The Truth Behind Running a 6-figure Business

There is a truth to running a 6-figure business that not everyone talks about. 

Sure, you see the images of the vacations, the time off, the smiling marketing shots, which is all amazing, and not “untrue”...

But what you often don’t see is what MAKES that 6-figure business what it is. There’s actual work that goes into building that business, as well as a team of support that helps you get there. I’m all about pulling back the curtain and truly showing you the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly parts about running a business. Because it does *get* to be easy, and it does *get* to be what you want it to be, but I think it’s incredibly misleading to show people the perks and make it seem like it’s all fun and games when really there’s a lot more to it than that. Let’s chat about that, shall we? 

Different Hats

Many business owners at the 6-figure level do have some support in place, however, they also still wear a lot of different hats. And wearing a lot of hats means carrying a lot of responsibility.

Sometimes that hat changes from DOING the admin work to overseeing the results of the admin work. So, there’s still a level of responsibility there that doesn’t go away just because you have support. 

And the more hats you wear, the more stress you carry. But don’t get me wrong, that help does help, but as the CEO you’re still the one in charge of the final outcomes.

It’s Still Risky

When your business hits that 6-figure mark, you’ll still have to take risks. Whether those risks are in who you hire, what programs/people you invest in or putting out a new offer. And you feel that danger in each one. 

If you hire wrong, you could completely create chaos and stress for yourself that, then, impacts your business performance, your energy, and your results. 

If you put out the wrong offer, you could negatively impact the whole of your success by creating months where you have a marked reduction in sales that impacts your year-to-date revenue. 

Risks are inherent at all levels, and are so necessary to grow and scale - but you still *feel* them at the 6-figure mark in business. There’s not a point in business where taking risks stops and you don’t feel that fear and anxiety, you just get used to that feeling and have the past truths and success to lean on to reduce those fears.

“Unsexy” business 

Oh yeah, you see the Insta-worthy shots and think, “That’s what I want!” You see the manicured hands, the nannies, the well-put together look. It’s all fabulous and made possible by doing “the work”. 

But what you don’t see is the “unsexy” side of that work. 

You don’t see the stress holding up an empire puts on a business owner. You don’t see the daily overflowing task list. The things that bleed from one day to the next because there is ALWAYS more to do.

You don’t see the pressure of decision-making (and decision fatigue) that goes on. The systems and processes, organization and structural support that have to happen to keep a business running. You typically don’t start a business to do those sorts of things - they’re not fun and sexy, but they are necessary for success.

Sure, you get to work with clients you love AND you get to be somewhat more creative in your business. But you also have to take the unsexy with that if you want to keep the ball rolling. 

Day-In & Day-Out

Those 6-figures are a direct result of the consistent, day-in and day out-actions you take - and making sure those are business building activities vs. nonessential tasks. 

That’s right. If you are bored with the day-in & day-out of running a 5-figure business, don’t expect it to go away just because you’re making more money. You will still have to be the face and driving force behind your marketing and showing up.

You will still have to review the day, see what went right and what went wrong. 

You will still have to flesh out new plans for the future. 

The list goes on. Do you have help? You do. But you are still…the owner/operator. And these things still fall on your shoulders. 

Now, I know this post makes it look like I’m bashing 6-figures, I’m SO not. It’s AMAZING to have a 6-figure business. But, it’s easier to have IF you know what to expect. Because I don’t want you to give up. I want you to know that you were made for this, and it’s SO worth it. Just think of this as a whole-picture assessment that helps you walk in with a more attuned sense of awareness.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

What It DOESN’T Mean When You Hire An OBM

There seems to be an epidemic in the OBM community where business owners onboard them and then ghost them or expect them to figure out the path to success. 

Newsflash: Hiring an OBM is not a permission slip to peace out your biz. It’s not a mark of “I made it.” 

You STILL have to show up as a CEO. You STILL have to make decisions. You STILL have to invest in doing what only you can do (aka your craft). 

Your OBM is there as a partner, team player, not the coach, nor the team, itself. With an OBM onboard, you now have the ability to have a “partner” in your biz and continue to grow and expand your ideas with someone who is all-in on your biz, just like you. They are an added strategic voice, but not the ultimate decision maker. 

The Driver

Think of it this way, when you hire an OBM, you’re essentially hiring a driver. 

And when you hire a driver, you can’t just get in the car and go. You have to tell the driver where you want to go (i.e. your business goals), give the driver directions (i.e. what you’re launching, who will benefit from it, and what the results will be), and check in with the driver to make sure there’s enough gas to get there without stopping, and the road is clear, etc. (i.e. team meetings to assess and adjust).

Your driver gives you the luxury of time to not focus on getting from point a to point b to point c. They allow you the ability to sit in the back and get 7x more work than you would alone. And the work you’re able to get done while your driver is driving is the work that only you can do in your business.

But this is not about productivity. This is expansion.

And expansion can’t happen if you don’t give your driver directions, they could end up “lost” along the way. 

Ultimately, you have to step more into the CEO mindset. 

Give the direction and vision to the OBM to work. Let them, then, come back to you, along the way, for feedback and approvals. This way, you’re working together as a team...not your OBM doing everything while you simply check out. 

