If you’ve listened to us before, you know that we are all about efficiency.  “Work smarter, not harder” is a motto we live by.

But recently we realized, that not everyone really knows what we mean when we say efficiency, and so today we thought we’d dive into why efficiency is all that matters.

To a business owner, efficiency means getting things done with the least amount of time, money, and energy possible, while still getting the desired results.

Efficiency In Business Strategy

How are you doing inside your business?  Are you following a plan or are you shooting from the hip?

If you set goals, do you usually fall short?

Do you have processes and workflows in place across the board?

• A great way to improve efficiency is by making improvements to your process and workflow.  Finding ways to save time and energy in your processes (like utilizing forms so that you can qualify your leads and spend less time talking on the phone to the wrong people) can save you in the long run.  Creating a better workflow means you are producing your product or service faster, without compromising the quality, therefore making it more efficient.

Efficiency is Ongoing

• If you do a project for a client and something goes wrong, find out why, and fix that particular issue in your workflow for your very next project.
• Over time you’ll craft a smooth process, system, or workflow.

Efficiency means more money

• We are saving money because something takes less time to do, or we are using fewer resources and therefore it is costing us less to do it.
• Overall we’re trading less time for more money.

Efficiency In Work-Life Balance

• Put yourself in situations that will lead to good outcomes
  • Don’t overbook your time – if you’re a person who always runs late, that’s a YOU problem. You’re just setting yourself up for failure. 

Finding Inefficiencies

Where do you see yourself being inefficient in your business?  Sometimes it helps to take a time audit and find where you are spending the most time.  Find where you are spending the most money or energy, and see if you can brainstorm ways to be more efficient.

Simple Process Change Example

We used to offer weddings, and we would constantly get emails or phone calls asking about our pricing or availability for weddings.  Then we made a form on our website to make the process more efficient…saving us the time of talking to people who couldn’t afford our services or were getting married on a day we were not available.  Then we noticed, we were typically responding to the form submissions in one of 2 ways:  we’re booked, or we’re available and let’s schedule a consult.  So to be more efficient, I drafted up two email templates that I could customize to save me time in replying.

Quick-Wins

1. Pay attention to what you’re doing and find the inefficiencies.  
2. Use templates, batching tasks, contractors, and software to help solve your problems.

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Recommended Resources 

Wrike Project Management

Less Annyoing CRM

The post Quick-Win Episode 9: What Does Efficiency Mean? appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

We are in unprecedented times right now amidst the COVID-19 public health crisis, and a lot of us self-employed business owners are finding ourselves forced out of work, or waiting for the economy to pick up and the customers to flood back in.

It’s important to take a minute, take a deep breath and focus on what you CAN do right now, while you are staying inside to #flattenthecurve. In this video, I talk about how you can take advantage of the extra time in your business right now and get productive while you prepare for after the dust settles from all this.

Here’s what we discuss in this video:

• Audit Your Marketing: Website, Social Media, Emails, etc.
• Audit Your Messaging for Audience Focus
• Organize your Database and Prepare Email Marketing
• Do a SWOT Analysis on Your Business
• Create Helpful Content for Your Audience

Take advantage of this extra time you’ve always been waiting for. The world is sort of in a state of “PAUSE” right now and you can talk this as an opportunity to get organize, re-evaluate, and create some amazing content to take your business forward! Stay safe and good luck!

HERE’S MORE CONTENT FROM LEARN IT – DO IT:

FREE MINI-COURSE “How To Present A Proposal” : https://learnitdoit.teachable.com/p/how-to-present-a-proposal

LEARN IT – DO IT PODCAST: https://learnit-doit.com/podcast/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/learnit_doit/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/learnitdoitedu

The post What Should I Be Doing for My Business During COVID-19 Crisis? appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this video, I outline some content ideas you can be making right now, amidst all this COVID-19 chaos. Now is not necessarily the time to solicit business from your customers, but now is a great opportunity to build credibility, lend a helping hand, and stay memorable in the eyes of your clients.

Here’s what types of content we discuss in this video:

• DIY Video Content Ideas
• Email Content You Can Create
• Social Media Messaging

It’s important to avoid being tone-deaf and simply talking about yourself right now. Think of ways you can be helpful and inform or entertain your potential and current customers right now and you’ll stay top of mind in a positive way through this unprecedented time in our history. Stay in and Let’s DO IT!

