How to Use Systems to Scale your Business

When you first started your business, you probably wore many hats - the content creator, the accountant, the tech person, the website editor, the social media manager, etc. This can feel overwhelming. As you have grown, you’ve more than likely hired on some team members for support, but have you put in place any systems?

And even if you’re just starting out,  you need to be able to streamline BEFORE getting to that bend-or-break point. Systems are how you do that. Systems make fast work of many, many tasks that would otherwise bog down the new or seasoned entrepreneur. 

“You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems” - James Clear, Atomic Habits 

I’m sharing with you my top recommended systems that EVERY level of business should have in place.

ORGANIZATION

Without an organizational system in place, you can spend HOURS looking for things that should be readily and easily accessible. Google Drive gets my top recommendation because it’s so much easier to collaborate and navigate than, say, DropBox or other file storage systems that require download/upload steps, and has a pretty low storage capacity for the free version.

In your Drive, set up a new folder for each client or program. Then think about the other elements of your business. Do you need a business finances folder to house invoices and receipts? What about a marketing folder for content and copy? Do you have a podcast? Create a parent podcast folder, then include subfolders for each episode to house graphics, transcriptions, social copy, audiograms, etc. in one place for easy access. The key is uniform organization all the way through, though. What you do for one, you want to do for all. 

SOPs & TEMPLATES

SOPs, or Standard Operating Procedures, and templates make life and business SO easy! They help you make fast work of repetitive tasks by removing your need to overthink and get lost in minutiae each time you go to do something. 

As you create a new system or a new task or even launch a new program or product, TRACK exactly what you do, write it all down, tweak it and turn it into an SOP that explains everything you need to do and when. 

SOPs help you stay focused and on track, as well as serve as a guide for you and your team to get big projects done without a lot of back and forth in emails or wasted time in procrastination. 

House your SOPs in your project management tool and then use them to train your team as you onboard support, or repurpose it for your next launch, and so forth. 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

One word. Asana. Organize your Asana space by project/program, or client, but don’t forget to create an HQ box. You’ll want to store everything in Asana, including all SOPs, links to where your stuff is for each part of your business in your (newly organized) Google Drive, and any tasks/to do’s for yourself and your team  

Then, make sure you assign all tasks to yourself, as well as assigning team tasks to the proper members and don’t forget to SET A DUE DATE so you can keep track of what’s completed and what’s off track 

This will track workloads for yourself and your team, keep all your ideas and processes in one spot and make sure critical things aren’t forgotten about. Here is an example of how I would organize a client’s Asana:

• HQ Team with the following projects: Business Plan, Meet the Team, Admin/Operations. 

• Content Planning Team with the following projects: (Month of) Content, Podcast, (Insert Name) August Masterclass, Content Template, Masterclass Template

• Courses & Programs Team with the following projects: Program #1, Program #2, Launch Template  

Whether you choose Asana or another software, an efficient project management tool is CRUCIAL to scale because too much can be lost when you rely on pen and paper...or your head.

AUTOMATIONS

Automate everything!! (If you know me, you know this is my most favorite phrase EVER! I even have a course titled it! ;)) Use automation features like workflows in Dubsado, Automations in ActiveCampaign or FloDesk for email marketing, or Zapier to connect two software together. 

Whatever you can automate to take you or someone else manually out of the process…DO IT!

Things you may want to automate right away: 

• Appointment scheduling 

• Client Onboarding 

• Client Gifting

• Testimonial Requests

• Social Media Scheduling

• Lead Capturing

• Payment and Course access 

• Email Marketing 

• Billing

• Bookkeeping.

There’s more, but this is a good solid list to start with. 

Likewise, if you can’t see where you can automate, then get your systems and processes assessed by a professional (hi, it’s me!) to uncover places you could be automating instead of putting your hands on more than you have to. 

Running a successful business takes systems, especially if you have plans to scale and scale quickly. Get organized, communicate what needs to be done, manage your team and your time, and automate as much as possible and you’ll be left with time to actually focus on your clients and the work you love!