Commit. 

Commit to still showing up. Commit to sharing goals. Commit to the path to success. Together. 

Don’t force the load on your OBM and expect them to be driven and motivated to do BOTH your job and theirs. 

Give your driver their directions and let them go do their thing...while you go do yours.

What IS your job? Strategy. Figuring out what your people need. Discovering what you best bring to your clients. Becoming the best at what you do. Being the face of your business. Meeting people. Every. Single. Day.

Connect. 

See eye-to-eye on the vision. Share the passion for making it happen. Inspire each other to carry out your roles together. 

Because as a team, there’s nothing more important than the shared vision of success and the road to get there (see what I did there with the driver analogy??). 

Check-in daily for immediate to-dos. And weekly to set the course heading for your journey for the week ahead, as well as to assess how the journey’s gone so far. 

You Are the CEO

In the end, you are STELLAR at what you do, which is why you hire an OBM to do the things that you are not as proficient at. And, together, the two of you can make an unstoppable team that skyrockets to success, if you’re both focused on doing those things you do best. 

Now, go forth and accept your role as CEO, make the decisions, and do your share of the work to see your business explode.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

How to Prepare your Business for Maternity Leave

Officially 8 weeks postpartum and can tell you that I am SO grateful that I prepped for maternity leave EARLY to be able to truly take a step back and spend time with my baby boy. If I’m being honest, most of my content in the last 8 weeks was either written ahead of time or repurposed! BUT, I wanted to write this specific post after the fact so I could give you the truth and actual helpful advice to prepare for maternity leave. Even if you’re not pregnant right now, you can apply these same tips to take a lengthy vacation. I think ultimately it’s helped me be able to step back into my business in a way that will make me feel like I still get plenty of time with my son. I get to have BOTH the business and the family!

Here are my top 5 tips for preparing for maternity leave in order to help you feel fully supported in your business while you take time away.

Hire the right team members

If you’re anything like me, your business is your baby. It can feel hard to let others take over for you while you step away as you’ve put your blood sweat and tears into this thing, right!? I get it! You must hire team members that you can trust! So this step is imperative to start thinking about when you’re newly pregnant. I highly recommend a task matrix to identify what tasks your current team members are doing, and what you’re taking care of. Do a massive brain dump then add to it daily for the tasks you missed. Then, start identifying WHO could take on some of those tasks for you. Is it a current team member, or should you hire someone new? I recommend hiring someone on your team, or someone new, to be the “lead” and essentially you while you’re out to make sure there is proper direction and communication between clients and team members.

Defined roles and responsibilities

Once you identify and hire the right team members, make sure each team member's roles and responsibilities are defined. I suggest transparent communication between the team as a whole and cultivating a team culture ahead of time. We use Slack to communicate regarding clients and internal needs and everyone on the team knows how each other’s expertise and who is responsible for what. The key here is to start this communication early, at least 3 months before your due date. The team will take some time to get to know each other and will learn to lean on each other for support. Promote all communication in client channels vs. DMs to make sure everyone sees the types of questions asked for a reference.

Recycle / Repurpose Content

While making sure your clients are supported while you’re out on maternity leave is important, it’s not the only thing that you need to prepare for. You want to make sure YOUR business gets the same attention and love in preparation for leave. The last thing you want to do is have a baby and go radio silent online for 2-4 months. Think about how you currently plan and produce content and WORK AHEAD. You can outsource some to a copywriter if needed, or just create additional content ahead of time each week. Plan for not only while you’re out but maybe some additional for when you come back to not overwhelm yourself with work. In addition, please REPURPOSE your past content. I am certain it’s still relevant and if you truly realize how few people see all of your content each day, I know it will reach and resonate with both your old followers and new ones. In addition to repurposing content, make sure that you have an engagement strategy in place as well, and someone to manage your social channels, inboxes, leads, etc. while you’re out.

Communication with clients 

Obviously, this is one of the most important things you need to do while preparing for leave. Let them know how you plan to manage your work for them while you’re away. More communication will help them feel more supported. Introduce them to your team members who will be working with them at least a few months prior to your due date. I had my baby 3 weeks early, so I am extremely grateful my clients already knew my team and it was a seamless transition for them when I went into labor. 

Video bank of tasks/training (starting as early as 6 mo out)

Create a video bank of tasks and training for your team as you go! One easy way to do this is to create a Loom account and record yourself doing the tasks you’ll be passing off to your team each day. I started doing this as soon as I got pregnant. I created a Mat Leave folder in loom and was able to have a reference bank for my team to go through while I was out on leave. I also put links to these videos under each client in Asana under the “references” board. Some other videos I created were more training-focused on a specific platform so they could see how it worked and/or how I do things. That way they aren’t wasting a ton of time researching how to do something and not doing it in the way that you want it done. Doing these along the way will also help you feel less overwhelmed with what you need to create to support your team as your due date nears.

These are all things that helped me while I’ve been out on leave to feel like both my business and my clients were supported. If I’m being totally honest, I talked with my team here and there while on leave, but not nearly as much as I would have if I hadn’t been prepared. This allowed me to simply provide guidance and advice vs. having to actually DO the work itself. I’ve been able to snuggle my baby and rest and recover and it has been AMAZING. I will also advise you to turn OFF notifications. This has helped me as well, I just check in here and there when I have the mental capacity to do so. I hope these tips help you! If you have also been through this season, let me know in the comments if there’s anything else you’d add to this list!