HERE’S MORE CONTENT FROM LEARN IT – DO IT:

FREE MINI-COURSE “How To Present A Proposal” : https://learnitdoit.teachable.com/p/how-to-present-a-proposal

LEARN IT – DO IT PODCAST: https://learnit-doit.com/podcast/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/learnit_doit/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/learnitdoitedu

The post Content You Should Be Making Right Now appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this video I describe what batching tasks is and I give you examples of how to apply batching to your daily routine in your small business. What exactly does “Batching Tasks” mean? It’s the act of organizing your tasks into categories to improve efficiency, production, and mental stability.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this video:

• How to breakdown and organize your tasks
• How to batch your client correspondence
• How to use batching to your advantage when creating your schedule

It’s important to batch all your tasks so you feel more in control of your daily schedule. By the end of this video you’ll understand why it’s important to batch tasks in your small business and how you can do it effectively.

HERE’S MORE CONTENT FROM LEARN IT – DO IT:

FREE MINI-COURSE “How To Present A Proposal” : https://learnitdoit.teachable.com/p/how-to-present-a-proposal

LEARN IT – DO IT PODCAST: https://learnit-doit.com/podcast/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/learnit_doit/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/learnitdoitedu

The post Batching Tasks To Save You Time & Energy appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

1. Understand that tasks take time

We’ve all made the mistake of saying “give me 10 minutes,” only to realize an hour later that you totally lost track of time.  When we used to photograph weddings, we’d have brides tell us that the church was “5 minutes away,” and on the day of the wedding, we’d be scrambling into the ceremony with seconds to spare because NOTHING takes 5 minutes. Remember that things DO take time and even writing a short email takes longer than 2 minutes, so be sure to schedule your time accordingly ; )

If you have a To-Do list sitting on your desk, do yourself a favor and write a number next to each task so you can be realistic about your day.  Resist the urge to underestimate the length of time you need. In fact, OVERestimate. No one has ever been upset that they completed something earlier than they anticipated and I assume you aren’t the first one out there who would be.

2. Be reasonable about your To-Do lists

It’s also important to break down your tasks into “accomplishable” chunks.  For example, rather than putting a giant task on our list like “edit John Smith’s video,” which could take days of work, we learned to break things down into manageable tasks that take less than 2 hours. For example, instead of:

• Edit Video A 

We’d break that major task down to:

• Load Footage (30 min)
• Organize Footage into folders (20 min)
• Make a Project file and sync footage (20 min)
• Create Markers and label favorite takes (1 hr)
• Cut the video (2 hrs)
• Edit the Audio (1 hr)
• Color the footage (2 hrs)
• Add Graphics and Text (1 hr)
• Export Draft for Review (20 min)

Not only will you be more organized about where you are in the project, you’ve now created clear start and stop points that will allow you to come back to your project, which helps you schedule realistic timeframes to get things done. 

You’ll find that once you start checking tasks off your list, you’ll be more motivated to keep going, rather than staring at the same task on your list for 3 days while you’ve been continuously working on it.  Break your TO DO list down into tasks that take 20 minutes to an hour (2 hours max) and you’ll find yourself becoming more productive and more aware of what you can handle on a normal workday, rather than totally overcommitting and coming up short and stressing out. 

Bonus Tip: Make sure to [especially if you work at a desk or workstation] get up between tasks, have a stretch, drink some water, have a snack and give yourself some credit for what you’ve just accomplished.  It’ll help keep the positive energy flowing right into your next task.

3. Control your own schedule

We used to think that we had to work around our clients’ schedules in order to be a quality and accommodating service provider.  In a lot of ways, this is true. If you are trying to win someone’s business, you want to be able to meet them where they are and work around their needs.  However, don’t let this hurt you and your business. Sometimes we feel like adjusting our schedules to help others is the only option, but the reality is, you can totally set reasonable boundaries that allow you to be more efficient without compromising your ability to accommodate the requests of your clients.

For your client, there is a very slight difference between you saying, “I’m going to be in your area on Tuesday and Friday this week, would there be a time those days that would work for you?” and saying “Whenever you are available this week, I’ll be there.”  On the flip side, there is a HUGE difference between those two scenarios for your schedule and sanity.

Do yourself a solid and resist the urge to make open-ended scheduling for your clients, partners, and colleagues.  When it’s time to schedule a meeting, always lead by providing a few options and asking if either of those options work for the person you’re meeting with.  Worst case scenario: they say those don’t work and give you some options or ask you for some more options. In both cases, YOU are in control of your schedule and still providing an awesome service.  

Bonus Tip:  We actually found that by giving the options it was actually easier to schedule with our customers and potential clients.  Giving them an open-ended option provided too many choices and proved overwhelming and easier to put off. Giving a few choices makes it an easier decision for them and a more efficient way for you to manage your days for productivity!  Win-Win!

4.  Start to automate or simplify repetitive tasks

Think about the things you do over and over again and find ways to automate them.  How could you use a software, template, process, or video to make your repetitive tasks take less time?