---

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 Create a Killer Freebie Workflow that Brings in New Clients

As a service business, you want a simple, effective and almost effortless way to bring clients in the door, consistently. 

So you want to put successful Client Attraction on autopilot. You want to create a freebie workflow that you only have to touch once.

You want them consuming your freebie and reading your nurture sequence and thinking, “Man! If her free content is this good, imagine what I can learn if I pay her!”

That means your freebie needs to be FIRE. You want it and your emails to be your BEST stuff. People are often afraid of doing that because they think, “I can’t give away my secrets!” or “If I give it all away, why would they pay me??” 

But that’s NOT the case at all. 

The people you want to work with are those that are ready to pay. They’re done trying to take what you publish and figure it out on their own. So, fret not! Create that white-hot freebie and nurture sequence and get it out there for people to see how BRILLIANT you are!

1. Freebie and Beyond...

Pull them in with freebies. But! They need to be HIGH-QUALITY. Everyone is throwing around free this and free that. But if you’re giving something of deep value, your freebie is going to get their attention. 

Then, once you have hooked them with that freebie, nurture them into staying by continuing to deliver high-value content in a 4-5 email sequence. This is your chance to let them get to know you and what you do so you can then, successfully, guide them to a paid offer. 

2. Offer Discounts

Inside your sequence, give them a reason to buy. Train them to click. Give them a discount… make them feel exclusive and that this offer is just for them. When they feel that exclusivity, you deepen the bonds of connection. You open the doors of trust. 

Pro tips: Make your copy present the discount as a “gift” and set a time limit on when your offer will expire! Your reader needs to feel that sense of urgency in order to feel compelled to buy it now.

3. More Than One

The money is in the… Follow up!
In the world of marketing, people need many touches to get them to say yes. They need to be convinced that yours is the real deal, Holyfield. So, don’t send them just a single email and expect that they’ve read it and been convinced that they should buy. Follow up with more information. Give them more and more reasons to say yes until that’s the only thing they can say!
Send them testimonials, answer their objections, remind them that their time on the offer is going to expire.

4. Didn’t Sell? That’s Okay!

They didn’t take you up on that fantastic offer??? You’re kidding! No worries! You have another chance… Downsell them. 

Make them an offer on something of lesser value. It could be that they just weren’t ready to invest that particular amount yet. By offering a variety of products or services, you’re showcasing your service and abilities! And offering that lower-cost item may be the push they need to say yes!

5. 8675309 Give Them Your “Number”

Jenny gave up her number. You should, too! Don’t be afraid to ask for them to connect with you on other platforms. Social media channels, podcasts, or other content is a great place to start. 

And don’t forget… no matter what you do… tell them WHY they want to connect with you there. Give them a reason to want to click. Don’t assume that because you gave them an invitation that they’ll be inclined to say yes. 

When you put this perfect workflow into place, you do the work once and then let the machine do the rest of the work for you… on repeat… while you tend to your clients and the 9M other things you need to do.

---

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.

Stuck? How to Re-Energize your Business

When we are excited about what we do, we get that whole “YES!” vibe that people crave doing business with.

Likewise, when we are tired and overworked, overwhelmed, stressed out, people feel it. And that whole “Ew!” vibe makes people scroll past our posts or just say no to our services.

They need to feel drawn to us. And that’s nearly impossible when we’re tired and worn out. I promise, they feel it in your messaging just as much as you do in your life (cringe).

If you’re getting that “I don’t want to get out of my PJs” feeling, it may be time to re-energize yourself and your business so you can thrive and attract the clients you want to work with again. 

But how can you take that “OMG-if-I-have-another-call-today” feeling and flip it around to “HECK YES! LET’S DO THIS!” so people come running at your business with money in hand? Take a look at the steps below, then go take action!

1. Take Time Off

I know you may think this is the last thing you need or can do right now. But it’s the single thing you HAVE to do. The number one way to refresh is to walk away, take time to breathe, and come back, refreshed.