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Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

How Workflows can Transform your Business

I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge fan of the “set it and forget it” mentality. I appreciate it when I can set something up once and trust that it’ll work for me again and again. I look for things that are recurring tasks in my business that I can automate whenever possible. One way I’ve been able to do that is through workflows in one of my favorite platforms, Dubsado. Dubsado is a business tool that can function as a CRM, and/or a great onboarding platform for your business. I help many of my clients set up Dubsado because while it's not the most intuitive platform in the world, it’s so helpful for creating automations in your business.

So what does setting up Dubsado do for you?  It saves you time, and in the long run, that’s what saves you money. By setting up a workflow in Dubsado,  you don’t have to worry about the back and forth, or remember what you did the last time to create the same experience the next time. You are truly focused around creating standard processes for your business.

Here are four ways that workflows will transform your business:

1. Standard offers equal simplicity. 

Identify the standard offers you provide in your business. For example, if you are a business coach, maybe you offer one-on-one business coaching, courses, intensives or VIP days, etc. If you are a service provider, such as a VA or an OBM, I’ll use my business as an example, maybe you do a standard monthly hourly package, one-off projects, and an intensive. If you’re not currently offering “standard” services, meaning you instead customize each proposal for your clients, I would highly recommend you identify at least a couple of offers you can make standard. If you're constantly needing to create a new proposal or come up with new pricing for whatever your offer is, it won’t simplify anything in your business, and will in return create a lot more work for you, and not to mention the time spent in the backend of your business. I usually recommend two to three offers that are your go-to, that you can talk about and share, and really have those fine-tuned for your potential clients. Why do I believe in standard offers so much? If you don’t have standard offers, you can't do as much with automation. And what does automation do? It gives you some simplicity in your business. 

2. Save time with automation by the push of a button. 

If you have standard offers, such as business coaching, hourly services, and intensives, you can create workflows for each of those three things to help automate these processes for your new clients. So where do you start? Start thinking about from the time somebody wants to connect with you, to the time that they're onboarding as your client. What does that look like? For example, say we get on the phone, they say yes to working with me, I have this automation set up, it's called a workflow in Dubsado, where at the touch of a button, all I have to do is put in their information, including their name, their business name, their contact info, and click start on this automation. The first step in the automation includes sending them their contract and their invoice. Once their contract is signed and the invoice is paid, it automatically will send them an email with the next steps to book their first call with me, as well as a link to fill out a questionnaire. I don't have to worry about going back and forth with the client to do that. I don't have to remember what I said or go find a previous email to copy and paste. I don't have to go back and forth with the time to schedule a call. I also don't have to follow up with them for future invoices. I have it set up for say a six-month coaching client to send them a reminder to pay their next invoice three days before it's due. And then another email to go out if they don't pay it two days after it's past due. All of that is done for me at the touch of a button. A similar workflow happens for my other offers. This really simplifies the onboarding process for both you and the client.  

3. Positive Client Experience. 

Workflows create a positive client experience, as it feels seamless and easy to your new client. Your new client is not waiting on you to create the invoice or to send it over once they sign the contract. This is particularly important if you're in different time zones, or maybe they sign your contract at night after you've already stopped working. This way, they don’t have to wait on you to send the invoice over and waste another day before getting paid. It creates the ability for them to do the next step in the process on their time versus waiting on you. If this is the first time they're working with you, they're going into this relationship seeing how smooth the process is, which makes them feel good about the relationship moving forward. Creating the simplicity for them will make them feel more confident in their work with you. 

4. No need to reinvent the wheel. 

Every time that you onboard a new client, the process is the same. You're not coming up with a new way to do the same thing. You're not having to think about “Oh, what did I do last time?” You don’t want different workflows based on different scenarios. Instead, these workflows should be your go-to, every time you onboard a client. You don't have to make it harder than it already is or needs to be. It creates standards for your business and frees up space to focus on delivering kick-ass results to your clients.

As you can see, workflows are truly transformative for your business. It saves you time, and you probably don't realize how much time some of these things are truly taking you. When you sit down to create this standard, it will create that space in your brain to not have to worry about it anymore. You can also outsource some of these things, such as the onboarding of a new client, to a team member because you’ve put this standard into place which will allow you to be more productive in other areas of your business. 

If you have any questions, you can always feel free to reach out to me on Instagram. If this does feel overwhelming to you, you can also book a system and systems intensive with me. My Systems with Speed intensive is designed to help you run through this process, figure out what this looks like in your business, and I can set up Dubsado (and potentially another platform in that same intensive) for you to truly transform your business. If you are more of a DIYer, check out my course, Automate Everything, that will assist you in getting Dubsado set up on your own.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

Hiring: Who to Hire and When in your Business

Congratulations! You’re growing your business and hiring a team for support. That is definitely the way to scale and grow to continue to take on more clients and expand your service offerings, not to mention giving you the opportunity to make things more efficient in your business. When you’re just starting out, you’re doing ALL THE THINGS, right? The accounting, the backend management, the content, the sales calls, the programs, the coaching, the courses, etc. As you grow, you have the opportunity to outsource more of the things you don’t want to be doing in your business to allow you to focus on the things you love, and the things that can grow your income.