We work with an awesome graphic designer that sends us videos of her recorded screen while she explains her design work rather than scheduling a meeting with us to review over the phone or in-person.  This is such an efficient way to manage all of our time. We are able to move projects forward without meeting and getting distracted with side conversations, plus we can refer back to these videos at any point.

Another way we’ve improved our productivity is to create templates for emails we have to send regularly.  You may customize these messages each time depending on the details, but if there is a large chunk of what you say that is the same every time, create an email template that you can start from and save yourself a ton of time doing things over and over again.

Lastly, see what you can do to avoid wasting time on travel and unproductive meetings.  When we first started our business, we were more comfortable in person and every time we had to talk with a client or a subcontractor/team member, we’d schedule an in-person meeting.  This meant preparing for the meeting, packing up our stuff, driving to another location (dealing with traffic, etc), arriving early, conducting the meeting and then often letting things get off-topic or letting a meeting take a full hour or more even though we accomplished the goal in the first few minutes, etc.

Think about meetings you schedule that could be more productive through video, email, over the phone, or through Skype/video chat.  A meeting that could take up 2 hours of your day could be shortened to 1 hour or less if you don’t have to leave your office!

Now that we’ve shared a few ways to improve your productivity (and sanity) let’s put this stuff to good use.  Start to use these tactics in your business and let us know how they work for you! Or, if you have any other tips you’ve implemented that have worked well for you, we want to hear about them.  

Let’s get more done in less time!

The post 4 Simple Tips to Be More Productive! appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

Learning how to control your schedule is crucial to being in business for yourself.  Without setting proper processes, boundaries, and expectations, you’ll soon find yourself running in circles and spending most of your day in between productive activities, rather than getting things done and feeling accomplished. This is a lesson we learned (the hard way) when we were running our measuring business.

How We Learned This Lesson The Hard Way

As we described in Episode 0 – Who are Rhi & Pete and What’s this Podcast All About? we started a side business doing carpet estimates for multiple carpet installers who were contracted with a box home improvement store while we were in college.

Every week, we’d be sent the contact information for 20-40 people in the New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts areas that we had to schedule appointments with for that week.  Our territory included 9 stores that spanned 86 miles at their furthest points. In order to effectively schedule ourselves, we had to account for: 

• The location of the home we were measuring
• Any traffic or construction we might encounter on the way
• What we had to measure and how long that might take 
• Hoping the people we were meeting weren’t running late or not showing up
• Using map books, printed directions and old school GPS devices without real-time traffic updates.  

Needless to say, scheduling all these appointments was quite the cumbersome task.

When we first started, we would simply call each person in our pile of paperwork and ask them when they were available, and put them in our calendar.  We’d write down the list of appointments we’d scheduled in order, print out directions from the internet, hop in the car and hope for the best.

Before long we realized there had to be a better way.  We’d run into traffic, no-shows, incorrect directions, and endless days full of stress, running late, and rescheduling.  Our days were long, stressful, and inefficient and we realized that it was costing us time and money. It was pretty agonizing at first…what had we gotten ourselves into?!

So how did we attempt to fix this problem?  Well, we started by sitting down and outlining all the places where we were running into issues.

Once we outlined our major issues, we decided that if we could improve our ability to estimate how long tasks actually took and improve our customer process, we could get more estimates done in less time, and create days with less stress and more productivity. 

Sound like a dream come true?  Well, it certainly was for us! We went from barely getting 25 estimates done in a week to easily scheduling 50 estimates and working fewer hours…this was like doubling our income without increasing the number of hours we were working!!  It was all about efficiency.

So, let’s take a look at how this could be applied to your business to save you time, decrease your stress, and increase your productivity (and hopefully increase the amount of money you’re making)!

How We Solved This Problem

1. The first thing you need to do [and as we did in our situation] is to define the problematic areas of your scheduling process.

Take a hard look at what processes or routines (if any) you use to schedule yourself.  

• Is it first come first serve for your time slots?  
• Do have dedicated days for certain clients, geographic areas, meetings, or work? 
• How do your personal obligations fit into this schedule? 
• Are there certain tasks or obligations that keep being bumped for “things that come up?”

Consider your answers to all of these questions and try to pinpoint the places that are creating the logjam and stress for you.

For our measuring business we uncovered that our biggest roadblocks were:

1. We were constantly underestimating the amount of time it took to complete a measurement, travel between point A and B, and stop for lunch/gas, etc.
2. We were assuming that every appointment we made was going to be kept by the customer without any sort of reminder process.
3. We were letting each customer set the day and time when we would come to them, rather than being more efficient and scheduling similar locations in the same time window (kind of like batching our stops together based on location).