Go to a beach, a mountain, a cavern in the hills of Ireland, or even your bedroom for a 3-day nap… It doesn’t really matter. Just block off the time you need and take it.

Your business will be able to run without you. And if it can’t, then you need a better system in place (https://www.katelynehamilton.com/systemswithspeed).

All you need to do is set up your email to let people know you’re out or have your OBM or VA take care of managing your inbox while you're away.  

Let your clients know you’ll be away and who will be around to handle their needs, take care of any fires that your VA needs you to handle before going, and mentally prepare yourself for this break. Remember, your business will survive for a week or two without you in it! 

2. Vision board/goal planning for the year 

Knowing what you’re building helps you keep focus. Because you want to be really clear on the business and life you want, and WHY you want these things. Even when things get tough.

You can do this in a couple of ways. Setting goals, or creating a vision board, will help you map out exactly what it is you want, and what you're working towards. I want you to think beyond just "make 6-figures this year." Sure that can be a goal, but what will setting that goal do for you? How do you want to feel once you reach that goal? Why is this important for your business or your life? Then HOW can you start to cultivate those feelings NOW, along the way? 

Those feelings won't just magically appear when you hit that goal - it's all a part of the process, or the journey. So when those PJs days hit, they don’t hit hard or long. You take your break and you get back on course because your goals are leading the way. 

3. Revamp your service offerings 

Sometimes you just need to look at your business with a fresh set of eyes. If you’ve been consistently adding new products and services and have a ton of offers all across the board, it may be time to niche down to just 2-3. Take a look at all your offerings and evaluate what you enjoy doing and what your target audience NEEDS from you. Maybe you combine a couple of offers into 1 NEW offering. Not only will you give your people something fresh to devour, you’ll give yourself a renewed sense of purpose.

Create 1-2 flagship programs that really resonate with your audience and let the rest go. That singular heading will feel light and empowering. Re-energizing you fully and giving you so much less dead weight to carry.

4. Outsource more to team 

If you do not have a team, build one. The right team members not only make work light for you, but it also allows your business to thrive because you are focused on doing the things only YOU can do.

If you are proficient at helping people create change in their lives, but not proficient at graphics, you may waste an hour creating a beautiful graphic (yes, even in Canva! Have you tried digging through all those options??) that your designer could do in 5 mins. That’s an hour of your time that could have been spent connecting with your ideal clients over social or even in session with current clients.

Likewise, a team can do the posting to social, emailing your list, managing your inbox, sending invoices, setting up workflows and more efficient systems, etc for you. This ensures that you always have a consistent flow of clients coming in, and are extremely visible online, while you're taking care of serving those clients and leading from your zone of genius.

Having a team you can trust also means that you don’t get burnt out doing the tasks that you shouldn’t be doing. It means you get to take more time off because there are people to do the things you can’t do efficiently. 
Don’t let overwhelm and frustration zap energy from you or your business. Put these tips to use and discover how much you truly do love your work and the clients you work with...again. 

---

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!

---

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.

---

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.

3 Must Do’s when Starting your Online Business

When I first launched an online business 3 years ago, I struggled most with figuring out where to start and what to do first to actually “get” clients. I think most people have an idea of what they want to do, but they don’t have the business experience to know how to build a successful business.

There’s so much more that goes into running a business than the actual work that you wanted to do in the first place. It’s why so many people don’t actually make it in the entrepreneurial world. They don’t know about or think about the other things that you need to do to actually be successful.

If you’re just getting started in the online space, or you’re looking to start an online business, here are three “must do” things when just starting out:

1. Get Clear on your Service Offerings, Messaging & Ideal Client

Clarity is oftentimes one of the hardest parts of building your brand. I get it. You “can” do so many things, but that doesn’t always mean you should. Start out by asking yourself what you WANT to do vs. what you CAN do and really focus on those 1 to 2 things in order to not confuse your audience. Then, create a persona or avatar for your ideal client. Know who you want to work with and then your messaging will become much more clear. While your service offerings can always evolve, it’s nice to start out with a smaller focus to draw your audience in and communicate who you are and what you do easier.