The big mystery question when it comes to hiring is WHO do I hire and WHEN do I hire them?

A lot of people make a lot of mistakes when hiring. They hire too late, they hire the wrong person, or they hire without a strategy. I’ve worked in many 6 and 7-figure businesses with teams of 30+ people, as well as hired a team of my own, so I’m here to share with you WHEN and WHO to hire to help your business thrive.

Hire BEFORE you’re ready

The hardest thing to do is hire when you’re desperate for help. This will cloud your judgment because you’ll just be looking for SOMEONE, ANYONE to help take the load off your plate. Hiring takes time, so it’s best to hire before you’re ready. As soon as you start to feel the strain and not enough time to get things done, consider looking for that next hire. The hiring process consists of more than just bringing someone onboard, you have to write the job description, post the job, review applications, conduct interviews, then, onboard and train the new team member. It’s a full month-long process. You want to make sure you’re dedicating the right amount of time to finding the right fit for YOU. 

Hire the PERSON over the resume

Hire QUALITY. You can always TEACH people things, but if you have the wrong person in place just to fill a role, your team and business will suffer. Sometimes yes, it may be best to hire someone a little more experienced that can jump right in, but other times you want to hire someone you can mold and train, someone that doesn’t have “set ways” that you can groom to do things the way you want them done. Determine the values you want in a person and the role and then hire based on the person you liked best. This is why interviewing on the phone is SO much more important than just picking someone out of a stack of “resumes” or emails. The person that is going to be the best fit for you and your team will be worth so much more to you in the long run.

Hire a generalist FIRST then a specialist by niche

One of my most common questions I get is who do I hire first? If you don’t have any support in your business yet, you’ll want to hire a generalist. This is someone who can do a little bit of everything. Schedule emails and social content, engage on your behalf, update reports, manage your new client onboarding and invoicing, etc. Now, don’t expect them to be a MAGICAL UNICORN who has expertise in all things -- like content creation, graphic design, video editing, etc. but just some GENERAL SUPPORT on the backend will help take some things off your plate. THEN, once you get some things off your plate, you can hire the “specialist” when ready to make the next hire. Maybe you suck at graphic design and want someone to create kickass graphics for your IG and social content. Or you really need some tech support for your website and email funnels. Or you want to launch a podcast and need a podcast editor. Or you need someone to manage Facebook ads (because FB Ad Manager is overly complicated for no reason hah). You get the point, first hire general support and then hire in the niche that you spend the most time in, but either don’t love doing or aren’t great at it. This formula right here will 10x your income in a heartbeat.

Hire a kickass OBM to manage your team

Hiring support comes with added responsibilities. Make sure you have someone to support you in managing your team and responsibilities. The last thing you need once you outsource is to fill that time with managing the people you outsource the work to. Hiring an OBM or project manager to support you in managing your team, responsibilities and workflow will truly give you the amount of time back you want and need in your business.

Following these simple reminders when hiring support in your business will allow you to be more efficient and scale your business faster! Support is critical for continued growth and success, but it can also hold you back if done poorly. This will save you time and money in the long run.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

Scaling your Business with Dubsado Workflows

Dubsado is hands down my favorite platform. Okay that’s a lie, I love Acuity. And Asana. Dang it, I just freaking LOVE systems!! You’ve heard me say it before, but I’ll say it again, systems are what scale your business. Without them, you’re doing a ton of manual work, wasting man-power when a robot can do the same thing, much quicker, and without wasting any brain-power!

One of my favorite things about Dubsado in particular is their Workflow feature. It truly is what sets it apart from other systems. Workflows have the power to automate your entire client process. You can automatically send forms, contracts, invoices, emails, calendar invites, etc. to your clients. You can simply walk a client through their first contact with you as a lead, through a successful on-boarding process, all the way until you off-board them as a client.

I’m going to walk you through all the parts of the process of setting up a simple workflow in Dubsado.

Lead Capture Forms

Lead forms are such a time saver. Think of this in the same way you’d think of an email capture form for your email list. The difference is, these lead forms are specific for people wanting to work with you, join your program, buy your product, etc. For example, say you’re launching a new group program. You can embed a lead capture form on your landing/sales page. A person who’s interested in your program will fill out the form (I usually keep it simple - name, email). This will bring them in as a “new lead” in Dubsado and label them whatever you choose (i.e. New Lead - XYZ Program). Now, the cool thing about lead forms is, they can trigger a workflow to start. So when that lead comes in, a workflow can be triggered to automatically send that person a personalized email, contract, and/or invoice for your program.

Choosing an Action in a Workflow

Actions are what you want the workflow to do. For example, you can send an email, send a contract, create an invoice, create a form, schedule a call, etc. From here, you have the ability to decide how that action is “triggered”. Maybe it’s when the workflow starts, or maybe it’s once the contract is signed by the client. If you want to send a client an invoice for your new group coaching program once they sign the contract, you would select “after contract is signed by client.” You can specify if you want this to be sent right away, or if you’d prefer a time delay.

