How to Organize Your Business for More Time and Less Overwhelm

Trying to keep your business organized can be stressful and overwhelming. As you’ve grown, you’ve found yourself drowning in repetitive, boring tasks leaving little to no room for growth. Trying to do it all can actually lead you to feeling unproductive and burnt out. The good news is, there are simple ways to get your business organized and running smoothly without you having to be there.

Just imagine having systems in place that streamline your operations and free up your time. You’d be able to focus on growing your business and enjoy your personal life too. The key is understanding the root causes of disorganization and systematically addressing them. In this blog we will give you the exact steps to achieving this & more! Let’s dive in!

P.S. Tired of feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day? Let’s change that! Book a consultation today to learn how we can organize and simplify your business, so you can achieve your goals without having to sacrifice your personal life.

Would you like a SparkNotes version of this blog post? Click here to read a quick summary!

Identify and Eliminate Bottlenecks

The first thing we need to do is understand what tasks or obstacles are slowing down your business growth. Katie, my business partner, and I like to refer to these as “bottlenecks.” They can occur in all areas of your business leading to inefficiencies & more manual work overtime. Common business bottlenecks include time-consuming processes, manual scheduling and communication, disorganized content marketing, and a lack of automation in client onboarding, payments, and progress tracking.

Steps to Identify and Address Bottlenecks

• Track Daily Tasks and Time: For a week or two, log every task, noting the time spent on each & how you feel doing them. This will show you what tasks are consuming your time & sucking the life out of you. These are things that can be automated and/or outsourced!
• Analyze Client Journey Steps: Map out each step in the client journey—from how they find you to onboarding, service delivery, and follow-up. Identify any areas where there are delays, back-and-forth communication, or manual work that could be simplified.
• Collect Feedback from Clients: Send a survey out to past or present clients about their experience and if there is anything they wished was made easier or more straight forward. This can be specific to the buying process and working with you too. 
• Review Your Current Tools: Take a close look at the tools and systems currently in use for scheduling, payment, content marketing, and client communication. Make a note of any tools that feel slow, redundant, or overly manual.
• Identify Repetitive Tasks: Make a list of all the things you do in a month and then break it down by weekly and daily to-do’s. Make a note of anything that is repetitive. These are things that can be automated with a tool or outsourced if it requires personalization.
• Look at Your Data Management: If it’s difficult to locate client information, financial reports, or track your business’s progress quickly, this might indicate a bottleneck in data organization. The goal is to have everything in one place for easy internal management.

Once you have your list of bottlenecks, the next step is to find ways to simplify each one. I recommend simplifying the tasks that take up a lot of your time. Simplification can look like incorporating systems, automations, outsourcing, or proper prioritization.

Implement Effective Systems

Implementing effective systems is essential for streamlining business operations and ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability. These systems include:

• Project management tools like Trello or Monday.com, which help organize tasks and maintain deadlines to ensure you reach your business goals. 
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like Practice Better, GoHighLevel, or Hubspot, which can help simplify (& automate) your onboarding experience. Making it both easy for you & your clients!
• Accounting software such as QuickBooks can make it very easy to manage your finances and business expenses so tax season is no longer so painful.
• Google Drive, Notion, or DropBox can be used to organize all of your client files, photos, videos, and more into one centralized location. Each one also makes it very easy to share specific things with clients and/or your team once you start hiring.

To choose and implement the right systems, start by assessing your business goals and the tasks you’d like off your plate. I would look into each system you have as they may have features that aren’t being utilized. You can also find an all in one tool such as our Streamline Success System to reduce expenses & save you countless hours too.

If you’d like help auditing your business and finding the best solutions (without having to lift a finger), I’d recommend our Business Audit & Strategy Session. We can do all the heavy work for you!

Utilize Automation Features

Automation can dramatically improve how you manage daily tasks, save time, and enhance productivity. More often than not, the current systems you use have an automation feature (you might just have to pay more for it).

Below are automations you can start implementing now:

• Gmail or Microsoft Office have filters and tagging functions to keep your inbox organized with what is most important.
• Email Marketing tools like Kit and Flodesk can automate email sequences and campaigns based on a subscriber action.
• Social Media Management with LaterMedia or Metricool can schedule posts across multiple platforms all in one place.
• ManyChat can automate your social media engagement based on how your audience comments, messages, or replies to stories with keywords.

The systems we also list above have the ability to be automated, too! The key thing when setting up automations is to focus on one aspect of your business at a time. This will make it significantly easier to accomplish! 

Set Priorities and Stick to Them

Knowing how to properly manage your tasks is key to reclaiming your time and energy. Knowing what tasks will move the needle in your business will prevent overwhelm & boost overall productivity.

A simple way to start prioritizing your tasks is by using the Urgency & Impact Model.

• First you need to have clear business goals you’re working towards achieving.
• Categories your list of tasks based on the below matrix:
  • High Urgency, High Impact: Tasks that need your immediate attention and directly contribute to your goals. Prioritize these first.
  • Low Urgency, High Impact: Important tasks that will  provide significant wins but aren’t immediate. Schedule these to work on consistently.
  • High Urgency, Low Impact: Time-sensitive but low-impact tasks. These are things you’d automate or outsource to free up your time & energy. 
  • Low Urgency, Low Impact: Low-priority tasks that can be postponed or even eliminated if they don’t contribute to your goals at all.

From there you can set weekly priorities allowing you a to-do list that you can actually follow & accomplish! Doesn’t that sound amazing?

Final Thoughts

Getting your business organized requires effort & time, but the rewards are well worth it because you are playing the long game! By identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, implementing effective systems, utilizing automation tools, and setting clear priorities, you can create a more efficient and productive business backend. This allows you to reclaim your precious time allowing you to enjoy the freedoms of having your own business.

Ready to reclaim your time and make your business work for you? Let’s make it happen. Book a consultation today , and let’s talk about how we can simplify your day-to-day so you can hit your goals and enjoy the life you’ve been working for.

P.S. If you’re short on time, here is the gist:

• Identify your bottlenecks by tracking tasks, analyzing your client journey, collecting client feedback, reviewing current tools, and addressing repetitive tasks and data management issues.
• Implement Effective Systems like project management tools, CRM systems, accounting software, and cloud storage platforms to streamline operations and stay organized.
• Utilize Automation Features to automate routine tasks like email management, social media scheduling, and client communication to save time and reduce manual work.
• Set Priorities and Stick to Them by using the Urgency & Impact Model to prioritize tasks that drive growth, delegate or automate low-priority tasks, and keep focus on what truly matters.
• Ready to Get Organized? Book a consultation to explore how we can streamline your business, helping you achieve your goals without sacrificing your personal life.