How to Launch your Online Business During a Pandemic

Deciding to start an online business is easy. It’s actually launching it that can feel scary and intimidating and bring up a lot of feelings of self-doubt and uncertainty.

How do I know this? I’ve been there. I remember launching my online business, while not in the middle of a pandemic, it was a moment in my life that felt very similar. I was let go from my safe, corporate job. I struggled for about 5-6 months in trying to figure out what was next for me while searching for yet another “safe” option. But it just didn’t feel right to me. I dabbled in entrepreneurship a bit by freelancing through connections I had in the marketing world.

For some reason, it felt safer to call it “freelancing” than pursuing entrepreneurship.

Once I did finally DECIDE to launch a business, I had no clue where to start or what I needed to do. So I created a website by paying a guy on Fiverr $160 for some design help and I felt official.

The thing is - you don’t need to do that to launch an online business. All you need to do is decide, and then start promoting your business.

This is where a lot of entrepreneurs get caught up. The HOW. There are SO many things to learn. That’s the beauty of it - we were all there once and we all have just figured it out. To save you some time, stress, frustration and anxiety, I’m going to share with you some tips to launching your business, during a pandemic nonetheless.

1. Show Up Every Day

Consistency is KEY. Show up relentlessly for yourself and others. Join entrepreneurship Facebook groups and comment on posts, get your name out there. Also, show up for your business. So many people get analysis paralysis and over-analyze, or fear, taking the wrong step in their business. Stop worrying and just take action. Do SOMETHING to move the needle forward in your business every day whether that’s engaging, building relationships/networking, building out your first course, writing a bunch of content, etc. Just start showing up for yourself and your new business every single day.

2. Get Clear on What You Do and Who You Serve

Clarity is imperative for long-term success. No, you don’t need to have it all figured out right now, but get clarity on who you want to serve and what you want your focus to be in your business. You want your target audience to know what exactly you can help them with and if you are offering social media management services alongside website design and graphic design, they’re going to be CONFUSED. Pick one thing, and define your target audience. Remember, you can ALWAYS pivot later on. 

For example, when I first started my business I came from the corporate marketing, PR, advertising world, so naturally, I started a full-service marketing agency. I did what I knew, marketing for small corporate clients.

As I became more invested in the entrepreneurship world, I realized I would be a kick-ass OBM. It was so much of what I was already doing in the account management world of marketing, just needed a little bit more knowledge of digital platforms to add to it and BAM I realized how marketable I would be to people knowing I had this sort of knowledge alongside my marketing experience.

Now, after growing my OBM business over the last 18 months, and finding success in my first marketing agency (Fast Follow Co), I’m confident in my ability to grow successful businesses and my ability to share that knowledge with others to help them grow theirs -- in comes business coaching to the mix.

So no, you don’t have to have it all figured out day one, it can evolve. Just start somewhere and get really good at what you pick first.

3. Give Lots of Free Value

You have to build that know, like and trust factor with your audience. To do that, you need to give a shit ton of free value to warm your audience up to you. It takes people on average 7 times before they actually convert to a paying customer. So during those 7 interactions, you need to not only be pitching your services but also providing them with information to solve their problems based on the types of services you offer.

I suggest my clients set up a simple funnel. Create a downloadable “freebie” to give value and grow your email list. Then share with them your story and expertise to get to know you a bit better, give them some more value, give them a discount on a service you provide to get them in the door and then funnel them to a higher-priced offering.

Free value is important throughout the lifetime of your business, but even more when you’re just starting out. I traded my services in the beginning for things and to obtain testimonials to help me promote my business as well.

4. Set up Systems and Processes to Create a Strong Foundation

I wish I knew what I know now about systems when I first started out. Man, it would have simplified SO much in my business. There are a million and one different systems out there. They help you to create a strong foundation from day one where you can feel organized and professional. The ones I highly recommend figuring out how to use in your business include:

• Email Marketing Platform - you want to grow your email list from day 1. I recommend FloDesk or ActiveCampaign personally.

• Business management tool - Dubsado. There really is no other comparable option in my mind. I even have a super simple, and crazy affordable minicourse that will help you get it set up. Learn more here.