Pausing / Approving / Automation for a Workflow

The great thing about workflows is the automation element. Once you hit start you can simply rest easy knowing that everything is being taken care of automatically. BUT, if you wanted to set everything up but set an “approval” action along the way, you could do that too. For instance, if you send a client your scheduler to book a call in one step, the rest of your workflow may be set up assuming that they say yes to working with you (I’m all about the added confidence here). You can add in an “approve first” for the next step in a workflow - say sending an invoice or contract for example. All you would need to do is press the approve button in the workflow and it would continue down its course.

Triggers in a Workflow

There are many different triggers that can start the next action in the workflow. For example, once a contract is signed, once an appointment has been made, once an invoice has been paid, etc.. This can be extremely helpful if you want to give clients access to say book a 1:1 call with you, or give access to the online portal or email them with next steps, but don’t want to do this until you’re certain they’ve made payment. You can trigger the next step once they’ve done the said action that you’d like them to make. 

Canned Emails

Canned emails are a lifesaver/timesaver. If you find yourself sending the same welcome email to a client with each new client you onboard, do yourself a favor and set up a canned email. But Katelyn, what if I personalize all my welcome emails? Girl, you’re wasting some serious time. There are still ways to personalize with automation and canned emails, but in order to reduce your overall time, generalize as much as you can and find ways to add the personalization later (maybe sending a welcome gift, or sending them a note after they fill out their onboarding questionnaire relating to something they shared, etc.). Examples of canned emails include: getting started/welcome email, contract, and invoice, booking an appointment, the process for your work together, etc). 

PREP your Workflows 

What do I mean by PREP? Get all the things you need ready before you start the workflow. This means, set up all those canned emails, set up your packages, set up your payment plans, add in all your relevant forms (think contracts, questionnaires, lead forms, etc.). Otherwise, you won’t get very far when starting to put together your workflow. You need all of these “set up” pieces in place and done first and then putting together your workflow should be a breeze.

Write Out Your Process First

When I do my “pre-intensive” call prep one of the first things we do is write out the flow of how they want things to go from start to finish. It’s here you typically realize you’re missing a step, or need to iron out a piece of your process. It’s better to do this up-front than mid-workflow. Trust me, a lot less frustration and time spent “redoing” or reorganizing your workflow. Think through every single step you want your client, or potential client, to take and what’s needed for that (forms, questions, copy, graphics, links, etc). 

Once you go through all the steps and set your workflow up, make sure you test it out! 9 times out of 10 I find an error in the workflow trigger or have something that needs to be adjusted, added or removed. I set myself up as a test client and run through the entire process just as a client would. Then you can be confident in your process and your client’s experience. Workflows are such an amazing way to create efficiencies in your business. While they do tend to take a few hours to set up, they will ultimately save you so much time and frustration. 

If you need additional support in setting up your Dubsado account, check out my Dubsado mini-course, Automate Everything, where I take you through setting up your entire Dubsado account. Click here to access and enter the code COVID19 to get 50% off! If you’d prefer more 1:1 support, I do offer a done-for-you intensive called Systems With Speed where I can set up your account for you in just 4-hours. Learn more here. If you’re new to Dubsado, get 20% off (either your first month or a full year purchase) using this link and the code katelynhamilton at checkout.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

The Biggest Mistake Even 6 and 7-Figure Business Owners Make

Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in the backend of 6 and 7-figure businesses. There’s one common theme I see repeatedly with each client I work with. This mistake is costing them hours of time in their business, and therefore money left on the table.

The good news? I’m here to save you a few steps.

So what’s the number one mistake? Lack of organization.

You can have all the sales plans, the best content, and prettiest graphics, but if the backend of your business is disorganized, you’re holding yourself back from that next level of success. 

The number one thing a lack of organization affects - your energy.

When your business is disorganized, you’re constantly working from a reactive state of mind instead of a proactive state. This is where things are missed, and mistakes are made. A lack of organization reduces the likelihood of everything running smoothly. Of course, even with the best-organized plan in place mistakes happen, but they happen far less when you’re organized. The result of constant reactive action? Drained energy. You end up spending more time on the backend tasks instead of engaging with your clients or target audience and doing the things you love in your business. 

The number two thing a lack of organization affects - your time.

Not only are you mentally drained by the reactive process, but you’re losing so much time. Whether it’s fixing mistakes, or writing content or searching for things last minute that you don’t know where you put them, this is valuable time you could be spending with your clients or doing business-building activities. If you’re not doing so already, track your time. See how much you’re spending in the backend of your business. Once you get organized, you’ll spend much LESS time searching for things and re-inventing the wheel and so much more doing what you love.

The number three thing a lack of organization affects - your mindset.

It’s so hard to have a GROWTH mindset when you can’t even think about tomorrow because you’re so frazzled with today. When you’re disorganized you often feel overwhelmed which leads to a lack of mentality instead of a growth mentality. You’ll find that when you get organized, you’ll think so much CLEARER and have less clutter filling your brain.

