005: Systems, Software & Subbies - Streamlining Your Marketing to Win Back Time
Taking Back Joy Podcast • Episode #005:
Systems, Software & Subbies - Streamlining Your Marketing to Win Back Time
Do you feel yourself getting bogged down in your small business with a whole bunch of tedious, repetitive and annoying tasks that you would much rather hand off to someone or something else? Do you find yourself saying, "Surely there's an app for that by now?' Or maybe even, 'Am I the only person who finds this annoying', or 'has someone else come up with a better way of doing this?'.
That's exactly what I want to cover in today's episode. Looking at everything you do on a regular basis, whether that's daily, weekly or monthly, whether it applies to your small business marketing, or more broadly to your business admin, and seeing if we can sort it into one of three buckets: systems, software and subbies.
I want to show you how you can streamline both your marketing and your business admin to win back time by taking a critical look at the repeated tasks that you do in your business and seeing if there is a better way that it can be done. Let's jump in.
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Show Notes: Links & resources mentioned in this episode
Screen recording programs - Screen Castify
Social media scheduling apps - Facebook Business & Later
My favourite website building platform to host FAQ & Enquiry forms: Squarespace
Google sheets and forms
Episode Transcript
Download: Episode Synopsis (PDF) | Episode Content (PDF)
Synopsis
Meredith Paige 00:00
Do you feel yourself getting bogged down in your small business with a whole bunch of tedious, repetitive and annoying tasks that you would much rather hand off to someone or something else? Do you find yourself saying, "Surely there's an app for that by now?' Or maybe even, 'Am I the only person who finds this annoying', or 'has someone else come up with a better way of doing this?'.
Meredith Paige 00:21
That's exactly what I want to cover in today's episode. Looking at everything you do on a regular basis, whether that's daily, weekly or monthly, whether it applies to your small business marketing, or more broadly to your business admin, and seeing if we can sort it into one of three buckets: systems, software and subbies.
Meredith Paige 00:40
I want to show you how you can streamline your marketing your business admin to win back time by taking a really critical look at the repeated tasks that you do in your business and seeing if there is a better way that it can be done. Let's jump in.
Episode Content
Meredith Paige 00:00
Hey there, beautiful small business people, I hope this podcast finds you well. In the midst of all the running around of marketing your Small Business and running a small business, I wanted to offer you today an opportunity to streamline and optimise some of these processes by introducing you to the ideas of introducing systems, software or subbies. Because there's a fair amount of overlap with marketing and tech, I'm really fortunate to work with some really smart software and had the chance to develop some really smart systems. And I've been encouraged to work with some really great subbies that have made, not only my marketing but my business admin, super, super streamlined to the point where it can be very minimally hands on very smartly run. That I spend as little time stuck to my screen as possible, which is the end goal I want for all of us.
Meredith Paige 00:58
I want all of us to be spending less time doing the things we feel like we have to do so we've got more time to spend doing the things we really want to do. But when you get stuck in the trenches of like running a business, you sort of go into each day on autopilot. And because we're always juggling a lot of balls, wearing a lot of hats and running around like headless chooks so often we don't have the opportunity or we don't afford ourselves the opportunity to step back and really go, 'Is there a better way of doing this particular task I'm doing right now'. And quite often there is but because for whatever industry you're in, you might not have exposure to a lot of the really smart software and tech that's out there that can make your life a lot easier.
Meredith Paige 01:47
And that's what I want to introduce to you today. How can we look at your business marketing and admin? How can we look at it and throw a lot of it into other systems, software, or subbies buckets leaving you to only do the stuff that you either really want to do that, you really enjoy doing or that so unique to what you're doing and is what makes you special that you really should still be doing it. And then that way, we can clear the clutter and take care of the rest. So to get you started in organising this and sort of sifting through all the jobs and the tasks that you have to do, the first step is gonna have to be stocktake. Now you could sit down and just do a brain dump all of this at once. And even if you don't capture everything, that's a really good way to get started. Or you could just leave a notepad somewhere handy (get your team involved as well, if it's more than just you) over a week or a month, and start tracking all the repetitive tasks that you do. Whether it's on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, start making a note of all the jobs that you find yourself doing that you feel like could be better allocated or better set up.