2. Second, we brainstormed solutions for each of our roadblocks.  

Problem 1: We realized that it was extremely important for us to be realistic about estimating the amount of time we needed to do our jobs correctly.  In order to do this, we recorded the time each task took us for two weeks of measuring (because each job and destination was different every time) and we used the averages to help us schedule and plan.  This is what we came up with: 

Time spent measuring

• Single Room: 10 minutes
• ½ house: 25 minutes
• Whole House: 45 minutes

Driving Times

We used MapQuest at the time and just added a 15-minute buffer for each stop.  This gave us time to get gas, eat and helped with any traffic we encountered.

2 Hour Window

We gave our customers a 2-hour window on when to expect us.

Having these numbers allowed us to use a formula for scheduling. We’d just plug the numbers in and know exactly how much time we needed and it saved us from guessing or trying to figure it out every single time.

Problem 2: We encountered a lot of no-shows.  Most of the time people just forgot because they too, are bad at making or keeping a schedule.  So to fix this issue, we told each customer that we’d call when we were about 15 minutes away and we made sure to get the phone number of the person that we’d be meeting.  This is twofold — first, a lot of people were meeting us and this 15-minute heads up ensured that they’d have time to still get there if they forgot; second, we weren’t always meeting with the person who we originally scheduled the appointment with.

Problem 3: We’d just start calling the customers as the jobs came in and asked when they’d like us to come. This made for total chaos in our schedule and made for very long and stressful days.  To solve this issue, we batched together when we made our phone calls. We decided since the store’s policy is to call the customers within 48 hours of receiving their paperwork that we’d wait until multiple jobs came in so we could organize them by geographic location, map out our ideal itinerary and begin making calls.  

We also decided that we were going to give the customer two options for the appointment (ie. We’ll be in the area on Monday morning or Wednesday afternoon, do either of those times work for you?).  The majority of the time those time slots did work and that’s the moment when we started making our schedule on our own terms.

Realizing that our clients don’t know our schedule and don’t assume we are always available for them was a big lesson.  We always felt like we needed to accomodate them in order to provide an awesome service, but the truth is, the more efficient we are the better service we can provide.  It’s also so much easier for our clients to choose between two options than to review their entire schedule and toss out their own ideas. We assume that their suggestions are convenient for them, but sometimes they are just as random as you allow your schedule to be when you don’t control it.  Giving a few options shows that you are organized, efficient with your time, and accommodating because you are giving them options.

Improve your process to get more done

Lastly, think about ways in which you can improve your process to control your schedule more.  For us, it meant letting our customers know the window during which we would arrive, and telling them we would call them when we were on our way to their location with an exact time.  It didn’t really take extra time on our end because we were already in the car. What it did do though, is allow some flexibility for us if there was traffic or other unforeseen reasons why our day was running a bit off schedule.  It also meant that our customers knew exactly what to expect, knew that we valued their time, and made our “no show” ratio almost zero!  

Now, if you’re schedule meetings with your clients, no-shows may not be a big issue for you.  But I am sure we have all had meetings cancel last minute, or arrived at a location to find that our client was running behind or no longer had as much time to meet with us as we or they had planned.  This can really mess with your schedule and efficiency. Think about simple ways you can improve or add to your client process in order to improve your efficiency and I am sure you won’t regret it!

Let’s do this!

Now that we’ve outlined a few ways you can audit and improve your processes, habits, and management of your schedule, it’s time to put it into practice.  Take a few of these tips and start implementing them in your business and see how you can start to be more efficient, avoid unnecessary stress, and take control of your schedule!!  

Have you tried any of these methods before?  Have other ideas you want to share? We want to hear what works and doesn’t work for you!  Comment below to share the scheduling challenges or successes you’ve experienced.

The post How to Control your Schedule and Accomplish More Each Week appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

Because we don’t want to come off as slimy salespeople, or we are so scared to be shot down, we tend to take the easier route when it comes to asking for money.  I used to always email our quotes over using an old Apple pages template and I’d just cross my fingers, hold my breath and hope something would happen. Generally speaking, it didn’t work too well – yes, I did sell some jobs that way, but most of the time we’d get a response back saying something like, “We’ve decided to go another way.”  Because the idea of selling our services any other way was so uncomfortable, we kept emailing proposals anyways.

It wasn’t until we lost a prospective client, who told us they had emailed our quote to another vendor who said they could do everything we outlined for less, that we realized we were doing this all wrong.  Thinking about all the time and energy I had put into the research and planning of that proposal, just to have someone else swoop in and put a different price tag on it, forced me to get outside of my comfort zone.  Ultimately, I realized that the whole scenario was my fault! I made it so easy for this to happen, and it was all because I was too uncomfortable to sell my services. So, I smartened up and decided I needed to shake things up and change the way I share proposals with my clients.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…

• It takes me so long to make a proposal, I barely have time to send it via email.
• My clients want me to email them the proposal.
• My competitors are emailing their proposals.
• I don’t want to feel like a sleazy salesperson…and my clients can read

Honestly, there are many reasons why emailing proposals seems like the right thing to do.  I used to think that because other vendors who offer similar services email their proposals, I should, too.  My clients are busy and don’t have time to do anything other than read my quick email to decide to hire me. Not to mention, I am busy, too.  It’s much easier for me to hit SEND on an email than to take any more time out of my day for proposals. But the truth is, no matter what your reasons are for emailing proposals, the ultimate goal is to close the deal, and I guarantee you, emailing the proposal is NOT the best way to do that.