So the real question is, how do you get organized? The first thing I recommend is to use a project management tool like asana, learn more about it in this post here. This will help you stay on track with deadlines, deliverables, and team support. The second thing I recommend is Google Drive. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT just dump files in there. Organize it by folder -- i.e. content folder, graphics folder, program folder, admin folder, etc. Then write down your processes for things. Onboarding, content creation, launches, etc. That way you don’t have to go digging for things down the line or re-create the wheel. The final thing I would suggest is to outsource. Some people (like me) are wired for organization, and others just aren’t. That’s 100% A-OK. I promise it’s worth the investment to hire out someone to get your business organized and functioning at a higher level. The investment is WELL worth it. If you’re looking for more tools and systems to get organized, I list them out in this blog post here.

There you have it. You’re not alone, as this is a common issue affecting so many business owners. I promise if you take the time to organize your business and set up the right systems and tools, as well as hire the right team, you’ll not only be saving yourself money but also increasing your energy and gaining back valuable time in your business.

Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

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Getting Started Right: Systems and Processes to Save You Time, Stress and Money

There is something to be said about taking messy action and figuring things out along the way. I’m on board with that. We all have to start somewhere and trust me, you’re never going to have all the answers, the perfect plan or the prettiest website (in your head) before you take that leap. So, of course, I’m on board with taking the leap of faith when you have no clue what you’re doing, you just know you can’t stay where you are.

BUT. Of course, there’s a but. There’s also something to be said about having a good foundation set up to help your business run well, saving you time, stress and money. Investing in setting up your systems from the get-go is not only a smart way to spend your money but also so necessary to grow. Having established, well-oiled systems in place will give you more confidence in your business and also position you as an established business owner who has their shit together.

This is why I love my systems intensives. I can accomplish so much in such a short period of time for my clients. It’s a total game-changer for their business. If you want more of a DIY approach, here are my top recommendations for what processes/systems to put into place and the tools you can leverage.

Onboarding / Off-boarding

Start by writing out your process (or ideal process) from the moment someone makes contact with you to the moment they decide to work with you to the first steps once you begin work with them through off-boarding them as a client. Get extremely detailed at each step. Think about any information you’ll need to collect from them, how you’ll correspond, or if you’re a designer how many rounds of revision you’ll include, any calls you will need to schedule, emails you typically send, etc. This is called a workflow. A lot of times there’s things in here you can automate.

I highly recommend using a system like Dubsado to set up a workflow to automate as much of your onboarding process as possible. You’ll have the ability to create canned emails, contracts, proposal templates, payment schedules, etc. that will save you so much time with each new client. I also recommend a project management tool such as Asana. You can create templated projects here to serve as checklists when working with a new client. This will also help to keep you on track to your deliverables with ease and create a seamless onboarding experience for a new client to feel confident in your work together. 

Scheduling

Automating scheduling is probably the easiest thing you can set up in your business to save yourself the back-and-forth with potential clients (potentially leading to a missed opportunity). You want to make it as easy as possible for someone to schedule time with you. You can always add pre-qualifying questions to a form to weed out low-quality leads.

I personally use and love Acuity for scheduling. It’s so easy and you can add multiple “calendars” for different types of services you offer, even with custom times/schedules for each. For example, if you only want to take discovery calls on Mondays and Wednesdays and client calls on Tuesday and Thursdays you can set this up through the platform to showcase that availability to your clients and potential clients. Rather than a back and forth email series about availability, you can simply send your scheduling link to someone to book at a time that works for them (AND YOU). It will sync with your existing calendar and send reminders to those you have appointments with to reduce missed appointments. Other scheduling apps out there are Calendly, Dubsado, and Satori. I love how robust the Acuity platform is which is why that’s the one I typically recommend.

Proposals, Contracts, and Invoices

If you’re still manually updating your proposals, contracts, and invoices - stop. There’s a better, faster way. Besides scheduling, this automation sequence is easy and a must-do. Again, I use Dubsado for this and create an automated workflow where all you have to do is push a button and it’s all done for you. You have the ability to create proposals with custom options, contracts per service you offer or simply one generic contract, as well as invoices that you can customize per service offering or proposal, payment plans/schedules and recurring invoices each month.

Email Marketing 

There are so many different email platforms out there and honestly setting up your email automation can be daunting. But as I mentioned in a recent blog post, your email list is your biggest asset, so you want to nurture those on your email list well. You own your email list. They’re your warm leads, so providing relevant, timely and consistent information to them is important.

I suggest setting up a couple of simple automations including a simple welcome sequence and a freebie sequence funneling into your paid offer. I go over multiple different email automations you can read more about here. In terms of what platforms I recommend, my new favorite is FloDesk as it’s visually appealing and so clean. I also would recommend ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit.  

Content Marketing

Consistent content is important to build your know, like and trust factor with your audience. So putting in place a content marketing process is extremely important to stay consistent. Content marketing doesn’t have to be as time-consuming and daunting as you may think. Create a plan and REPURPOSE. For example, you could create a video, use a transcription service to break it down to text, turn that into a blog, share part of that in your email newsletter and break the blog down for social content. Determine your timing, I.e. new content weekly or bi-weekly, and then stick to it. Schedule it in as a meeting just like you would with a client. 

While establishing processes and setting up systems can seem overwhelming, once you have everything set up your business will flow with ease. Streamlined processes free up your mind and your time to focus on actually serving your clients, generating leads and building relationships. The stuff that will directly make you money.

