Maybe you can relate to this … it’s midnight, you’re trying to fall asleep and terror strikes you, ‘ahhhh, I forgot to send my client that file I promised to give them today!’ or you remember ‘darn, I need to send my bookkeeper a photo of that receipt for the business lunch I had.’
You’re lying awake at night, and thoughts just keep rolling through. When you finally take a second to stop running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, you realize all the things you forgot to do.
‘… Did I add related posts to the end of the blog I wrote today?’
‘Did I put the live chat app on the sales page? Or did I forget to do that? Need to remember to do that tomorrow!’
Everything being all up in your head, and running from task to task like a crazy lady is a surefire way to forget important steps, feel overwhelmed by your business 24/7 and be frantically running from one fire to the next to put it out.
That’s obviously not what I want for you.
I want you to be able to close your eyes and doze off to sleep peacefully. And I want your days to look a lot less like running from one emergency that popped up to the next, and more like the calm, cool and collected business owner I know you can be.
The business owner who doesn’t have things flying at her out of left field. The business owner who wows her clients and customers with her flawless service, and even better products.
The business owner who can take a vacation, leaving the laptop AT HOME, and know that nothing is going to come crashing down in the business while she’s off living life.
But how do you get there?
How do you go from hot mess to confident business lady?!
The one where everyone else says ‘man that girl is kicking ass and taking names’
(A follower actually said that about me in a survey, and I was smiling thinking about that one for days. Thanksss! 😍)
The answer? Processes!
Ohhh, ahhh, sexy I know right?!
Processes are the answer my friend!
What are processes exactly?
Processes are clear steps that you run through for every project, situation, or task in your business.
For example, when I go to create a new podcast episode there’s exactly 20 steps between starting the process of creating a new episode and having it appear live on my site (and iTunes, Spotify, etc.) for your listening pleasure!
(Or if it’s an episode with a guest, there’s 28 steps!)
What are the chances I’m going to remember 20 or 28 little bits and pieces perfectly, every time I go to create an episode? . . . Especially if I’m create multiple episodes at a time, and I’m not doing all the steps in one day, but instead spread across multiple days.
(When was the last time you had just one task, eg. create podcast episode, on your to do list for the day that you just got to start and finish, no distractions? Never? Thought so!)
Processes free up brain space! They let you sleep at night, turn your brain off your business while out for drinks with the girls, and actually release content, products and services to the world that are done perfectly correctly, every. single. time.
Processes are sounding a lot more sexy RN aren’t they?!
If you’re sitting there thinking “I’m sold, show me the way, Paige!” then read on!
How to get started with processes
Step 1: Identify what you need a process for
If you want to get that business under control and stop allowing it to take over your life, then the first thing to do is identify what you need a process for.
The best place to start is by looking back at the consistent projects, content, situation and tasks you’ve been doing lately. (Flip on back through your planner or project management system to find out!)
Are you blogging? Doing projects for clients? Podcasting? Creating products? Launching products? Processing refunds for products?
Anything you’ve had to do over and over again is a good place to start.
Got it? Okay, now you’ve picked your thing, it’s time to start thinking through the steps.
Step 2: List out all the steps
If you’re doing the task right now, that’s ideal. As you go through the steps, have your Notes app or Asana open. Write down every step of the process that you’re going through in order.
Step 3: Organize the steps into days/times
I like to put little headings to remind myself of what happens when for processes that happen over a longer period of time.
For blogging and podcasting or refunds this isn’t so important, but for course launches and client projects, it is very important!
For example, when I did custom website designs for clients, certain things had to happen on certain days. Here’s an example of how I’d set it up:
Monday:
Hold client consultation call
Get domain name details, begin transfer if necessary
Make mood board and color palette
Send mood board and color palette
See how certain things HAD to be done on Monday? So arrange your process not just as one big long list, but also add headings to remind you of what has to happen when.
But what if your process doesn’t happen on set days of the week? When we launch courses, it can happen at any point in the month. So we instead use headings indicating how far we are from course launch opening day.
2 week before:
Put up the 'course open for enrollment on X date' page with a countdown timer and an opt-in to the waitlist in the main navigation
Read over sales emails and tweak as needed
Set up webinar tech
Prepare webinar promo pages
1 week before:
Download live chat app on phone
Test payments are working
Decide on webinar bonuses
Create webinar bonuses
(There’s a LOT more that happens in those weeks, but that’s a little preview for ya!)
Step 4: Create a template
The vital thing about this is that you need to save this template somewhere where you’ll actually use it. Every time you go to do the task for which the process was created, you want to have your template open.
I personally use Asana. I duplicate the template and rename it, and then assign the tasks to myself on the relevant days.
That means my ‘Course Launch Template’ gets duplicated and renamed say ‘Square Secrets Launch August 2019’.
I can tick through the boxes as I go.
If you don’t use Asana, you could use the Apple Notes app, and make each step in the process one of those tickable boxes.
Grab my process templates!
Now, if you’re getting into something new and don’t even know what steps you should be taking to complete something (say you’re publishing a podcast episode for the first time or launching a course) then it is often handy to just swipe the processes from someone else who has been there and done that!
And that’s where my new process templates come in!
I’m working behind the scenes right now to polish up all my process templates (I have a LOT of them!) and get them up into an online shop where you can browse and buy the one that you most need!
So if you’re looking to hire on a VA (or any team member for that matter), build or launch a course, publish podcasts, etc., then these process are for you!
You can pop in your name and email below to be notified when the process templates go live in the shop!