Here are 7 reasons to STOP emailing your proposals or pricing to potential clients

1. It’s easy to say “No” to a number.

If you are just emailing an estimate over with no dialogue or explanation, then all they are immediately reacting to is the price.  Let’s face it — when you’re expecting to spend a good amount of money on your business, do you feel better hearing an explanation of what needs to be done, or simply a price?  If your potential client is anything like most of us, they are skipping through everything in your proposal to look at the bottom line and making a decision based solely on whether or not they like the price.  Unless your goal is to be the cheapest guy or gal out there, this is never going to work in your favor.

2. You don’t get to explain or tell the whole story.

Part of what your client is paying you for is expertise.  If we’re being honest, I’m sure there are lots of people who can provide the checklist version of the service you are offering.  Sometimes the biggest value you are providing your client is the time and expertise you’ve put into figuring out what they need and putting that into the proposal.  When you email the proposal over, you’re not giving the client any information as to why you’ve recommended the services you’ve outlined, what your version of these services looks like, and why they should trust you with the project. This is a huge part of what could make or break your sale, and it’s not going to happen without your guidance.  If you email your proposal, it’s like sending over the last page of a novel and hoping people understand the value of the whole story.

3. You give away all control to the client.

Remember when you were in school and the teacher would pass around a packet and everyone in the class would flip to the last page before the teacher got through the explanation?  The truth is, nothing has changed. When you email your proposal over, you’re hoping that your client reads through the entire document, but the reality is, you have no control over what they do with it.  You’re essentially relinquishing all of your negotiating leverage to the client and have no idea what they actually looked at, what they skipped over, and what they are thinking or basing their decisions off of.  Sales 101 would tell you that you need to be in control of the situation at all times, even if you make the situation feel like the client is in control.

4. It’s so impersonal.

Sending a proposal in an email means you are just like everyone else.  If the client is getting multiple proposals, you and everyone else are just words on a page.  You don’t get a chance to set yourself apart as THE company or person they should hire. Especially when you’re selling a service, you need to set expectations of what it will be like to work with you and to see if you vibe properly with the client.  It’s extremely important that you get to explain who you are, why you’re different, and how you can help them achieve their goals. Think of this as an opportunity to build a relationship with your client right from the start.

5. They can share the proposal with competitors.

As I said earlier, it’s happened to us.  By building a relationship with your client, you will naturally engender respect with them and the odds of this type of behavior happening will decrease.  Emailing your proposal over means it’s a simple click or two for the client to shop out your ideas and find the lowest bidder. And although you might think it’s unlikely, believe me, this happens a lot.  Because you’ve emailed the proposal over, the potential client thinks of it as just words on a page and most of the time wouldn’t think twice about sharing it to get a better price; even with the best of intentions.

6. You don’t get a chance to handle objections or questions.

This might be one of the most important reasons to stop sending your proposals in an email. As any trained salesman knows, dealing with objections is a huge part of the gig.  It’s your job to handle any questions or concerns and to act as a trusted advisor for your client. Emailing your proposal leaves them totally on their own to figure things out.  And no matter how simple you might think your proposal is to understand, there are ALWAYS questions or comments that potential clients have, and the longer they go unanswered the bigger they become and the more likely they are to ruin your chances of closing the deal.  Picture this: Your proposal arrives in their inbox and although everything looks good, the potential client wonders if you could break out payments differently. A simple question for sure. But their day gets busy, and the next day, too, and now another proposal comes in their inbox and it outlines the payment option they want.  That’s it. You’ve lost the sale and you never even knew how close you were to working with them. Questions left lingering or unanswered can certainly kill the sale.

7. Emailing proposals leads to a way lower closing ratio.

When we redirected our proposal method away from email our closing ratio went through the roof.  We not only closed more projects, but we were able to charge more money for the same services, and we were working with clients who respected us and our work more.  

By simply following our easy proposal strategy, you’ll put yourself in a way better position to close more jobs and make more money!

Now that you know all the reasons why emailing your proposals is hurting your business, it’s time to make some changes.  If you know that this is an area of weakness for yourself, then it’s definitely time to sit down and audit your own process.  Write down your current system and strategy for writing proposals and selling jobs.

