The Simplicity Solution: Create Ease in Your Work with a Little Tech

Thursday 27 June 2024

Have you ever felt like you were spinning your wheels in your work? Like you spend your days doing a million little tasks that don’t actually end up moving the needle forward?

It can feel so overwhelming when you’re doing everything on manual-mode!

In my work, I see this all the time. People get so busy doing their day-to-day work, they rarely take the time to see if they can find a way to do that work more simply and efficiently.

The thing is… you can’t do your best work when you’re stuck in the weeds of the repetitive admin of your job or business.

You never get the time to step back, see the bigger picture and get strategic.

You can’t dedicate the focused, energized attention that gives your clients the best results.

You spend less time getting to do the work you actually enjoy, the stuff that lights you up and that you are uniquely talented at.

And most importantly, it’s nearly impossible to take a restful break because you physically need to be the one keeping the work happening.

All of this can change when you have the right tools and processes in place.

And the thing is this doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming.

Start by assessing your needs:

I typically dig in by asking clients a series of questions like:

What does a dreamy simple business look like for you?
What parts of your work would you like to feel more spacious?
What would it look like for your work to feel peaceful?
In terms of space and ease, what do you want your business to look like in 1 year? 5 years?
How does your business feel, right now?
What steps can you take in the next 3 months to move towards your dreamy simple business?

From there, I can ‘diagnose’ which areas of their work are taking up too much precious time and energy and ask strategic questions to make sure we pick the right software and systems for their dreamy simple business.

Next take small steps:

It doesn’t all have to happen overnight! I recommend picking one tool that will make the biggest impact on your time to start. So if you’re constantly going back and forth trying to set appointments or you have a nightmare of a time with your client onboarding process — start there.

Set up an appointment scheduling software or a CRM (client relationship management software) to do the heavy lifting and free you from the shackles of being bound to your emails.

Once you get that set up and fine tuned, pick another thing that’s eating up your time like content creation and create a plan, some company templates and a scheduler.

And keep going one business area at a time.

Once you’ve got system in place, make sure to train your team:

That way everyone is doing things the same way and everyone is getting the benefits of saving time and energy.

I highly recommend a video and screen recording software like Loom. We use this to document our processes both internally and with clients so that everyone on the team knows how to do something and they can refer back to the video and transcript over and over again.

Measure the impact of your new simple systems:

How you do this will probably depend on your work and on your goals!

Maybe it’s:

logging your daily mood and seeing it improve with less
tracking your time and seeing how much less admin you’re needing to do
seeing more money come into the business because you’ve got more time to market or more time for billable work
the ability to reduce your working hours
more work outsourced
happier clients with more consistent results

To be a more specific, the most common time vacuums I’ve seen in my years of helping small businesses streamline their processes are:

Project Management

It’s essential that everyone know what’s happening in the business both on a higher level, but also the detailed projects and tasks that will help you to reach your goals.

Within a project management software (like Asana or ClickUp) you can assign deadlines, who is in charge of which tasks and projects so everyone understands what their role is.

Additionally, you can attach key files and those documented processes through Loom links or Google Docs.

There’s nothing as satisfying as setting up a recurring task with all the instructions and resources needed, outsourcing it to a team member and never having to worry about it again!

Appointment Scheduling

If you have a lot of calls, appointments, group classes or any other way that people are booking in to get some of your time — you need to use a scheduling tool (like Acuity or Calendly).

Once you pick a tool, you simply integrate your calendar and then choose what days and times you want to be available for calls / bookings. You can even set up different appointment types (with different availability), create intake forms and customize your appointment/class reminders.

Once you’ve set it all up, share the links in relevant places like your website, email signature or client onboarding sequence. Speaking of…

Client Hand-holding

Managing all the things that go with signing a new client, maintaining a relationship throughout your work together and making sure they have everything they need your work together concludes is a major time investment.

Unless you have a CRM system (like Dubsado, Honeybook or Moxie). These can automate everything such as contracts, invoices (and payment reminders), appointment scheduling, emails at strategic stages of the project, and more.

Personally, what I love about my CRM is that it not only frees up time, but it still sounds like me and feels really personal for my clients — because the emails are written by me and are fully in my brand voice and design.

The other big bonus is that it creates a super consistent client experience!

Content Creation

This is another biggie, especially for entrepreneurs or those of you who are in charge of content for your company. It’s important for our companies to be visible so we can bring in new work, but feeding the algorithms from scratch can feel draining and overwhelming.

To make content creation feel easier I recommend that you:

Create a content library — filled with your top performing captions/blogs/etc., your favorite images and videos, important links and more! Then you’ll have everything on hand when you need it.
Make a template — for content you create on a regular basis. I have them for my blog posts, youtube videos and newsletter so the structure, design and main points I hit each time aren’t something I have to write over and over.
Create a bank of topic ideas — this will help you not have to stare down a blank screen. A great way to do this is to think about what you want to educate your audience around and what will entertain them. Also keep a list of great questions you get!
Make a plan & stick to it — set a realistic schedule for how often you want create and publish your content
Schedule & batch — create a bunch of the same type of content at one time, such as a few blog posts, and then schedule them out so you can focus on other things!

Time Management

This one is a biggie! One of the first things I do with my clients in the Simplicity Solution is ask them to start tracking their time with the free app Toggl so we can easily see what is eating up their time, if they’re charging enough, and more!

From there we make a list of what needs done and what they can stop doing. Then out of the things that need done, what can be automated or delegated?

I also work with them to set the right work environment using tools like time blocking, batching, boundary setting, and minimizing distractions.

Want to know what 1 area could make the most impact in this stage of *your* work? Discover your personalized path to simplicity with my 30 second quiz 👇

https://www.calibratedconcepts.com/quiz

With these tools and my guidance, over the years my clients have had results like…

Wivi-Anne’s:

"Working with Ellie has been invaluable to me, since she really puts her energy into digging into my wishes and needs first, as a business owner. I simply love to work with a team like Ellie’s, that takes time to listen, and then in a professional and simple way, transforms my wishes into reality! She is an amazing pro at finding solutions to simplify my way of working online.

Ellie is really efficient and highly skilled in what she is offering, and more importantly really good at responding and explaining processes in a simple and understandable way."

Mel’s:

“When my business started to scale up I realized I couldn’t bring my best to the table without bringing in some practical support. Having Ellie on board was invaluable to me and gave me the opportunity to focus on doing the parts of my business that I really love and am good at. She set up systems and automations that mean I don’t have to spend my time faffing about with admin and can instead focus on delivering content and value to the people I want to serve. She has such a professional and warm understanding of what small businesses and entrepreneurs need to streamline and save time. If you’re feeling stretched, bogged down or not sure how to make your business run more efficiently, Ellie is your girl!”

And just like that you’ve got the tools to simplify your work, congrats!

All you’ve got to do is assess your needs, start small and take it in steps. I guarantee with the right tools and systems in your work you can get back 5-10 hours of your time each week!

If you’d like to learn more you can check out my content hub here and if you’d like a little jump start to get you headed in the right direction, check out my Tool Kits!