. I want you to write down a list of activities that you have to be the one to do because you're the best at it, you are the business owner. 

So you have to be the face of that activity, and also these activities bring in money. I want you to ensure that you protect that and set up your week so you can get those items off your list because they are so important. And it's something we often forget as entrepreneurs. So that's my Hot Tip number one for you. 

Set Up Your Schedule For Success

Number two is an interesting one because everyone works so differently. I want you to set yourself up for success. What the heck does that mean? Set up your day, your week, your environment, your schedule, where you work optimally.

I know how important this is because of days like today. Today's a Monday. Mondays are typically not my podcast days. In fact, Wednesdays are my podcast days. Mondays are also not my meeting days. I had alot of meetings today I've recorded a podcast today. So today has been a very unnatural Monday. Why? Because I have an amazing opportunity to go speak at my college and talk to college students business and marketing tomorrow. So I had to recalibrate my entire calendar to make this event happen. But it's been a dream of mine for a long time and I'm really excited. But that being said, it's totally thrown off my week. I don't even know what time it is. I don't know what day it is. I am all over the place. But I am getting all the things done. I need to get done. 

A normal week for me looks like Monday is the day I get my life together and I check in with my team. Monday is also the day I look at the week I make sure all the meetings have locations, all the meetings have the zoom links. I'm checking email and doing all the housekeeping stuff but for your business. I call it a CEO day. It's a get a business life together day. 

Tuesdays and Thursdays I save for meetings. For me, that's a different headspace, a different mindset. Today I had to go through different mindset shifts, I had to check in with my team member, I had to record a podcast and I had to turn that off to focus on three client meetings. It was a lot and it's exhausting. 

I had to put myself in this mental place to prepare for this conversation with you today. I share that openly and honestly because my best self –sorry you're not getting the best of me today– you're gonna get the honest me today. 

My best self is when I set up my schedule to flow in that way. So Tuesday, Thursdays, I love to keep for meetings. Wednesdays, I work on all things podcasts. Fridays are when I do my content creation. It's also when I meet with potential new collaborators or potential new clients. I just have kind of a new set of energy and momentum going into the weekend. And I find that to be super beneficial for me. 

So that is how I set up my week. But it doesn't need to be like that for you. I want you to really take the time to think about how you work best. When are you most creative? If you have physical space that you have to get into, maybe there's certain days of the week that make more sense for you to have meetings on the weekends, whatever that looks like for you. Just take the time and ask yourself, how do you work your best? And then set your schedule up that way. And then check in with me so I can hold you accountable, because that's a big piece of the puzzle also. 

Create A Solid Workflow First

Tip number three is really simple and is so relevant. All of my clients right now are going through this exact thing. It's create a process before you get that new app or that new system. 

What the heck does that mean? Say you're in the coaching space, or say you work in interior design, where you have big projects or bid contracts that you do for people, maybe the process is what happens step by step by step from the second someone wants to work with you to when they hire to when they finish out with you. You can make that entire process for free on a piece of paper and a pen or a Google Doc. You don't need a whole app to do that. 

So many people focus so much on getting the right technology or the right system in place, when really you should sit and map out the workflow first. And this is such a time saver. I recently helped one of my clients automate a bunch of emails and all we did is sat down and talked about okay, when a bride reaches out to work with you, when a new client reaches out, what are the typical emails that you have back and forth? And we just typed them all out and we saved them in her system so she can use them plug and play and made it really easy. 

It took a little bit of time sitting down and typing out those emails, but she didn't have to pay to do it. She just had to sit in her time. What she put into it was her cost. 

So I highly recommend doing that so when you get to a place where you're using that process that you've put together, you have clarity on what kind of app and what kind of system can best support that. Trust me when I say so many people get it wrong, they focus on the app first, and they try to shove their system through. 

Sometimes what you pick isn't the best fit. It's a big deal. It's a big shift to implement a new system, and introduce it, especially if you have a team of people, contractors, that kind of stuff. So I want to save you that headache. And I really want to encourage you to sit and create some processes. 

I'm going to give you some quick examples of how to do this. If you’re onboarding new clients. when is that project done? If you’re social media planning, when you are planning out content for the next week? What is your process for that? If you're like me, and you have a podcast, what is your process for the podcast? The second you finished recording this episode, what happens next? Maybe you blog, maybe you have a newsletter that you create for your audience, whatever you are creating, that has some kind of workflow different multiple steps that happen. 

I encourage you to sit down and map those out. Fun fact, if you grow your team, when you grow your team, you will 100% be thankful to have these processes in place. And then you can be picky and find the right app and systems that will help support you in executing it as well.

Truthfully, my life was little bit crazy. But it was an awesome day, it was really efficient. I got all the things done that I needed to get done. My nonnegotiables, everything happened how it needed to. I share all of that transparently because I know sometimes your schedule is not going to be optimal. Your scenario is not gonna be awful. You may be recording a podcast, not in your home, holding a microphone when you normally have a stand. 

But I want you to know that typically 99.9% of the time, I lean on my systems, I live on my workflows and I laid on my schedule that I've built for myself that works for me. And I encourage you to go implement that for you. Because at the end of the day, you're a business owner, it is inevitable that you wear a lot of hats that you don't have to be drowning in all of them.