If you want to see our proven system for successful proposals, access our FREE Mini-Course here: “How to Present a Proposal.”

The post 7 Reasons to STOP Emailing Your Proposal or Pricing Today! appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

This will happen when you just assume that in order to be successful, you need to be busy. It’s exactly what I had thought originally. I remember thinking, “If I can just get enough clients so that I can tell everyone that we’re really busy, then my friends and family will be impressed.”  

Straight up, there are two things that are very wrong with this mindset. Number one, your friends and family’s opinions are not at all any sort of reflection or meter for the worthiness of your business, and number two “being busy” is not tied to success.

Breaking the Busy Myth

When we were “busy” just as I had asked for, I noticed my patience would wear thin, my energy levels dipped, and my body felt the physical and mental symptoms of constant stress. My work became something that I was falling out of love with. I kept telling myself that I love being a creative person. And I knew that I love taking photos, making videos, and designing and launching projects, but I just couldn’t stomach tomorrow’s To-Do list.  

The Busyness of Business

I grew with my business, just as we all do. In the beginning, I only had to do the tasks that I loved to do — ya, know, the creative stuff. But as we got busier and grew, my role expanded because the business chores expanded, too. These chores were usually dropped in my lap and would take hours of time and energy away from the creative duties that I would still have to complete afterward.  

Burning the candle at both ends led straight to a tipping point where I had a serious sit down with Rhi to talk about what “the point of this all was.” It was hard. I was putting my own “baby” on trial as if it had purposefully slighted me.

The truth is, I just never stopped to actually figure out, track, and choose the tasks that were assigned to me. I just did what was in front of me and did it enough to feel “busy;” as if that was the goal. With that in mind, it was no wonder that I felt overwhelmed with tasks that didn’t bring me joy or necessarily help the business move forward effectively.

Gametime Decision

We decided that it was time to do a basic SWOT Analysis to gauge the general health of our business. This led us to create a time audit questionnaire to find out what will create more energy, what will deflate us, where we excel, and where we fall short.  

The name of the game for your business is to be as efficient as possible. If you’re the one gumming up the tracks, then step aside and get help from someone who excels at that particular task.

I started by physically writing on a sheet of paper the daily work I had completed. The trick to doing this successfully requires writing down every. single. task. No matter how long it does or doesn’t (so you think!) take.

Why? Because for some reason, we tend to only track time if it represents a significant expenditure. In other words, we won’t record 2-minute emails or phone calls– but if we did, we would see that these tasks “not worth tracking” amount to 15, 20, maybe even 30 minutes of our day. That adds up.

Evaluate Your Efforts

Looking at your total time expenditure, break out your week’s worth of tasks into categories as follows:

1. Tasks that could be completed through technology [thinking automation]
2. Tasks that can be outsourced to contractors
3. Tasks that can be better planned and batched together

Within these lists identify the tasks that you:

1. Love to do
2. Hate to do
3. Spend zero time on  
4. Spend too much time on
5. Frequently procrastinate about (and consider why that is. Hint: see #2).

Envision Some Strategic Support

Although you may not be at a point in your business that you can outsource tasks quite yet, it’s a good idea to have a roadmap for when you do get to a point where you can hire outside help. You’ll never be ready for help if you don’t have any ideas as to what they would do for you…this is a great place to start!

Cherry Picking is Key

As far as technology is concerned, there are an infinite amount of free websites and applications that can help you solve problems and be more organized. The key to using apps and automation is to choose the programs that you’re going to actually use. It’s easy to get caught up in signing up for subscriptions and memberships just to forget about them. Make sure that you’ve made good use of any trial subscriptions and commit to using the software before you decide whether it will be part of your business.

We use software to make bookkeeping simpler and project/team management more efficient because we found those to be our most time-consuming tasks.

Oh My, Organize!

Next, create a plan of action to re-organize all of these tasks. It’ll take some work to get organized, but you NEED to make these changes in order for you to maintain sanity and to allow your business to grow.

When organizing your schedule, make sure to batch similar tasks into the same time blocks. For example — we have set times that we check our email and social accounts each day. Rather than being at the whim of notifications or your email inbox – check these accounts on your terms.  

This concept may take some getting used to, but it helps if you just give your clients, co-workers, and team members a heads up and let them know, “Hey, I’m checking my email at 10 am and 4 pm and I’ll be sure to respond accordingly.” Establishing this kind of schedule will tremendously reduce getting derailed by random messages and will reduce your daily stress.

Here’s a quick video from Tim Ferriss further explaining the concept of batching.

