10 Tools to Help You Streamline Your Business
Running your own business can become overwhelming, so in this blog, I’m sharing 10 tools to help you streamline your business and save yourself some valuable time.
Streamlining your business operations involves creating processes, procedures, and workflows for recurring business tasks, which are things that all of these tools can help you with!
1. Project Management System
This is the backbone of any business because your Project Management System is how you keep track of all the different tasks involved in running your business and delivering your offers.
There are a lot of different Project Management tools out there, so you should be able to find one that fits your way of working and your unique business. Some of the best project management tools are ClickUp*, Asana, Trello, and my favorite Notion*.
No matter what tool you choose, the goal it to set it up to maximize your productivity by creating things like workflows, templates, calendars and project breakdowns.
2. CRM System
If your business involves serving clients or providing individualized services, you’ll need a good Client Relationship Management (CRM) to handle your quotes, invoices, contracts and more. Dubsado and HoneyBook are the most popular CRMs in most industries, but I always preferred the simpler interface (and more affordable pricing) of 17Hats*.
3. Time Tracking Tools
If you aren’t sure how much time you are actually allocating to the various parts of your business it can be really hard to assess new ideas or make necessary changes. Time tracking tools can be very helpful to get a quick sense of where your time is going or as part of a larger project management process to keep you on task. Some of the most popular time-tracking tools are RescueTime, Toggl, or Harvest.
4. Standard Operating Procedures
If you’re building a team or bringing on subcontractors, having your processes mapped out is essential for keeping your team and business running smoothly. These could be your client processes, internal systems, tech tutorials or even brand guidelines that walk through how things work in your business. You can create a database or hub of all of your SOPs so your team members can easily access everything they need to do their job efficiently.
5. Automations
When looking for opportunities to streamline your business, the first thought is usually to automation because it’s a very impactful way to remove tedious, repetitive tasks from your workload.
You can sometimes create automated workflows in the systems you’re already using, like in Airtable* which allows you to automate within your dashboards and with external apps as well.
You can also connect various systems together with tools like Zapier and Pabbly* (which I prefer and has lifetime deal!), which is where automation can really get fun since you can create some amazing systems that communicate across platforms.
6. Email Marketing Providers
Email marketing is one of the best ways to build your audience and keep in touch with your clients, customers, and leads. Strategically setting up your email marketing provider with automations, segments, sequences, and tagging structures, can create wonderfully hands-off nurturing and sales systems for your email subscribers. Some of my favorites are ConvertKit*, ActiveCampaign, or FloDesk.
7. Course Creation Tools
Creating courses is a wonderful way to grow your business while showcasing your expertise. There are many course creation tools and platforms available that can make hosting and managing your digital courses a lot easier, such as ThriveCart Learn*, Podia, Kartra, New Zenler.
Check out this article where I share a comparison of the 9 most popular course platforms to learn more about your options.
8. Loom
The best way to quickly share a video with a team member or client? Check out the video app Loom*! You can record your screen, yourself or both to make communicating across timezones a breeze. You can also record your course content or training videos in the app. Make it even easier to record by installing the Loom chrome extension to save yourself some time, too.
9. Zoom
Zoom is the go-to option for running online meetings with your team or with clients. You can easily set up recurring meetings and connect Zoom with your Google Calendar to keep things organized, too.
10. Templates
Rather than starting from scratch whenever you have a new project or piece of copy you need to write, why not start with a proven template? From client communication emails, social media graphics, proposal & welcome guides and website copy templates like I sell in my shop to marketing copy templates like those my friend Sandra Van Der Lee from Damn Copy* offers and weekly newsletter prompts like those included in the incomparable Liz Wilcox’s $9/month membership*, there are tons of amazing templates you can find to shortcut your creative processes.
And in the less creative side of your business, you can also find fantastic legal templates for businesses at The Contract Shop*.
