She’s Got Systems

Find the systems you need to grow your business

Stop Insulting Your Clients

Customer Service by Leave a Comment

This is one of those topics that I shouldn’t really have to write about but over and over again I see well meaning entrepreneurs turning away business by insulting their clients!

Imagine that it’s late evening and you rush to the grocery store. Frazzled, tired and more than a little overwhelmed you stand in the baby aisle staring at the options. A clerk comes by and asks, “Can I help you with anything?”

You smile gratefully and reply, “YES! I have a 2 week old baby at home. Which size diaper should I get her? We just ran out!”

Now imagine the clerk raises an eyebrow and says with a sneer, “Are you sure you want diapers? I mean, you and a baby, that’s not a good idea.”

You may be flabbergasted and think this would never happen but variations of this conversation come up all the time. Here’s what it sounds like:  Continue Reading ￫

3 Ways to Show Client Appreciation

Customer Service by Leave a Comment

Do you love and appreciate your clients? If not, then I’d highly suggest pursuing a different line of work pronto. But if you do appreciate your clients then it may be hard to figure out how to appropriately show how much you care.

It’s easy to overthink this process but with a simple client appreciation system you can be sure to follow through for every new client, every time.

Here are 3 ways to show client appreciation:  Continue Reading ￫

Brands Behaving Badly

Customer Service by Leave a Comment

This week I’m in Atlanta and had the immense privilege to join my friend and colleague Eric Holtzclaw as co-host on his radio show “Laddering Lessons.”

Eric has a segment he calls “Brands Behaving Badly” and I decided to steal, er borrow, the term for this week’s post. Normally I’d have a video post for you today but this needs to go out while it’s fresh in my mind.

Travel and rental cars go hand in hand. Want to get around without figuring out regional transit? Want some flexibility to see the sights, not drag your luggage behind you and maybe even discover a new radio station in the process? Then you get a rental car.

My favorite business partner ever (PatCon) and I picked up our car from Thrifty, which was fulfilling the reservation I made via Kayak some weeks ago. We picked up the Ford Mustang convertible and drove 30 miles the first day before parking in South Beach and jetting out on foot.

If you follow me at all on social media you know that Day 2 was not as simple.  Continue Reading ￫

Staying Sane while traveling + running a business

Team & Support by Leave a Comment

Every time I plan a trip the same question pops up in the back of my mind “what about the business?” and if you run an online company, you know as well as I that the ability to serve clients can be hampered when traveling.

But having an online business should enable you more freedom, not less!

So here are 4 areas to look at in your business that might need a little systemizing if you’re ready to travel more and work less!

 Continue Reading ￫

Why No One Really Wants to “Work from the Beach”

Personal Development by Leave a Comment

There’s been a recent backlash against so called “lifestyle design” lately and especially those entrepreneurs who wish to pack it all in, live on a mountain top, and sell their musings for $100k a year.

Some of these posts hit the mark, while others fall far from.

So tell me the truth, when your eyes were opened to the world of entrepreneurship, was it to the ideals of conference calls from a hammock on a Hawaiian beach or the realities of all night coding sessions and funding issues?

I’m willing to bet you bought the dream of freedom, flexibility, multitasking so you could work on your tan.

But truthfully, no one really wants to work from the beach. Here’s why:  Continue Reading ￫

How to Prepare the Newsletter

Training by Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the series! Today I’m showing you my training video for our weekly newsletter process. If you want to train your VA or team how to queue an ezine then this will give you all the steps to get started.

We send our newsletter in Infusionsoft, but no matter what software you use, this video will help you see how we structure our training modules for new team members.

Here’s the video:

 

Here are some things to think about when making your own training video:

1. Be specific about where the content is located and be consistent about where that content is!

2. Be specific about what days each event is happening. What day is the content prepared? What day is the draft done? What day is the ezine tested and proofed? What day (and time) is it actually sent?

3. How do you label ezines in the system to make them easy to find later?

4. Show the shortcuts!

5. Point out any issues that should be noted but don’t necessarily go into depth on something that just needs some troubleshooting. That is something you can cover in live training or something your assistant would need to figure out while doing the ezine.

6. What reminders would be helpful for your assistant when they’re going through your ezine checklist?

By having someone else do it, I save a lot more time than just the 2 hours it would take to do it myself because, by not actually creating it, I can’t change as much!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s training series! So use these videos as a guide and then go create your own videos for your team. This will let you leverage your time so that you can go find more leads, serve more clients!

Stop Feeling Guilty for Outsourcing

Outsourcing by Leave a Comment

When I work with clients on hiring I find that there are some common problems that hold us back. One of the biggest struggles is feeling guilty.

Most of the time we feel guilty because

  • I don’t want to be a “boss”
  • I should be doing it myself
  • This task isn’t fun, it’s not fair to ask them to do it
  • My coach/friend/aunt can run her business without help, what’s wrong with me?

The truth is, hiring and outsourcing your tasks (whether they’re fun or not), gives your team member income, a skill to learn, a productive task, and enables them to contribute to your business.

I won’t waste space telling how how unproductive guilt is as an emotion, so let’s dive right into the solution. Addressing your guilt for outsourcing and moving forward.

Truth #1: As a business grows, more support is needed
No founder can run all the pieces of the company on his or her own indefinitely. You need to transition and become the coach, not all the players on the field. And if your business is going to help more people then you need depth of support.

Take time to consider: Do I want my business to grow beyond where it is right now? Will additional team members help me get there?

Truth #2: Wanting to “do it all myself” is a trick of the ego
Why do we want to do everything independently? Because then we can take all the credit, show up to that class reunion with pride, finally show our ex that we became something!

Question to ponder: Why does it mean less to me that I had support along the way to building my dream business? Is it okay to share credit?

Truth #3: Ask before you assume a task is unsavory or unwanted
Often I would apologetically hand over a job to my assistant, almost taking it back because I felt bad only to learn that she loved that kind of stuff! And even if the task wasn’t the most fun ever, she loved learning, understanding how the business ran, and making money. So my guilt was unfounded and counter productive.

Question to ask: “I’d like you to do this task and return to me by Friday. Will you let me know if this is something you’d like to do more often?”

It’s time to stop feeling guilty for outsourcing when you are building a business to serve others because you will necessarily need some support yourself.

(Video) How to Queue Social Media Posts

Training by Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the series – an inside look at my team training videos! This week’s video is on queueing social media posts. This is a pretty comprehensive video because it goes through both Facebook and Twitter. Stay tuned after the training video where I’ll show you some important things you may not have noticed.

Here’s our team training video of the social media queueing process:  Continue Reading ￫

Vanity Interviews are Hurting Your Business

Marketing by Leave a Comment

Media is fun and interviews are a great way to answer common questions about your business and showcase your personality. But the vanity interview is one that could not only be a complete waste of time, but also harmful in other ways.

What is a vanity interview? It’s one where the host(s) do not have a strategy or plan for publishing and promoting your talk and thus all the time and effort you put in is wasted. If the interview never goes live, it’s not only a bad business practice that signals you’re working with an amateur but also a frustrating waste of time.

How to avoid vanity interviews: Continue Reading ￫