I recommend either setting aside some time to establish these as early in your business as you can. It doesn’t mean that you can’t adjust or change these along the way, we’re always tweaking and improving throughout our entrepreneur journey. You’ll learn and up-level and new processes will need to be put into place or old ones optimized for your growth and workload, or change of business.

If you’d rather not deal with the frustration of trying to figure it all out yourself, I highly recommend my 5 hour systems intensive. I love this sort of stuff and promise to save you time, as well as optimize your processes alongside you to create efficiencies you didn’t even know were possible. Book a discovery call to chat more here.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

Why Email Automations are a Must in Your Business

Email marketing is an important part of a marketing strategy. You don’t own your Facebook or Instagram followers. But your email list — that’s all yours. Facebook or Instagram could shut down tomorrow, but I can promise you email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s critical you grow your email list, but more importantly, is how you nurture those on your list.

Automations are a great way to build a relationship with your audience, support them, deliver value and time-sensitive information, and guide them to your next offer. Having automations set up in your business will build that know, like and trust factor and help you gain more of your ideal clients. Another benefit? It saves you TIME. Once you have an automation set up, it runs on its own. You aren’t wasting time writing, setting up and sending the same emails manually. This gives you more time back to work on other projects -- I’m all about the increase in productivity.

Here are 5 ways to use email marketing automation in your business:

1. Welcome sequence (new subscribers)

Setting up a short little welcome sequence for your new subscribers is a must. It helps them get to know you, what you offer, how you can help them and build that relationship (aka the Know, Like and Trust factor). This also keeps you top of mind for the service or product they’re clearly interested in as they go through the decision making process.

I recommend a brief introductory email highlighting your main offer, giving them a little bit of a “what to expect” from you and where they can connect with you more. I suggest following that email with a value add email - maybe it’s a blog post you’ve previously written that you can share, or a freebie you offer, etc. Make sure it’s something that your target audience struggles with that you can help solve. The third email I suggest is a vulnerable story. Something that will allow you to CONNECT with them and their struggles. Finally, that fourth email in the chain will direct them to the offer you’d like them to book with you. You can optionally follow up with a 5th email reminding them of that offer and/or including a “downsell offer”. But just remember the goal of this welcome sequence is to help your audience get to know you and deliver them value. 

2. Freebie

Freebie emails are one of the BEST ways to grow your email list. What I mean by a freebie is an offer / downloadable that you can give your audience in exchange for their email address. Nowadays, people are very sensitive to giving up their email address because of how much “spam” they get on a daily basis, so this freebie has to be something worth them sharing this with you. I want this to be your BEST SHIT. It needs to be transformative - something to truly help them solve a problem they have. Something that will leave them wanting MORE from you.

Set this automation up so that when they sign up for your list to get that download it’s the first thing that comes to their inbox. Tell them how to use it or what it will do for them and keep it short and sweet. They truly probably just want that download and may not read much else you say. It’s here that your follow up emails are important in the automation. Some people download the freebie but don’t actually do the workbook, or watch the video or whatever it is that you’re offering. Providing reminders, helpful tips, next steps, incentives, etc. in those follow-up emails is key. You can also segment your audience and follow-ups based on people who opened your email, downloaded something or clicked a link. This will help you send specific CTAs to those who have downloaded and may need a next step, or to remind those who haven’t. In one of the final follow up emails I like to provide an incentive - such as if they fill out their workbook and send it back to me I’ll do a free 30-minute call with them, or you can offer them a discount on your services. 

3. Launches

Setting up your emails for launches will make your life infinitely easier. You deserve an easy, stress-free launch. This is done by planning ahead and getting organized. Think about your launch phases - pre-launch/early bird, launch and post-launch… or the excite, educate and close phases. What types of emails need to be sent to excite your audience and get them on a wait-list for your program or offer? Do this for each phase - think through your pricing structure, when you want to offer discounts, incentives, pricing plans, bonuses, etc. to your audience. How will you build that feeling of “I have to have this now, time is running out”? Map all this out ahead of time - I love to do this through the program Airtable. It’s so easy to keep each launch organized. Then set all these up in an automation! That way when you run this program again it’s all RIGHT THERE and you don’t have to recreate the wheel. I promise this will save you so much time, energy and frustration. That way during launch time you can be engaging with your potential clients, answering questions they have, building relationships and closing the sale.

4. Abandoned Cart (eCommerce Biz)

If you’re an eCommerce business one of the most common (and necessary automations) is an abandoned cart automation/sequence. You want this to be sent out to your potential customers within a 3-6 hr window of them abandoning their cart. You can simply first offer a reminder, and maybe second you follow it up with a discount code or coupon. Or if you want to close the sale quicker, a discount code (still with money off vs. a percentage off) in the first email would work as well. It’s been proven that 2-3 emails often perform best in terms of an abandoned cart follow up. If you want to dive into this one more, check out Klaviyo’s article on this here. Klaviyo is my favorite eCommerce email platform.

