4 Essential Business Systems Every Entrepreneur Needs

4 Essential Business Systems Every Entrepreneur Needs

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Today, let’s talk time-saving business systems.

You’re busy right? It’s really freaking hard to get a business off the ground, especially when there’s SO MUCH TO DO and you’re doing it ALL. #beenthere

Over the past several years in business, I’ve created some epic time-saving systems for my business and today, I wanted to share it all with you.

These business systems save me tons of time to do other stuff…like create content…or go shopping in France =)

Here’s a breakdown of the business systems I want to cover in today’s post:

  1. Pen & paper brain dump
  2. Outsource (Fiverr, Upwork)
  3. Tools & Automation (Calendly, Trello, Tailwind, Zapier, Meet Edgar)

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Business Systems #1: Pen and paper brain dump

Before I do anything, I do a massive brain dump in my planner. What are my top goals for the year? For the month? Then I break it down to each week, then each day. What must happen for my biz to move forward?

I create a list, look it over, and see if anything needs to be outsourced (step 2) or if it’s something that I can (and should) do.

The braindumps are everything. It feels really freaking overwhelming when you have a bazillion ideas and thoughts going through your head…so grab a planner and just dump it all out.

Then you can decide what are the money-making activities? What are the top 3 things that YOU need to do today?

Business Systems #2: Outsource

Outsourcing is an essential part of having successful business systems in place. And before you tell me you can’t afford to outsource, you need to hear me out.

How long does it take you to do the tech stuff, or create a simple graphic for your biz? What if you could hire someone on Fiverr to do it for you for $5? Wouldn’t it be worth it?

My first assistant was in the Philippines (in fact I still use him) and I paid him less than $7/hour for 10 hours a week. He was able to take over all the annoying tech things I hated, so I could spend more time creating content.

If you need a one time job, fiverr.com is a great place to search for what’s called ‘gigs’. You pay by the project.

Upwork and indeed.com are where I hired my two virtual assistants and our team’s social media manager.

Like I said, I didn’t have a huge budget when I was first starting, so I only had a VA for 10 hours/week. Now we have two VAs on the team and I would seriously be lost without them.

Think about alllll the things you do in your business. What can you take off of your plate?

When I sat down and thought about the things that ONLY I can do, it came down to being the face of our company.

I need to:

  • Be on Facebook live
  • Write content for my blog/podcast (although some people hire content writers, I haven’t gotten to that point, nor do I think I will want to)
  • Record podcasts/Alexa skills
  • Write Instagram captions (although I could have someone take transcriptions of other content I’ve created in the past)
  • Create content for courses
  • Be on client/group coaching calls

I can outsource:

  • Schedule podcast interviews
  • Pitch to get on podcasts
  • Customer service emails
  • Create graphics
  • Design slides for webinars
  • Edit & upload the podcast
  • Edit and upload Alexa Skills
  • Edit and upload youtube videos
  • Create insta stories
  • Set up automations in our email provider
  • Copywriting for our launches/programs
  • Designing sales pages/opt-in pages
  • WordPress updates
  • Create and upload pins to Pinterest and Tailwind

I’m sure there’s way more that our team does but that’s all I can come up with now 😉

Did I use to do ALL the things on the outsource list? You betcha. But as my biz grew, I invested back into it. See this post for examples of what I invested in. 

And now I can have a thriving business AND a life.

Business Systems #3: Tools & Automation

How can you create epic systems in your business so you can spend less time working?

I want to share a few of the systems we use in our business to get more done.

Calendly

Calendly is an online scheduling site. Just send your team members or clients the link to schedule an appointment with you. It’s super easy to use and I would be seriously lost without it.

Cost: $10/month

Trello

Trello is a program we use to communicate within our team, and also how I organize my entire life.

We have podcast/blog workflows, our launch plan, I even put my goals, to-do lists, and everything else in there. Obsessed.

Cost: FREE (and priceless)

Tailwind

Tailwind is life!!! I LOVE the company (and even have a bonus with one of the higher-ups in Pin with Purpose). 

Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduling app, but it does SO MUCH for my account and is the BEST thing ever (in my opinion). You don’t have to spend all day on Pinterest to get results, and Tailwind is one of my secret weapons.

Cost: Free, with upgrades (I pay for all the tribes upgrades)

Zapier

Zapier allows you to automate your work flow between apps. Basically, you can set up multiple jobs for it to do, like share your new blog post to Facebook and Twitter automatically.

Zaps that I’ve created:

  • Add new students to a Trello board so I know who and how many people have purchased a particular program
  • Upload Instagram posts to Pinterest
  • Auto post new youtube videos on Twitter/Facebook
  • Auto post all pins to Twitter

and a lot more!

Cost: free with paid upgrades

Active Campaign

You’re building your email list…right?? So you need an email marketing system to set up auto responders, follow up emails, send out blog broadcasts, etc. There are a bunch of different ones out there (Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, Infusion Soft…) but I moved over to Active Campaign this year when I wanted a better automation system for our email funnels.

We used to use AWeber, and I’ve recommended MailChimp to my students who are on a budget because MailChimp is free up to 2,000 subscribers.

Cost: Starts at $17/month, as your email list grows, the cost will increase.

Meet Edgar

Meet Edgar is what I upgraded to a few months ago for scheduling my social media content.

The reason I prefer Meet Edgar is that it saves all of the content you upload and recycles it for you.

Most people aren’t going to see all of your posts, nor are they going to remember that you posted that 6 months ago.

This is a MASSIVE time saver.

Before Meet Edgar, I set up a zap where any posts I made on Facebook would save to an Evernote doc, so I had all the content saved, but I needed to take the time to re-upload it.

Cost: $49/month

Buffer

Buffer is what I used to use to pre-schedule all of my social media content (Meet Edgar wasn’t in the budget just yet). You can download the Chrome extension and schedule posts from any site, plus you can schedule the same post to go in multiple places (like your fan page and a group).

Cost: $10/month

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Planoly Want you Instagram feed to look super cohesive? Plan it out before you post your content! Planoly allows you to upload your pics and actually place them in your grid before you post so you can see how it will look. It also let’s you schedule Instagram pics and post right from the app. #sweet Cost: free with paid upgrade options” _builder_version=”3.5″]

Planoly

Want your Instagram feed to look super cohesive? Plan it out before you post your content! Planoly allows you to upload your pics and actually place them in your grid before you post so you can see how it will look. It also let’s you schedule Instagram pics and post right from the app. #sweet

Cost: free with paid upgrade options

Voxer

How did I live without Voxer?! It’s basically like a walkie talkie app!! I hate texting #truth so being able to send voice messages super easily is amazing.

Cost: free!

Shoeboxed

It’s an app where you can take pictures of your receipts, and it will categorize it. Super helpful come tax time, and a bonus is that you don’t have to save a bunch of receipts!

Honestly, this one is priceless come April.

Cost: Starts at $4.99/month

Whew! You still with me?

I knew this is a lot, but when I sat down to think about all of the business systems we’ve set up to save time, I wanted to share it alllll with you.

Here’s a recap of the business systems we have in place:

  1. Pen & paper brain dump
  2. Outsource (Fiverr, Upwork)
  3. Tools & Automation (Calendly, Trello, Tailwind, Zapier, Meet Edgar)

Is this helpful? Let me know in the comments below.

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“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” Tony Robbins

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4 Essential Business Systems Every Entrepreneur Needs

Hey! I’m Rachel. I’m a former Big Ten volleyball player turned entrepreneur and professional cheese taster (kidding–but that would be a sweet job).

I’m a Pinterest strategist for female entrepreneurs who are sick of struggling on Facebook & Instagram and want to automate their traffic and get more leads on autopilot. I’ve used Pinterest to increase my blog traffic by 34,000/month…for free!

Obsessed with: adventure, champagne, chocolate, and yoga pants.

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