One Simple System That Can Change Your Business & Your Life

One of the most common things I hear wedding professionals say is “I’m too busy” or “There’s just too much to do”. This is actually why I created Wedding Business Profits and one of the biggest things I see people doing is trying to do everything and that is a recipe for disaster.

There is no shortage of things you can do to promote your business but you don’t have to do everything. Not everything matters. You just need to choose the best ways to reach your ideal client and focus on those. Focus is your best friend.

I’ve found that the items on an average wedding professional’s to-do list do not line up with the reality of the time available so I want to challenge you to plan out your week and only focus on revenue generating activities.

“How do I figure out what my revenue generating activities are?”

Easy – where do your customers come from? If you’re not already asking them, start now and go back to previous clients and ask them. Look at your Google Analytics and see where you’re getting the most of your traffic from and focus on those sources.

Planning your week

Planning out my week has been a huge productivity and focus booster and I know it’s going to help you. Recently I read a fantastic post from Racheal Cook that went in depth into how she maps out her schedule.

Step #1 – Map out the non-negotiables

Non-negotiables are the things that you need for you and the things that you value most. These are usually recurring things like your daily morning ritual, your workout time, time with your kids, downtime with your partner – you know, life. You do not need to work more hours to make more money and you need to fiercely protect your time & your non-negotiables.

Once you’ve determined your non-negotiables, schedule them in your calendar. I’m a big fan of Google Calendar and you can create recurring events really easily.

Step #2 – Set your work hours

Boundaries are your friend because countless studies show that your tasks expand to the time you allot. Remember back in school when you had to buckle down and write a huge paper the night before it was due? You got it done, didn’t you? That’s because you set constraints.

It’s also important to set your work hours because the point of running a business is not to burn yourself out, it’s to give you the freedom to do what you love and profit from it. Consider this an investment in your mental health and wellbeing.

When something comes up outside of these work hours you need to look at it critically. Does it really need to be done and be done at that time? Does it really matter? Exercise your saying no muscle. It feels awesomely empowering to control your own schedule this way.

Step #3 – Batch & Schedule Tasks

Batching is simply grouping similar tasks together so that you can use momentum to get through all of them. I do this with writing and it makes it a lot easier. If I had to come up with an article the day before it was supposed to be posted, I would struggle. Instead, I set aside a few hours to write and schedule all of my posts for the month and then I don’t have to worry about it for an entire month.

Often times the hardest part of a task is getting started and batching allows you to avoid that hurdle. Batching can also be applied to things like client meetings, phone calls, accounting, etc. Some people go a step further and set specific days for specific tasks in their business to maximize their productivity. I do most of my podcast interviews on Tuesdays for this reason.

I had a geometry teacher in high school who would always call us out when we were over-thinking something by pointing to the board where he always had “KISS!” written. It stands for “Keep it simple, stupid!” and it’s great advice. Most people overcomplicate things and it really doesn’t have to be that way.

I challenge you to follow these steps and schedule your next week this way and let me know how it goes for you!

This is a great system to have set up in your business and there are a lot of other ways to streamline & systematize your business to make your life easier. Members of The Wedding Business Collective have access to a full 1 hour training with Heather Crabtree with incredibly in-depth steps to streamline your business including the best tools to use and email templates to get you started.