5. Events (virtual or in-person)

Events, whether you’re hosting virtually (such as a livestream or webinar) or in person, can absolutely benefit from an email automation series. From event promotion to sign up confirmation, to reminders about the event, to follow up post-event with next steps, these are key for engaging your audience. Think of these emails just as you would a launch, but they may require more specific details on the “who, what, when, where, why” as opposed to a launch sequence. The most important email here I’d say is the follow up post-event. You want to either give them a replay, or let them know where they can learn more or what their next step is. Where are you guiding them next and what incentive are you giving them to take that next step?

To take a step back, if you’re still struggling with picking the right email platform, I highly recommend ActiveCampaign or FloDesk. FloDesk is visually appealing with gorgeous pre-made templates that I LOVE. If you like simplicity though and very extensive automation experience, go with ActiveCampaign. FloDesk calls their automations workflows if you’re looking for them, and you’ll always need a trigger to set up an automation - whether it’s an email sign up form or a tag, etc.

There are numerous videos and help guides if you’re still struggling, but if you don’t have any of these set up in your business, and want to save yourself the time and/or frustration, I’d be happy to help you with these through my 5-hour intensive. Book a discovery call here to chat more.

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.

2020 Marketing and Social Media Trends

It’s hard to believe that we are less than 2 weeks away from 2020! While I am sitting here wondering where 2019 went, I’m simultaneously preparing for 2020. I am sort of a data and analytics nerd and love to look at trends in the data, learn from it and better serve my audience. In addition to data analysis, I think it’s equally important to do some research to see what the latest trends are in general to help guide a growth strategy. These trend reports are heavily researched by experts and while every “tactic” so to speak may not apply to you, it’s really interesting to see what the industry as a whole is doing and possibly open your ideas to new ideas for your planning.

I’ve done some research on 2020 marketing trends and I’m condensing down the most important info to share with you!

Did you know…

• Millennials now compromise half of all B2B buyers

• There are currently 3.48 billion social media users, which is up 9% since last year

• There are more than 590 million active professionals on LinkedIn

• Research predicts that businesses will invest $400 million in chatbots in 2021

• 85% of people are more likely to buy your product after they watch a video about it

• Posts with images produce 180% more engagement

• Global ad spend will reach $605 billion in 2020. This is a 4.2% increase from 2019

• In 2019, US Facebook ad spend reached $25.56 billion. This represents a 107% increase from 2016.

• Only 61% of marketers believe their marketing strategy is effective.

Some of these statistics are CRAZY! So what does this mean for 2020? What should you be focused on in terms of your marketing planning? Here are 6 trends that you should consider when developing your 2020 marketing plan.

Personalization

No longer is it a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. This should come as no surprise, but your target audience wants to feel like you’re speaking directly to them and their needs. This means segmenting your audience even more and responding with more direct, personal communication. Audiences no longer accept generic replies or messages. Customers expect convenience, friendly service, efficiency, and tailor options to fit their needs. 

80% of consumers said that they’d be more likely to do business with a brand that provides a personalized experience, according to a survey by Epsilon.

With the rise of advanced targeting on social media, you have the ability to customize marketing specifically to your audience and serve them ads at the right times.

Influencer Marketing

Product-based businesses, take note, influencer marketing is here to stay. Borrowing the trust of someone's audience that mirrors your target audience is invaluable. It’s also typically much cheaper than running paid ad campaigns. Influencers do more than just generate leads -- they help advocate brand trust and loyalty. They generate brand awareness and help to convert sales. They’re a salesperson in essence for your product. Niche or micro-influencers are gaining in popularity and working with multiple, smaller influencers tends to cost less and gain bigger and better results.

Chatbots

I wasn’t sure about these a couple of years ago. Their capabilities were a lot more limited and well, less personal. But chatbots have evolved and they are super-efficient for your business. With new opportunities for eCommerce and in-stream buying options emerging on social platforms, they are definitely something to keep your eye on and think about for 2020.

Video

Video continues to be an important part of your overall marketing strategy. According to a Cisco study, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content. It goes back to personalization. People can connect better with you on video than a static post. It shows authenticity. You have the freedom with Live video and Stories to show real-time demonstrations, your authentic self and better connect with your target audience. People spend 3x longer watching live video than they do watching pre-recorded video. If you’ve been putting off video, you no longer have the luxury of waiting if you want to grow. Videos are about to completely dominate social media. Start small, use IG stories, pre-record short clips then move into live streams. I promise it’s not as awkward and scary as you think it is.

Expansion of Social Commerce

Because who wants to leave Instagram to buy something when you could just buy it in the app? Social commerce is about to become a dominant retail channel as you’re already seeing it with shoppable posts on IG. Social networks will continue to evolve their social storefronts in 2020 and marketers will need to leverage these opportunities to incorporate social commerce into sales strategies.

AR/VR will go mainstream

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are gaining more and more traction among brands. Companies are trying to determine the HOW of bringing these devices/tools more mainstream. It definitely provides a more engaging experience for users. It’s no longer just used for gamers, nor does it require a heavy technological investment. Access to smartphones opens up the door for VR -- which is why it’s an important trend to pay attention to. 

These are just a few of the top marketing trends I’ve researched for 2020 and believe they will impact marketing strategies the most. These are the ones you want to pay attention to. Will you be using any of these strategies in your 2020 marketing? 

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Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.

After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.

Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.

Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.