Finally, we want to leave you with our time audit questionnaire to help you complete your own.  Fill out this Questionnaire and get your answers emailed to you so you can start to outline your plan of action:  

The Time Audit Takeaway

Ultimately, how did doing a time audit save me from my business? Plainly stated, I was able to filter out tasks that drained my energy and created stress. I found wonderful team members to assign these tasks to, and I started using programs to automate tasks that I didn’t enjoy or became a waste of my time.

Taking the time and organizing my day to day routine opened up a whole newfound perspective on my business and it gave me more energy that helped me be a better business owner and creative entrepreneur.  

Now, I can honestly tell you that I absolutely love my “job” in my business and I stay excited to crack into my task list every day!

It doesn’t take long to get organized, and doing so will save a lot of time and energy…so what are you waiting for?  

You’ve got this!

The post Doing a Time Audit Saved Me from my Business appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

Did you know that:

• 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service, compared to text
• Viewers are 95% more likely to remember a call to action after watching a video, compared to 10 percent when reading it in text format

Video can help you connect, engage, entertain, and inform. It can help you save time, make more money, connect with your audience, and engage your clients. Over the last 10 years, video content has become more and more popular and accessible, but often times we find that people struggle to come up with ways that video could help their business.

Have no fear, Learn It – Do It is here…okay, sorry for the cheese. But honestly, we are totally here to help you come up with ways to use video in order to help you and your business succeed. Below we’ve outlined 6 ways that video can help your business that we know you’ll love.

1. Provide Training for Your Team

Using videos for training can be incredibly effective and convenient. Video is GREAT for training because it showcases a clear visual, as well as a verbal explanation that makes learning easier and faster. If you have a training process that you’ve had to repeat more than once, think about ways you could make that a video and save yourself time, energy, and money!  

Recently, we’ve even utilized videos for small training purposes. Have you ever tried to explain something to a subcontractor or employee and thought “It’d be quicker to do this myself than to explain it?” This is a common problem for small business owners, but missing the opportunity to make this training process replicable and passive is a HUGE mistake. When we find ourselves in this position, we pull out our cameras or screen-capture program and rather than just doing the work, we record ourselves doing it and explaining the process. By the time we’ve completed the task, we already have a “HOW TO” training video ready to go for the next time this task is needed.

Think of all the time you’d save yourself (not to mention the more money you’d make if you weren’t wasting your valuable time repeating yourself) if you leveraged video to train your team!  

2.  Promote Your Products/Service/Events

This one certainly seems obvious, but definitely should not be overlooked. When you consider that videos increase people’s understanding of your product/service by 74% and adding a video to your landing page can increase conversions by 80%, there is NO reason to not have video content about your products and services.

Think about the details of your products and services. Outline why your products/services are special and create a short video showcasing each of them. Remember to focus on the features and benefits your products/services offer to your clients. This will make your potential customers more comfortable with your offerings, improve their trust in your company, and give them enough information to make a more confident buying decision.

3.  Educate Your Audience

In addition to giving your audience information about your products/services, you can provide them valuable education related to your industry to help build credibility and trust. For example, if you offer plumbing services, you might showcase an educational video on how to spot a problem with your toilet or a photographer might offer a video about how to choose the right outfits for your family photo session. This educational content will provide value to your potential clients and build trust with you and your company.  Think of ways you can showcase yourself as an expert in your industry and create video content that features your knowledge in an accessible way.

4.  Improve Client Process/Experience

This is one of my FAVORITE ways to utilize video. Your client experience and process are so important, and video can better prepare your clients and potential clients for a smooth and pleasurable transaction with you. As a business owner, it’s easy to think that everyone knows what to expect when they hire you, but the truth is, few people do.  

If you can create a video on what your process is, your potential clients will be more comfortable with you and more likely to hire you. Think about your client process or the process you follow when completing your product/service and make a video to explain that to your client. Go through each step and show what you’re talking about, so your client knows what it’s like to work with you. This will create a better experience for your client and build more trust with your potential customers.

If you want more information on how to improve your client process, check out our previous blog post here:

In addition to showcasing your process, you could also use video to prepare your clients. As a photographer, you could make a video to walk your clients through the sales process or select their photos from the session. If you work in the trades, you could create a video to prepare your clients for the day of the service; showing them how to ready their home and what will happen throughout the day.

Think of the processes you employ in your company and create videos to share this information with your customers and potential clients.

5.  Introduce Yourself! Connect with Your Audience on a Personal Level

You can’t be everywhere at once, but being on video camera is the next best thing to seeing someone in person. Create a video that introduces you and your company to your audience so they can get to know you, see your personality, hear your story, and learn more about why YOU are the right person and company for them.  

People want to do business with real people. Not a logo. Not a voice recording on an answering machine. Not an automated robot response in a chat window. A real person. Create a video that showcases who you are and why you are passionate about what you do for your customers. This is an incredibly powerful way to connect with your audience and stand out above your competitors. After all, no one can be you better than YOU!