2. Set up Foundational Systems and Processes

It truly amazes me how many people do not have any sort of systems or processes set up in their business. I have come into so many 6-figure and 7-figure businesses where there is nothing truly set up or documented for how they do things. So can you be successful without them, sure can, but I promise you that if you set them up from the start you’ll actually save yourself so much time and stress in the long run. So what systems and processes should you establish first? My top 3 are: Asana for project management and process documentation, Dubsado for contracts/ invoicing and overall client onboarding (and hello automations!), Acuity for calendar automation and scheduling. For more of my top recommendations and details, click here.

3. Show Up Consistently 

If I could give you one tip, and only one tip, it would be to be consistent. Show up EVERY SINGLE DAY. Show up on social media, show up to work on your business, show up for your clients, and most importantly show up when you think no one is watching. Contrary to what social media and “society” may lead you to believe, building a successful business does not happen overnight. It takes the relentless hustle of showing up day in and day out for people to start to notice you, build trust in you, and want to hire you. Keep going when it feels hard, and keep showing up when it’s easy. Deliver massive value and I promise you will be on your way to having the successful business you desire.

If you’re willing to do these things, you will see success in your business. It may take time, that’s why consistency is probably the most important of them all. But I promise you will get there. If you want additional support in your business, I strongly encourage you to hire a business coach. They’ve done it before and they can help you work through the strategy AND the mindset blocks that come with owning your own business. If you’re interested in learning more about coaching, book a discovery call with me here.

---

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 Use Acuity to Scale Your Business

If you’re looking for a quick and easy system to set up for your business that will truly transform it, look no further than Acuity. It will drastically increase your efficiency, automate more in your business and change the way you work. What is Acuity? It’s a scheduling tool that functions as your personal assistant to book appointments, and packages with ease.

One reason why I love Acuity is that the learning curve is small. It’s really pretty self-explanatory and it will save you SO much time in your business. You’d be surprised how much time you waste with the back and forth of trying to book a call with someone and not to mention the potential lost business from someone looking for your services if you don’t have an easy way for them to connect with you.

Here are 5 features of Acuity that will help you to scale your business:

1. Automatic Appointment Scheduling

This takes away the back-and-forth “what’s your availability next week?” followed by “what time zone are you in?” emails that then can take days to actually get an appointment scheduled, in which your schedule may have changed. This cuts down on potentially missed leads, delayed meetings and time/frustration for both parties involved. You can embed your scheduling link on your website, and/or share the links on social media, via emails or DMs, etc. It simplifies everything to just send a link and say “here’s my calendar link, book at a time that will work for you!” You can go in and set your availability, block off days/times that don’t work for you, so it will automatically give your best availability in THEIR time zone and then the call will be automatically added to your calendar.

2. Pre-Screen Calls with Forms

The number one concern people have with having their scheduling link publicly on their website is the ability to “screen” calls before hopping on them. I get it, your time is precious - I feel the exact same way. That’s the benefit to using forms to screen your calls for you. You don’t have to use these for every type of call option you have, but if you have a link for someone to book a discovery call with you on your website, you can absolutely add questions that they have to fill out prior to being able to book the appointment. This way, you’ll weed out people who don’t feel like filling out the form to get on the phone with you and just want the “free call” and it’s here you can ask the right questions to make sure it’s a good fit for both parties.

The questions you ask can also give you better insights into who you’re getting on the phone with, their pain points and how you can serve them. This makes for a more productive call for BOTH parties. 

3. Multiple Appointment types (WITH CUSTOMIZATION)

This is a huge benefit compared to other scheduling platforms. You can create as many different appointment types as you want within Acuity - and you can customize the links. You can create a link for free discovery calls, coaching calls, paid one-off calls, etc. and link different forms (or no form) to each appointment type. You can also set a different schedule of availability for different appointment types. For example, maybe you only want to take potential new client calls on Mondays, and then client calls only Tuesdays and Thursdays - it’s super easy to set up these boundaries for each call type.

