Four for Friday: Goodbye 2022
“Say goodbye like you mean it…”
It’s time to say goodbye to 2022, and I want to start with my one-word description of the year: Busy. Busy working with clients, busy talking to potential clients, and even busier outside of our work. Life, in other words. Here’s a recap of the four themes I constantly talked about this year that will bring a little more balance to your life and work, so you can stay busy but cut out some of the “busy-ness”, all the flotsam it takes to get anything done :
Business Automation is Self-Care
Studies show that small business owners spend 2-3 hours daily on administrative tasks - emails, scheduling, invoicing, etc. Automating your inquiry process, payments, and any standard communication you do with every client can save you 10 or more hours a week. Plus, it’s way less stressful for you. You don’t have to think about it when you’re going to do any of it - it’s already done.
2. Establish Business Boundaries for your clients and for yourself
Boundaries like what exactly your clients are paying for - and what they aren’t. How and when do they need to pay you, and what happens if they don’t? Office hours and how they need to communicate with you. Get them in your contract, and send reminders early and often. But remember: You need to follow the rules, too, in order to make them work.
3. Marginal Gains - the power of tweaking one thing at a time
Creatives are perfectionists by nature, but that can be a hazard when business-wise. You don’t always have the luxury of money or time to streamline your business all at once, so you put it off until you do have time or money to set up a CRM. But there’s always some small little thing you can do to make your business easier to run right now, like writing more boundaries in your contract.
Or, signing up for a scheduling app like Calendly or Acquity so your clients can book appointments according to your availability - automating how you manage your time is the best thing you can do for your business. The point is, there’s always something you can do to make the “boat” go faster.
4. Use more Calls to Action
This is a big thing that I kept running into with my clients this year. No calls to action. If someone visits your website, what do you want them to do next? Contact you? Then direct them to your contact form on every page. And while you’re there, make it easy for them to reach you by putting your email and phone number on your website, linked up so they can contact you from the page.
What’s the next thing you want to do with an inquiry? Schedule a discovery call? Then put a scheduling link in your reply. You need to always be thinking, “What’s next?”
So what else do you need, or what questions do you have about streamlining your business in 2023? Click here to schedule a call with me next week, or email me directly at elizabethcoopersmith@gmail.com.
Happy New Year and I’ll talk to you soon,
Elizabeth
