Episode #12: Streamlining & Systematizing Your Business With Heather Crabtree
You wouldn’t build your house on a shoddy foundation but a lot of people build their businesses without giving much thought to the foundation & systems that make it work. Today I’m joined by Heather Crabtree, a self-proclaimed business nerd, who has helped lots of wedding professionals with the strategic pieces of their business that make them more money.
Heather Crabtree, owner of HeatherCrabtree.com, educates, motivates and whips entrepreneurs’ businesses in shape by making them step back and start focusing on the things that build a solid business foundation. From creating business systems and streamlining to helping build your team, Heather provides strategic, but easy to understand steps to make sure you have time to work on your business and not just in it.
Heather is also co-owner of Outstanding Occasions, an Arizona wedding planning company, and Outstanding Wedding Business, a wedding business coaching company, which also sells downloadable business forms for wedding professionals.
In this episode we’ll cover:
- What is a solid business foundation and what do you need in your business?
- What are business pillars?
- The importance of having systems & processes
- How to have a great new client welcome process to make your new clients feel special
- How to manage customer expectations so that there are fewer conflicts
- How to decide when and if you need to build a team
- Why your follow up system is so crucial
- How putting these systems in place can give you more freedom in your business & your life
Resources & Links mentioned in this episode include:
My Inner Circle
Start With Why by Simon Sinek
My post about finding your why
Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Heather’s Pinterest board full of book recommendations
My post about the importance of systems
Google Drive
Google Calendar
Google Apps For Business (Canned Responses in Gmail makes this so worth it on its own)
Social Media: Buffer
Project Management: Basecamp (don’t miss Heather’s Basecamp tutorial here!)
Accounting: Quickbooks & Freshbooks
Invoicing: Hiveage & Curdbee
Echosign (for getting you contracts signed online)
My report that shows you how I schedule my social media posts in just 30 minutes per week
More from Heather
Website: www.heathercrabtree.com (you can also check out her Outstanding Occasions site and Outstanding Wedding Business site)
Twitter: www.twitter.com/heathercrabtree
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HeatherCrabtreeBusiness
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Love this podcast, but the idea of streaming and systemizing my business seems like the stuff of fairy tales to me right now because I’m a team of one, and I’m drowning in work. Any suggestions on how to begin to systemize a business when you still have to keep up with the day-to operations as well?
Hey Gabrielle! I totally understand where you’re coming from but keep in mind this doesn’t have to happen all at once. It can be as simple as jotting down the steps you’re following as you write, schedule & promote a blog post or the steps you take when you get a new inquiry. Next time you do anything that takes place more than once in your business – document the steps. You can write it down or if it’s on your computer you can record your screen & talk over it with a tool like Jing. Then you can look for tools to take over some of those steps or a virtual assistant to take over the process entirely and you just have to hand over your list or steps or video. Putting systems in place will help you get away from drowning in work because things will run smoothly and you can automate many things. Does that help?
Heidi, thanks so much for the thorough reply! And yes, that is EXTREMELY helpful, and exactly what I was looking for. I think overwhelm happens when you try to look at everything at once, which is what I was doing. The idea of systemizing seemed so appealing to me, but it didn’t seem doable if it was something I had to do in addition to what I was already doing. What it seems like you’re saying is that it’s a matter of starting where I am and mapping as I go, and that by doing that I will eventually build a system. That seems manageable, and it also provides me with a huge sense of relief! Thanks so much for your help!
I’m so happy that helped! Just document them as you go 🙂