4. Reminders & follow up emails

You can easily set up reminder emails to go out automatically to reduce the likelihood of no-shows and missed appointments. You can set up email reminders and/or text reminders before your scheduled appointment. Similarly, you can send automatic follow-up reminders if you want to request feedback or send additional info about your services. These automations save time, and a delay in making sure you’re collecting or sending the right information to potential new clients.

5. Selling Paid Services or Packages 

Acuity makes it really easy to sell paid services or packages. You can set a price for a single appointment type, or you can create a package which is a series of calls someone can redeem with that package option. The benefit? It tracks all the calls in that package for you for each client. It also connects with both Stripe and PayPal, making it easy for clients to pay you.

Truly there are SO many customizations you can make within Acuity and that flexibility is so helpful and what makes it a superior platform compared to other scheduling tools out there. Added bonus - it syncs with your iCal, Google calendars, Outlook calendars, etc. so there’s no “double bookings'' on your calendar either. I have used many other scheduling platforms out there with clients and every time I switch them over to Acuity because it’s just THAT much better.

The only negative thing I’ll say about Acuity is that they recently changed their affiliate program and they say due to “tax laws” they can no longer pay people in more than half of the US - which is unfortunate since I literally sing this platform’s praises every day… but here I am still sharing and promoting it - so you know it’s gotta be good!

---

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.

4 Must Do Things in Your Business Before 2021

At the end of every year, I always take time to reflect on my business. It’s important to celebrate all the success that year brought, as well as analyze what went well and what didn’t for the year. I set goals, the really big and scary goals, for what I want the next year to look like and figure out what kind of support I’ll need along the way to do just that.

We all look at the new year as a “fresh start” or “new beginning,” which it certainly is, but it’s important that we don’t write off the end of the year, and instead use this time to get organized and put some things in place that will set you up for success in the new year. 

I don’t think 2020 looked like any of us thought it would, but with the unexpected also came so many blessings and things to be grateful for. I’ve never been more grateful to run my own business. Even if I lost my entire business tomorrow, I’m confident that I could restart and get new clients in the door pretty quick. That’s a testament to how far I’ve come over the last three years. So instead of being wary about what 2021 will bring from a business perspective, I’m excited to invest in myself and my business in new ways in order to grow.

So what can you be doing with the last couple of weeks of the year to generate momentum going into 2021? Here are 4 things to do before the year’s up.

1. Get systems set up in the backend of your business

Before you dive into everything you want to accomplish in 2021, make sure those systems are set up, now. This means evaluating your business now and seeing what you can automate, and how you can be more efficient. What are the things you’re still doing manually? Is there a tool out there that can do it for you? (Hint: there probably is) If you have no clue what you can automate or how you can systemize your business, snag one of my last 2 spots for Dec with my Systems with Speed intensive. I’ll help you strategize what you can automate and what that would look like, then I’ll do the heavy lifting for you to get it all set up. Learn more here.

2. Evaluate Your Business from 2020

Have you taken a step back to look at the goals you set for 2020 and evaluated how far you’ve come? Those goals may have shifted as you pivoted in March/April when COVID hit, but what did you accomplish? Before you move forward, you must take a few moments to look back. See what went well, see what you could use improvement on. From there, use this info to guide your 2021 strategy. Some things to consider when you analyze: financial goals, client/service offerings, mental health goals, boundaries and time management, team hires/growth.

3. Create a sales strategy for Q1 & Q2

Now that you’ve evaluated your success and learning opportunities for 2020, it’s time to create a 2021 sales plan. Set those big goals, then go bigger. Then decide what you’re going to sell in the first 2 quarters. Which of your products or services are you going to focus on? I’m a huge proponent of focusing on just a couple offerings and then having the “supplemental” services. It keeps things really CLEAR for your audience as to what you’re an expert on. You can always offer the other services as an upsell, or another way to work with you in your funnel, but clearly identify those main service offerings to direct your time, focus and energy.