Meredith Paige 03:00
So once you've got your to do list or to sort this, then we're going to start thinking about which bucket each of these tasks can fit into. And then from there, well, you can actually start then researching. The best way to approach each of those, whether it is through the lens of a system or software or subby. But this is about taking a really objective look at what it is that you do all the time, and being given yourself the opportunity to pause with a bit of clarity and go, 'I'm almost positive there's an app for that'. Because if you're thinking that there's an app for that there's a good chance someone else has already had that problem and has built an app for that. I think this is the thing we need to sometimes realise too, when we're stuck in outside our business bubble. And this is something I try to tell myself all the time. Surely, I'm not the first person in the world to have this problem. And again, that involves being a bit broader in your thinking and getting outside your bubble. And really kind of looking at it as like a practical problem. Even if the whoever's come up with the solution wasn't necessarily in your industry, in your business or in your particular niche. If you think about the fundamental principles of the problem you're having, you're very quickly come to the idea that surely I'm not the first person in the history of ever to have come up with this problem, or at least something similar, so I might find a similar solution.
Meredith Paige 04:21
So now that we have your to-do list or to-sort list, let's look a little bit closer about the three buckets (and you'll notice I like using the number three and buckets a lot because it feels like the sort of thing you can chuck something it doesn't feel overly precious). So the three main ones are systems, software, and subbies. And you know what, I'll let you have a fourth one for 'scrap it' because honestly there may be some things you're doing that it's like, there is no return on investment for the time I spend doing this. It can just go so don't be afraid to scrap some jobs too. If you realise you you've just been doing them repeatedly, for just because that's either what you were told, or that's bought you believe you should be doing or because you never stopped to think about the value that task had in the broader scheme of things. So don't be afraid to scraps and stuff as well.
Meredith Paige 05:14
So firstly, let's look at the systems. Now this can be checklists and worksheets, walkthroughs, things like that. So it's not necessarily a situation where it's like, okay, here is the app we use to do this job. It's more about creating a really easily handed over workflow. So let me explain a bit when. So whilst I was doing my degree in back when I was doing my Bachelor of design degree, and but even before that, when I was just out of school, first sort of part time jobs, I worked a lot in hospitality. Something that I noticed clubs in particular did well was that they would have setup check checklist, a pack down checklist and hand over the checklist for every sort of key moment in the day, whether it would be changing supervisor or changing key staff members, maybe changing servers between like lunch and dinner. There'll be checklists for everything. And the reason for that was maintained consistency of what was done. It also meant that it didn't require (so if someone new came into the fold), they didn't necessarily need to be babysat every two minutes by someone who was already had their own job to do. And it meant that a supervisor didn't need oversee all the minutia it was simply a matter of at the end of the shift, if a staff member have been given a checklist, they would just do a quick walk around with that staff member eyeball everything that was on the list and can assign it saying yes, I'm agreeing, all this stuff's been done and away they go.
Meredith Paige 06:42
So checklist especially can be really good if you're managing a team, because it allows you to bring people into the fold efficiently where if it's the first or second shift, it gives them a really good guide as to what's expected of them during the day. If they find they have sort of blank spots in a day where they're not immediately busy, but they need to be kept busy. It gives them something to refer to as like, okay, when we're quiet, here's what you can be doing. It means they can work in more independently. So it means you can maximise your shifts in your rostering and your hours and your key staff members that might be an employee hourly rate, it means you can have someone who might be more of an entry level staff member, perhaps working unsupervised, because they have a checklist to walk through that holds them accountable to what they need to be doing, without needing to be spoon fed that job, you know, without needing to be spoon fed that job repeatedly. Like it gives them a sense of empowerment because they can work independently, they know what they need to do. And it leads you to run more efficient shifts and things like that. So similarly, with marketing, the checklists are really good, because it stops you from feeling like every time you sit down to do some marketing, you're reinventing the wheel.