• Automatic Scheduler - Acuity, Calendly, Satori, Dubsado. I love Acuity but I also get it for free as I was grandfathered into a plan. If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend just using Dubsado’s scheduler for convenience and not having to learn another platform

• Website Platform - I am a huge proponent of Squarespace. So easy to use and integrate with other platforms.

• Social Media Scheduler - Later.com or Planoly. These are so easy to set up and will allow you to schedule your content in advance. 

• Project Management tool - Asana, Trello, ClickUp. All great resources and will help you to keep track of your to-do lists and manage your clients with ease.

5. Invest in Yourself Before You’re Ready.

Give yourself this permission. It will feel scary. Especially if you don’t have many (or any) clients yet. Investing in yourself reaffirms that you believe in yourself and your business. You have skin in the game. It helps to keep you accountable and learn faster than if you wait until you think you’re ready. Because the truth is, you’ll never 100% be ready.

Hire a business coach. The ROI is WORTH IT. Think about it, would you rather spend 10x longer trying to figure it out on your own, or would you prefer to have someone who’s been there before guide you. This will save you time and earn you money FASTER and you’ll see a huge ROI on this investment. Not only will they help you with the strategic and logistical side, but also your mindset which is so fragile when starting something new.

Personally, I invested in 2 courses within the first 6 months of my business, a business mentor the second 6 months into my business and a year later a business coach. All have been instrumental in my success as an entrepreneur.

If you’re ready to launch your business, stop playing it “safe” (this pandemic has proved that nothing is truly safe anymore) and follow your passions to create the freedom in your life you long for, let’s chat!

I’m offering an introductory coaching rate of $500/mo for a 3-month coaching program. In those 3 months we will get your business set up, launched and bring in money consistently, growing your client roster.

Book a free coaching consult 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.

Creating an effective On-boarding strategy

On-boarding new clients is exciting, but if you don’t have a good system in place, it can take up a lot more time than necessary.

You want to make sure you’re making this process as easy and fast as possible to save you time, and get your client started off on the right foot.

These tasks are often things that you do repeatedly and can automate. It’s one of my favorite things to help my clients with first because it can truly transform so much of your business by taking these simple steps.

1. Write down your process

The first thing I recommend you do to create an effective onboarding strategy is to write down your process. Write down every step from the time you have a call with someone and they say they want to work with you, to sending a contract/invoice to the emails you send after that and the first steps you take once they’ve paid. Just doing this step alone may open your eyes to where you could cut or combine steps, or find a better way to do something.

2. Find a system(s) that can help you streamline

One of my favorite systems that is really comprehensive for all your onboarding needs is Dubsado. Instead of using a few different systems to do all of the things, why not focus on one system that can help you do EVERYTHING? Talk about efficient, right?

What I love about Dubsado is that once you add your client everything from that point on is as simple as clicking a button. Dubsado is always one of the tools I help set up for my clients during our 5-hour intensives because it can seriously transform your business in a matter of hours. You have the ability to set up packages, canned emails, contracts, questionnaires, workflows, payment gateways, reminders, etc. that once you do once, will save you SO much time in your business when onboarding new clients. It also helps to keep everything for your new clients in one place.

3. Create Templates

Templates are a LIFESAVER. When I think of templates I think of a few different things. First, I create templates in my project management tool, Asana. You can create a new project and then add tasks that outline each step that should be done when onboarding a new client.

For example that could look like this:

• Add client to Dubsado

• Start the workflow for Service XYZ

• Create client Google Drive folder and share the link with the client

• Set up/get added to Asana/Trello

• After Strategy call assign next steps in PM tool

Once you had that template set up you can simply copy and paste as a new project when you add a new client. That way you’re not forgetting a step each time and you don’t have to retype every step out each time you bring on a new client.

Another way templates help me is for content planning. I have a content planning template I copy and paste each week to plan out my content and inform my VA as to what needs to be scheduled on social each week. It’s really helpful to not have to recreate the wheel with my content. I use THIS blog post and break it down into bite-size pieces mixed in with some promo posts and personal posts each week. It’s efficient and has helped me be consistent with my blog and social posts.