6.  Client Testimonials

Lastly, but certainly not the least important: video client testimonials. Capturing a happy customer on camera is going to say SO MUCH MORE than any bit of text you could say about your product/service/company. We like to send out digital questionnaires to our clients to get their feedback and then select the best ones to reach out to and ask if we can grab a video testimonial from them. Most people, especially a happy customer who loves you and what you did for them, are more than happy to share their story and help you by recording a testimonial. You can either ask your client to film a testimonial and send it to you, or you can ask them to come to you (or you could go to them) and film the testimonial for them. This always works best if you make it super convenient for the client, and take the heavy lifting off their shoulders.  Sending a questionnaire beforehand helps them plan what they are going to say/what you are hoping they can help you convey.  

Bonus Application: If you plan on making this a part of your marketing strategy, you could always make a “HOW TO” video for your clients on how to make their own Testimonial videos for you! Oh yeah! Already applying two of these ideas <high fives>!!!!

So there you have it! There are many more ways you can use video to improve your business, make more money and save time, but these are a few to get you started. If you start implementing video content into your business we’re sure you’ll see a difference in your audience engagement, client experience, and bottom-line.

Now that you have some ideas on how video can help your business, it’s time to TAKE ACTION! Video doesn’t have to be expensive or daunting. In fact, you probably already have everything you need to make great video content for your business, you just don’t know where to begin. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to making your own video content, check out our comprehensive, self-paced online course “How to Write, Shoot, Edit & Share Video Content for your Marketing” and take your business to the next level!

What are other ways you’ve considered using video for your business? Stuck on ways videos could help your specific business? Drop us a comment below and let’s see what we can come up with together!

The post 6 Ways Video Content Can Help Your Business appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

The client experience should be taken seriously because it can be extremely beneficial to your business and your project. Happy customers, simple processes, and raving reviews should be your focus. You actually get to control what happens, how it happens, and you can lead your clients through your process and avoid push-back, stress, and frantic emails.

CLIENT JOURNEY

A client journey refers to the sum of each interaction they have with you and your company. Your client’s journey begins when they first reach out to your business. Each time you interact with your client you are training them on what to expect from you. Setting your client’s expectation is the most INVALUABLE tool to use. So, it’s a good idea to audit your own client journey from time to time. Is it easy to be your customer?  Is working with you an enjoyable process? And, most importantly, when the transaction is complete, does your customer have a good or bad taste left in their mouth?

You can solve any issues by taking a look at each client/business interaction and pinpoint ways to improve communication, set better expectations, and improve your performance.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS

It’s a simple concept. If you tell someone ahead of time exactly what to expect, you can go ahead and assume that the interaction between you will go as planned, with happy parties on each end. And I’m not just talking about the day of service expectations, I’m talking about setting the expectation on when they should hear back from you or when they should send payment, etc. It’s totally okay (and preferred) to inform your customers of your normal operating procedures so that:

1. They are better prepared on their end
2. They feel more comfortable and are able to let their guard down a little
3. You’re less likely to receive push-back or frustration later
4. You’re in control of each interaction and the whole experience

Always tell your client what the next steps are at the end of your current interaction — whether that is by email, an in-person meeting, or a phone call. The key here is to SAY what you are going to DO and then DO what you SAID you were going to DO.

AN EXAMPLE OF HOW IT WORKS

For example, say you’ve just met with a prospective client. The meeting went really well and they want you to put a quote together for your service. You get back home and get a call from another job that needs your immediate attention. Then, the two following days you’re fully booked. Then, it’s a long weekend and you’ll be out of town. You get the idea.

Normally, it takes you about a week to get a quote back to a client, but you failed to disclose that information. To you, it’s no biggie getting back to them anytime next week because you know your process. However, during all this time (5 total days) your potential client has called you 1 time and emailed you 2 times because they’re excited to get started and haven’t heard from you. After the long weekend, you finally send the quote and it ends up being way higher than what your client expected.

What happens then is — their energy immediately turns sour and they start saying to themselves, “How can they charge so much?  They don’t even return calls…etc”. Now, not only do you have an agitated potential client, you’re probably stressed out about it and you’re spending 1-2 extra hours dealing with the issue.

If you had focused on setting expectations about your client experience, all of this could have been avoided. You would have been able to reduce your client stress, job stress, and overall life stress just by setting proper expectations. Also, your customer would have had zero stress, anger or resentment toward you or your company if they knew what to expect.  

Setting clear expectations about the client experience you deliver equals a win-win that will make your day-to-day work much more enjoyable!

The post Why Does the Client Experience Matter?: Create Happy Customers and Reduce Stress appeared first on Learn It - Do It.