Meredith Paige 07:53
So what that looks like in my business is it starts out with me recording the podcast, which is what I'm doing right now. I then have a checklist, which by VA and I go through and I'll explain the AES and virtual assistants at how incredible they can be in a moment. So we have a shared checklist with everything that needs to be done to that podcast between recording, which is my job to publishing it on all my channels, which is her job. And so we have that checklist that gets repeated for every single podcast episode. And then there's the tasks within that checklist while have her name or my name next to them. And then we'll just bounce between the two of us if either of us get stuck at any point or refer to the other one. But it means that we can go into this flow, we know all our bases are covered, we know we're maximising the potential of this podcast. And it makes the whole process really slick and quick and easy. So checklists can be fantastic in any number of areas of your business and also really powerful, especially if you have like an office based job.
Meredith Paige 08:50
Or if you have some admin that you'd like to get your key staff members helping you with, especially marketing admin. Doing screen recordings, has been like a massive game changer in my business in terms of either facilitating my clients running their own websites, or allowing vaes and subbies. And things like that, to come into my business and help me with very specific workflows. So there's a really cool software I use called screencastify. It's stupidly cheap, it's like 35 bucks a year or something. It's an extension for your Chrome browser, which is basically like a little bit of software, you run off the back of Google Chrome, the web browser. And so what you can do is you can actually record yourself moving around screen you could just like on your desktop, you can also you can also have your face on screen, so you can appear in like a little bubble in the corner, you can record your voice, and it's a really good way of showing people how to do a process on screen. Rather than creating a document. That's what 20 screenshots and copious amount of notes. Because sometimes when you can hand someone a manual like that word is screenshots and notes and things like that. It feels like a massive job before they've even gotten started. But if you can turn that 10 Page manual into a five page screen recorded video where it's like, Okay, I'm going to show you how to enter data into our CRM, customer relationship management software. Or I'm going to show you how to update all the stuff to do lists in Trello, which is another thing I'll go into later. So if there's something that you do on screen that you are sick of doing, and you would love to get a key staff member to do, try getting screencastify, or a similar screen recording tool, that's what they're called screen recording tools or screen recording apps, and start recording the process as you go through on screen. Obviously, just being mindful of recording password entries and things like that. And whatever content you're appearing on scrape, but that's appears on screen while you're recording, just be mindful of that. But this can be a massive help in handing over computer based admin tasks to key staff members, virtual assistants, things like that. I use them all the time. And it's been fantastic for me, which brings me to the next bucket. So that systems where it's basically like simplifying, documenting recording, workflows, and the processes in your business and your marketing.
Meredith Paige 11:06
Next one is software. These are specific apps tools, websites that we can use to help us speed up and streamline specific tasks. So one really good example is what I'm recording this podcast on its anchor. So the app is from Spotify, it's free to use it syndicates or publishes your content across multiple channels. It also helps you collect all the information together recorded have guests on the podcast, it's a fantastic tool, and it takes so much legwork out also it also allows you to add audio to should really mention that and it allows you to cut it. Adding adds adding background music is super user friendly, makes the podcasting process really really quick and easy. And it's free. I'm pretty sure that a stick an ad at the end for their app, but hate because they offer you such a free good service, they can stick that out there as much as they want. I'm totally okay with that.
Meredith Paige 11:57
So looking for software that can streamline parts of the marketing is really good way to stop it feeling less like a chore or more like just a quick and easy task you can either do yourself or hand off to someone else. It always still amazes me how many people don't realise you can schedule social media posts in advance. So looking at the business, publishing tools in your Facebook page, where if you have your Facebook and your Instagram hooked up, you can be publishing to both at once. Or you can use a tool like layout, which is my personal favourite later does allow you to schedule content much further in advance than the Facebook's built in one. So you may need to sometimes jump between the two because alternatively, Facebook will Facebook's built in scheduling tool will allow you to schedule things like carousel posts and things like that, which later won't. So you may find yourself jumping between the two. But it means you can sit down maybe once a month to a big batch of social media content, schedule it out and know that you're showing up every day without or every week without having to actually show up three, four or five times a week, it's really really good way to take a lot of the stress out of it. Especially if you get on a roll with creating some of this content, you can get get a whole big batch done, and then schedule it up and give yourself a nice buffer and break.