Finally, the last way I use templates is CANNED EMAILS. This is something you’d add in Dubsado but it really helps if you’re sending the same intro email to a client each time you bring someone new on. Instead of wasting time copying and pasting from a past email, you can set up a variety of canned emails to simply click, add a little personalization if needed and hit send.

4. Set up Automations/Workflows

Remember how I said Dubsado was seriously a game-changer? I wasn’t kidding. Workflows will make your life SO much easier. What is a workflow? It’s an automation that you can set up to basically do the “next step” for you. That’s not the official definition, but that’s the simplest way to explain it in my opinion. For example, if you have a service that costs the same every client such as a coaching package, you can add the package cost and contract into Dubsado and then create a workflow so all you have to do is add your new client and click Start Workflow.

Here’s what a workflow could look like:

• Send contract immediately after the workflow is started

• Send invoice as soon as contract is signed

• Send email “Next Steps” as soon as an invoice is paid in full

• Send Questionnaire “Testimonial” 30 days after the last step was completed

All of that is done automatically without you having to check-in or press send, or follow up. Genius, right? Now if your prices aren’t standard, it doesn’t mean there aren’t some things you couldn’t automate. Every business is different but there are ways you can use workflows to not have to recreate the wheel each time you onboard a new client.

Do you have an effective onboarding strategy? Where do you find yourself spending the most time in your onboarding process?

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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 soon-to-be wife, stepmom, dog mama of two 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.

All things email sequences and automations

What happens to your business if Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. all were to shut down tomorrow? Would your business survive? Do you have another way to reach your audience?

The truth is, we don’t own anything we put out on social media. The individual platforms do. So they can shut down your account at any time, and you’d lose access to your entire audience. But the one thing you actually OWN is your EMAIL LIST. I am a huge proponent of email lists for a few reasons but really at the end of the day it’s because it gives you DIRECT access to your target audience - right in their inbox. With social media algorithms you can’t guarantee your target audience will see your posts (less than 5% of your followers actually see your posts unless you have a crazy high engagement rate). With email you KNOW they’re receiving the email, and you can actually see WHO is opening and clicking through your emails as well. It’s an extremely valuable tool to shape your marketing and grow your business.

So my first question for you is, do you have an email list? If not, none to worry! I’m going to share a few tips about email lists and automations you can put into action now!

1. Selecting an email platform.

   There are so many platforms out there to choose from that selecting an email platform can seem overwhelming at first. But in my opinion there are 3 truly to choose from based on your business type and current status of your biz. If you are an eCommerce brand for instance, I would recommend Klaviyo. It integrates nicely with Shopify and there are a ton of automations that are automatically created for you use as cart abandonment, thank you emails, reengagement and more.

   If you’re a service based business just starting out I’d recommend either MailChimp or ActiveCampaign. MailChimp is free for up to your first 2,000 subscribers, and ActiveCampaign I believe is $25/mo. I currently have my list in MailChimp, but I prefer the automation sequence and all the advanced features in ActiveCampaign so it’s on my list to switch over to soon. It’s kind of a toss up to me which one you choose to start out with, but if you just want to get started and don’t want to do a ton with your list at first except slowly build the contacts, then I think MailChimp is a great place to start.
   

2. Create a freebie to grow your list.

   Freebies, or downloadables are really great ways to grow your list. Create something of value to people that would make them want to input their email address. Because come on, we all know that if you share your email address you’re likely going to get promotional emails for the rest of your life now ;). So this has to be GOOD. For example, I created my Get Your SH!T Together Strategy Guide. I walk you through the exact process I take my clients through to help you organize, strategize and prioritize your business (get yours here). It’s a 13 page workbook that has questions to walk you through each step of my process.

   Now you may be wondering, WHY would you want to give away such valuable content if that’s what you do with your clients? Here’s the thing. You want to give value to people so they learn to know, like and trust you and want to come to you for more. Sure, that process is extremely helpful - IF YOU ACTUALLY DO THE WORKBOOK :) BUT, the secret sauce is ME. Likely people will find some clarity in what you provide but then want to hire you to help them continue to solve their problem(s) and help them even more. So think about what you could create that would provide value to people so they WANT to keep reading more from you, with the goal to eventually hire you.
   

