There is this common phenomenon with entrepreneurs that I’ve seen played out time and time again. This sort of snowball effect leaves the solopreneur realizing how far behind they are on taking care of their own business needs and feeling all the stress of having to somehow play catch up while still supporting their clients.
It starts small.
They’ve gotten a few new clients and have suddenly had their best month ever. They’re getting hard to work to wow their clients and provide that stellar service they’ve dreamed of being able to provide. They got to the end of the day and realized they didn’t take care of a couple of things they needed to do for their business. But, hey! That’s okay! There is always tomorrow. Then tomorrow holds a few surprises and you’re still up to here in client work. Not only does tomorrow never come but now the things you need to do in your business are piling up on the to-do pile. When they’re able to put some time towards them it’s certainly not enough to do it all and now, with the growth of their business and steady stream of new clientele, they’re forever behind.
I’ve seen this take shape and the pile is a million small things. Taking several days to reply to emails, especially those from leads (the longer they go without a response, the colder they get) or halting the engagement on social media that could be growing their following and setting the stage for taking their business to the next level.. I’ve also seen this with clients that are so severely behind on invoicing they are basically working for free. And everything in between.
If you are here, shoot up that flare! SOS! But, in all seriousness, it’s time to focus some of your attention on your business because no matter how big or small the things are that aren’t getting done, at the end of the day each task serves a purpose and that purpose should either be to keep your business running smoothly or contributing to the growth of your business. And both of those things are important and should be at the top of the list. Afterall, if you don’t have an operating business, what exactly do you have?
“Why are things falling through the cracks?”
More often than not… time management.
So, first, you have to set aside time and commit to using that for internal work. You can time block. You can say that your work days start at 9AM and you don’t start taking calls or doing client work until 11AM. You can say Mondays are the day of the week that you do all your internal work. Whatever works for you but you HAVE TO COMMIT. You can’t put it on your calendar or write out some plan and then start a new client project that you know is going to cut into that time. Just think of it as sacred.
“Okay, I’ve done that but I still can’t keep up.”
This is beautiful. If you’re here that means that you’ve seen success in your business. People are seeing the value in what you do and are willing to pay you for your time, knowledge, and help! Congratulations! That means two things…
1: It’s time to get some support.
2: During your internally focused time each day or week you’ve got to be very intentional about getting clear on your processes and documenting them.
I recommend:
- Documenting as you’re doing them so that no steps or instructions are missed. This will make it clear what kind of support you need (admin, technical, marketing, etc.)
- Focusing on simpler items first that will be the easiest to delegate so you can quickly get those things off of your plate. The sooner you can start to take back some of that time the sooner you will be able to refocus it on the more complicated items, continuing to follow this process until everything you don’t need to do is being done by your support and you’re ultimately able to use your internal business time on the things you should be doing.
- Track how much time you’re spending on each task so that you’re clear on how much time you need from someone each day, week, month. This is going to make it so that you can be very transparent about what your needs are going into any kind of working relationship with someone, whether they’re an employee, VA, agency, etc.
If you’re struggling to systematize or finding that, realistically with your client load, you just don’t have the time, motivation, or know-how to efficiently systematize your business and grow your team without feeling all the stress, let’s connect! Click here to book a free 30 minute Symplification Call with us to explore how we can make this as simple as possible for you!