Meredith Paige 13:12
Another piece of software that you should be really using to make your life marketing and business admin as easy as possible is your website (one of my topics of choice). So there's so many things you can be doing with your website that can be reducing the admin load and the marketing load. Like even just having a really easy to update Frequently Asked Questions section, which can just be a text based page on your website can really go a long way to reducing the amount of repeated Facebook inbox messages or emails or phone calls you get about very similar questions in your business. Having a frequently asked question section that's easy to find easy to update can take a lot of the stress out of that. And having that information readily available can almost can sometimes stop you from losing potential leads as well. Because if someone can't find the information on your website, and they hit a bit of a stall, when they're moving through the website to your business, they can sometimes fall away at that point. But if they can find answers to their questions and keep moving confidently through your website, they're more likely to actually come in and give you a go rather than getting stuck on a question that they couldn't answer. And they didn't really have the energy or the inclination to call you in clarify. Another thing you can do, which is something that I do a lot of is having really smart inquiry forms on websites. Because sometimes, you can quite often use these really smart forms as a way to filter out tire kickers which can sometimes tie up more time than they'll actually you'll get as a return on investment in natural customer.
Meredith Paige 14:41
It also can mean that your next contact with their customer can be a lot more productive and a lot more further down the pipeline. So you can be asking questions about more specific details about like getting a quote organised, what services or products particularly interested in. If you can just ask a few more insightful questions that could very well be the kinds of questions you Asking a first consult anyway, it can just move that customer further down the pipeline for you. And it means you're much closer to doing business with them when you actually get in touch with them.
Meredith Paige 15:09
Not only that, for websites like Squarespace, their forms can actually integrate with Google Sheets, which is essentially like Google's version of spreadsheets, but they're cloud based online. So what you can do is you can have the smart forms set up where all the information they enter, like everything, from their name, to their phone number, to their email address to any sort of specific questions they've answered, that information can be automatically populating or being entered into a Google Sheet that's connected to that form. What that means then is you're having a spreadsheet essentially being automatically filled in, as well as the form every time you every time someone contacts you on your website. And then there's a myriad of different things you can do with that spreadsheet form without having to be manually created. That's a whole other episode in itself, talking about the potential of integrations with Google Sheets. And that might be a little bit nerdy for most people.
Meredith Paige 16:04
Suffice to say, if you've got ability to do that, once you set it up, and you see the potential, you're going to be so excited about what else you can apply that theory to. So again, just another reason to have good access to and control of your website, because these tools are out there to make your life easier. If you ainur they're there and be you have access to and control over them.
Meredith Paige 16:25
Then you've got software, like my personal love is Trello, which, and that's all I have all the links to these in the show notes. But Trello is really good for just organising all different kinds of information, whether it's your marketing schedule, for what kind of content you're creating, or when your social posts are going out things like that. You can use it for organising staff to do lists where you can have things organised into columns with checklists and all this kind of stuff. You can use it for customer workflows where you can, we can monitor where a customer is at in their journey from going to initial inquiry to actual sale. And you can allocate tasks to people all on the way to follow that lead through to give us the best chance to become a sale. It's really good software, because you're only limited by your imagination into how you actually use it and apply it in your business, both in business admin and business marketing. So I really encourage you to have a look at it. Because once you get your head around the fundamental principles of it, you really can apply it to a bajillion different aspects of your business. And make communication with your staff so much more seamless, as well as communicating what they need to do, what you'd like them to follow up on things like that. You can also add links and files and all that. So it's a really good way of if you're say using it to manage projects, it's a really good way of linking all that peripheral information on a project in one place and creating this one source of truth in your business.
