5 Systems to help you scale your business
Being a bustling online entrepreneur can be amazing. With all these wonderful systems to help you scale your business… To onboard clients… Make you more productive… Heck even make building a website a drag and drop simplicity. But with us now doing everything, because systems have made them so accessible, what systems are really helping us and what ones should we avoid?
In this blog I’ll cover off the system I use, that actually help me run my business (and they really do help, they don’t hold me hostage)
First up, Xero
You need a low tech accounting system that both you and your accountant love and Xero seems to keep him happy as much as it does me. It was super easy to get to grips with, and even though I don’t have an accounting bone in my body, it ‘just made sense’. Bank accounts sync and it even recommends transactions that match up, which you can then set up automation rules for to save time the following month.
There’s a mobile app for snapping receipts on the go and invoicing is really straight forward.
It’s really an ever useful system that I honestly couldn’t be without! Nd you will need an accounting system that even you can use as your business scales.
Second up, is ConvertKit
Now my 30 something butt did wince a bit when I first got ConvertKit, but there tech support is amazing and once that penny drops, it does make sense.
As your business scales and you set up various different income streams it’s extremely handy to keep track of who has bought what in the past, where they came from (if they downloaded a freebie along the way). Because then you can easily see what’s working and what isn’t
Once you get really up to speed, you can run automations and target only the people you really want.
I run it alongside Flodesk (because I can’t resist a pretty email newsletter… something ConvertKit don’t do And Flodesk isn’t quite there yet on the functionality front)
Canva in a number 3
If anyone says “only the ‘real’ people use Adobe”… Tell them you don’t care, because you found something that saves you HOURS!
Sure as an ex-Adobe person, I recommend that the off the shelf templates on Canva should be tweaked to your brand fonts, colours and adjusting them a bit so that it doesn’t look the same as everyone else’s… But this is an absolutely gem!
Social media, presentation slides, workbooks, website graphics…. The options are endless. Helped by the fact that there are so many creative people out there designing custom templates (just check out fiverr or creative market) I’ve even got a few in The Content Shop!
Trello in at 4
Couldn’t be without Trello… Guilty as charged, I’m a Trello addict! I use it for To Do lists, DIY waiting to be done around the house, recipes that we like… You name it!
It’s just a dream for running my business and especially my content workflow, so I can keep track of what content is going out and where. What’s waiting on me, what’s waiting on someone else. As you scale your business and start outsourcing parts of tasks, it’s a brain saver! Best part is, it starts at free! (And even now I’m only using the $5 per month version)
Lastly, it has to be Elementor
Elementor is the webpage builder that I use on my website, for landing pages, sales pages, my membership (The Content Academy). I already am I big fan of WordPress, but Elementor takes it to the next level. A bit like Canva, you can find so many talented people who design templates you can just import and customise to your branding.
It just means that when it comes to launching a new offer, of tweaking wording… If it’s a 2 minute job, you don’t have to wait for someone else to do it. These are the things that can really slow you down, unless you have a dedicated in house team (or a particularly amazing outsource team).
So there you have it, the 5 systems I couldn’t be without for running and scaling my online business. Do you use any of these? What are your favourites? Looking for help with scaling your business? Check out how we can work together to position your business for long term sustainable scaling through ‘Simplify & Scale’. You can apply here.