3. Set-up a welcome automation sequence.

Welcome people to your email list! Once they download that freebie, welcome them to your list and create a few follow up emails that give value, but also showcase some of your services and more about YOU. Follow up to offer help for whatever your freebie was helping them solve. Maybe offer them a discount for your services/products, give additional value, etc.

Personally, I don’t like when people spam my inbox every single day once I’ve signed up for their list, so I would suggest a follow up maybe a few days later, then another week later, and maybe one more a week after that? Nurture them. Don’t hard sell to them immediately, but showcase your value and expertise. Automations really make life easier overall because you literally set it up ONCE and then let it work FOR you. So every time someone downloads your freebie, or signs up for your list the automation sequence starts and value-added content is delivered straight to your potential customers inbox and you didn’t have to do a thing. Outside of a welcome sequence, you can also set up other automations for specific events, launches, etc.

4. What Should I send to my list?

Ah the golden question right? What should I send to my list? My clients often tell me “I don’t have anything to send them, so why have a list?”. But you see, that’s where they’re wrong :). I try as much as possible to repurpose my content. So, for example, this blog post is on my website, and also broken down into bite sized bits spread across my social media channels, and it’s also sent out to me email list with a teaser and then “read more” directing people back to my site. This ONE blog post is used to reach people in SO many different ways.

I help my clients find a way to repurpose their content too that they’re already sharing other places and an easy way to do that is through your email list. You can share a killer social post that got high engagement, a blog post, a themed weekly or bi-weekly newsletter with a variety of content, course or webinar launch details, a specific series ONLY for your email list members, exclusive content, etc. Email is a great way to integrate a variety of marketing tactics to reach your target audience, grow your list and increase business and therefore revenue.

5. Other ways to use your list based on your business type.

There are SO many ways you can use email lists. It really is dependent on your business. If you’re an eCommerce biz you will likely rely a lot more on your email marketing to not only reach new and potential customers, but also to re-engage your current customers to create repeat buyers, obtain reviews and pass info along to friends and family. If you’re a service based business, you likely will use this for building that know ,like and trust factor, offering value, sharing info about upcoming launches or new services, exclusive discounts, etc.

Email lists are SO important and such a powerful tool in your business. Remember, you OWN your email list. These are people who have clearly expressed an interest in what you do -  they are your WARM leads. Pay attention and give love to this list and grow it. I promise it’s worth your time, energy and effort, in that it WILL pay off.

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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 soon-to-be wife, stepmom, dog mama of two 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 Implementing Automation in your Business will Save you Time and Money

Raise your hand if you don’t have a clue what automation is? I bet a few of you virtually raised that right hand slowly up into the air, #amiright? That’s TOTALLY OKAY because I had no idea what the term automations meant when I launched my first business, or how it could change my life!

To put it simply, it’s really just a task that you do frequently that you can have a system or technology set up to do for you without you having to consistently do the work. This will ultimately save you time, energy and money. You want to automate tasks that you do often, or tasks that are time-consuming and easy to do without a high likelihood of error.

Technology is an amazing benefit that has totally transformed the way we work. Now, if only I could automate my laundry and dinner, life would be great ;) Joking aside, automation has really helped to free up time in my business, so I am sharing with you my top 5 tips for implementing automation in your business:

1. Pick the easy, small things to automate first.

   What is something small that you could automate first? Maybe this is your social media content, or booking appointments with you, or customer service emails, reminding customers about an item they left in their shopping cart, or a welcome sequence in your email newsletter. Start with ONE thing, and don’t overwhelm yourself trying to set up all your automations at once (unless you want to hire an OBM to do it for you). Start with the ONE thing that you do most frequently, or seems to take the most time out of your business and see how that goes and what else could even work with that system/automation.

2. Research and get recommendations for the right tools

   The right tools are critical for setting up automations. The last thing you want to do is spend time setting up your automations in one program and then turn around and the next month you’re switching platforms. This defeats the purpose of saving you time and creating efficiencies if you’re constantly reinventing the wheel. Ask your peers, or a mentor, or an online group what tools they’re using for something you want to automate in your business. You’re likely not the first person to have done it, and we can always learn from others.