4. Hire support NOW

Support is critical for growth and success. If you want to be at that next level, it’s going to take more of YOU and you’re going to need to outsource some of what you’re currently doing to a team for support. So if you don’t feel ready, do it anyways. You can have a surplus of time or money, but often not both. Give yourself some time back by outsourcing the things that either a. you’re not good at or b. are repetitive in nature that someone else can do for you. Also, consider hiring someone who can help guide you to that next level. Hiring a business coach was the BEST thing I ever could have done to uplevel my business. It’s always nice to have someone who’s been there before, and gone through it to fast-track your results. If you are looking for 1:1 support, I am taking on 6-month clients right now and would love to support you. Learn more here.

If you focus on these things to wrap up the year, I promise you’ll feel organized and aligned in your business -- and there’s no better feeling than that going into a new year!

---

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 a Team Culture and an Engaged Brand

When starting your own business you’re more than likely doing it all on your own. You’re now the creative, the copywriter, the graphic designer, the content manager, the strategist, etc., and as you grow there will be a point where you simply can’t do it all anymore. At this point, you hire a team! It’s such a huge step in your business as you feel like you’re handing off parts of your baby to someone else. But yet it’s SO necessary for continued growth.

So far in 2020, I’ve spent $10,000 on my team support alone, and that’s not including what I’ve spent on business coaching. But yet I’ve grown to a revenue number I haven’t hit in the past two years. Working with multiple 6 and 7-figure business owners, I’ve also had the opportunity to manage their teams, upwards of 30 people. There’s one important element I’ve seen across the board in terms of helping your team and your business thrive, and that’s the culture you create among your team to support an engaged team and a growing brand.

How do you create an engaged team culture? There are a few things you can put into place in your business to help your team feel like they’re a part of your bigger vision. Here are my top tips!

1. Share your larger vision with your team

Each team member likely has a very specific role they play on your team. They may create beautiful graphics, or schedule your content, or provide support to your client questions, or engage on social media, so they’re likely solely focused on those tasks you assign. One way to get them even more excited about the work they do for you is to share your larger vision. What is the bigger project their work is a part of? What is the goal of what they’re helping you create. I’m speaking to not only the specific project but your vision of your company as a whole. This will create more “buy-in” as they can see the role they play in the much bigger picture.

2. Have team values

Establish values for your business that also reflect the values you want your team to have as well. This will help you in the hiring process, as well as something to default back to within your work. For example, a value I have on my team is to double-check your work. This helps reduce mistakes and the back-and-forth of re-doing things, as well as requires my team to take ownership for their work. Another value I have is: Communication is key. Please OVER communicate. I cannot say enough about how important communication is in business and I think the more you communicate as a team, the less mistakes are made, and the more clarity your team has about a specific task or project. You get to determine what values are important to you, your business, and your team. 

3. Provide a way to communicate as a team

Speaking of communication, provide an easy way to communicate with your team, whether it be individually or as a group. I love both Slack and RingCentral. Both are essentially instant messaging platforms where you can easily chat back and forth and therefore reduces the email clutter in your inbox and makes for quick replies to #getshitdone. Also, it may be helpful depending on the size of your team to have once a month, or once a quarter team calls to chat about upcoming projects and again share the vision you have for your brand.

4. Allow room for Creativity

Give your team ownership of their tasks and let them run with it! This is especially important as your team grows and you’re hiring more “specialized” team members who are really good at their niche. Share the overall vision and idea and let them use their own creativity to run with it and bring back something to you! The more your team gets to know what you like and don’t like, the more efficient they’ll be too!

These are just a few ideas for ways to cultivate a team culture for your brand. The more you make your team feel a part of an actual team, you’ll likely keep these team members around longer, build long-lasting relationships, and a way you can grow together to the next level. Do you have a team yet 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.

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.

---

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.