Meredith Paige 17:44
And finally, subbies now. Not a lot of people know a about the concept of virtual assistant, which is essentially someone with a specific set of skills (like Liam Neeson like I don't even have, I don't think I've even seen that movie and I know that reference). So they have a very specific set of skills, and they simply work from home. So if it's a sort of job that doesn't need to be done on site and can be done online, at a at a desk at a computer, virtual assistants can actually be really good way to alleviate some of the admin or the marketing load in your business. Now, you can also get a virtual assistant for a number of different key areas like you can get them like virtual bookkeepers that can help you with like day to day bookkeeping stuff, you can get ones that specialise in, say, graphic design and social media graphics.
Meredith Paige 18:29
They can really help you create a really professional looking social media presence. And all you really need to do is give them core concepts and I'll take it and run with it. You can get them that some that are really good with customer relationship management. So you can use them to help follow up with a potential lead, answer questions help move people closer to sales. So I really encourage you to start looking in maybe some Facebook business groups that you're involved in, maybe speak to your local business chamber, start doing some research into virtual assistants and see if there's someone out there who might have a skill set that complements what you do. So you might better hand off some really some really sort of tedious or repetitive tasks to them. And then they can just keep you in the loop as to where they're up to. Again, you probably be really surprised at the kinds of tasks you can outsource to people like that.
Meredith Paige 19:17
Something I should preface that with too is before you sort of look at that and go, 'Oh yeah, but it's just cheaper and easier if I do it'. This is when you need to stop and start looking at your time as having a premium attached to it. What is your time actually worth? Because so many of us get stuck in this whole mindset of Oh, it's just quicker and easier for myself just cheaper if I do it myself. Is it though? So what is your time actually worth on paper? And what is this job actually worth on paper. So if you're wasting your $70 an hour worth of time doing a $25 an hour worth like a $25 an hour job, you need to get a virtual assistant or a subcontract or smarter way of doing things because you're running at a loss. If you're spending your time which is worth 7080 $90 an hour, doing a job that's worth 2025 $30 an hour, it's just maths.
Meredith Paige 20:06
The minute you can actually attach a feared premium to what your time is worth, then you can get really smart and really objective with how you allocate tasks that can be done by someone with a slightly less expensive skill set, then, you know, this isn't, this isn't to value people based on the hourly rate and their time and things like that. But it's more about being smart. Like if you're running the business, you hire staff for a reason to take care of like customer service and stocking shelves and things like that. So you can do the higher order work that needs doing to make your business successful. This is no different. You don't need to be doing all the minutia with marketing, or business admin and things like that. Because again, you have bigger, more important, more higher order things to do. So you need to look at opportunities to outsource those tedious tasks. Because there are some people out there who actually really enjoy that work and will probably do a much better job than you anyway, if you're only doing it because you have to. This is your this is the flip side of working with a virtual assistant, you might find someone who is absolutely mad for numbers, or who loves organising, or is really, really good at creating some really clever social media graphics, because that's what they love.
Meredith Paige 21:15
This isn't just about getting someone who's on a more affordable rate of pay to leave you to do the higher order stuff that you want to do. This is also about working with people that love the stuff you hate. Like that can be the other benefit of this too. So you're selling yourself short, if you're not looking for these people as ways to add value to your business and to free up your time to do more of the stuff that you're more qualified to do, or just enjoy more. And then finally, again, don't be afraid to throw a few things in the scrap basket as well. Like if you've been doing something for a really long time and you can't see any tangible return on investment on that task. It may be time for that task to go.
Meredith Paige 21:52
So there you have it guys my soapbox moment about systems software and subbies. I really hope this has given you a bit of an insight into what's possible with streamlining your marketing your business admin, and what's out there and what's out there that can be making your life quicker, slicker, easier, leaving you to do the work that you're better suited to you enjoy more or you're just simply more qualified to do. Because as always, I'm all about hoping helping you guys spend less time stuck to your screen and more time doing the thing you actually want to be doing. So I really hope this helps. Be sure to check out all the links in the show notes, all the software and systems that I've mentioned because they are super, super fabulous. All of these ones I've been using for years and still love. And if you've got any that you've come across, feel free to let me know about them. Otherwise, I really hope you are safe. I hope you're well and I'll see you guys next time.