   Then, once you get their recommendations, make sure you research the different options. Do some free trials just to get into the backend of the software and make sure it makes sense to you. Watch some YouTube videos. This is a long-term investment in your business.

3. Use tools that talk to each other

   There’s a lot of systems that use integrations so that the two systems can talk to each other and collect and share data. For example, let’s look at the scheduling tool Acuity. Acuity gives your potential clients the ability to schedule calls directly through your website. This eliminates the need for them to email you to find a time to book a call and the back and forth/time wasted and potentially interest lost. So the two tools talking to each other in this instance are your web platform (such as Squarespace or Wordpress) and Acuity. Then, once the person books a call, you can set it up to where they receive an email to fill out a pre-call form, it will email them a confirmation for them to add the appointment to their calendar (will automatically add to yours as well) and include a “zoom” meeting link automatically, and you can even ask them if they want to join your email list (I use MailChimp currently) when booking the appointment ALL THROUGH ACUITY.

   There’s even more things that Acuity can do such as sync multiple calendars, accept payment, connect with your accounting software, CRM and more. It’s a pretty fabulous tool if you ask me! But the point is, having softwares that talk to each other create a better experience for your potential clients and create efficiencies in your business.

4. Create an Experience

   What I love about automations is the ability to personalize the experience so much for your client or potential client. You want to set these systems up well so that even if the (potential) client realizes it’s automated, what you’re giving them or the experience they have is positive. For example, when someone signs up for your email newsletter via your website, create a welcome flow. Give them a series of 3-5 emails over the course of a week to a month that you’re consistently delivering them great content. This will help to build that know, like and trust factor I always talk about. You want them to feel included, valued and engaged with you and your brand.

   Once they sign up for your list, immediately send them a message thanking them and maybe even include some sort of freebie (or maybe that’s what drove them to your list in the first place). Then, FOLLOW UP. Did you know that majority of sales happen in the follow up? Give them another place they can connect with you. Share your story with them to create connection. Remind them to complete or dive into the freebie you sent them. Give them an additional discount or offer for a product or service of yours. Follow up with them again offering something else that will be of value and keep you top-of-mind. BUT, I say all of this and then want to also remind you NOT to spam your audience. Make sure what you provide is valuable and starts to build that relationship.  

5. Review and Refine your Processes

   Once you have your systems in place, take some time every month or two to make sure these systems are still working for you. Maybe you’ve added an additional service and need to update a process flow. Or maybe you’re finding that there’s one automation that you just don’t like or isn’t really benefiting your business. Also be thinking about how you can refine processes to work better for you and not just set these things up and then never look at them again. Make sure you know your goals and reasons for setting these systems up in the first place, and then you’ll be able to more effectively determine if these systems are working.

   Now remember, when you start your automation process, it may seem like a lot of work at first. Which it can be, so don’t be alarmed. The goal is that you’ll only have to set these things up once and it will save you time down the line. Also, don’t forget to TEST, test and then TEST AGAIN your automations and process flow. Put in a fake client or email and make sure all areas of your automations are working. This is how you can easily spot weak spots, mistakes or other issues that you solve for before your clients take the burden of doing that for you.

Some other systems that I didn’t mention that I love for automations include Dubsado for creating forms, contracts, invoices (I use it to onboard all my new clients), Zapier for connecting systems that don’t easily integrate together as it has the ability to work with many many systems, Planoly or Later.com for social content scheduling, Asana for project management (less of an automation, but helps with overall organization) and recently I’ve dabbled in WebinarJam for a client and really love this platform if you’re looking to host consistent webinars.

What do you want to automate in your business? How will that give you more time to focus ON growing your business or working with your clients vs. working IN your business?

If you haven’t checked out my latest FREE offer, the Get Your SH!T Together Strategy Workbook, you need to head here to get it NOW. It’s the exact process I walk my clients through to help them determine what automations they need in their business to achieve their short and long term goals, and ultimately grow their business.

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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 soon-to-be wife, stepmom, dog mama of two 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.