Welcome to the 4th quarter. Fourth-quarter is usually that final push of the year to meet those business goals that we set way back in January. Hopefully, you have exceeded your goals in business and have grown like crazy this year. If that is the case, “Congratulations!”. But that may also mean that you are experiencing some growing pains.
I recently spoke to a successful entrepreneur who is running a business that is growing by leaps and bounds! Unfortunately, her success has her a little stressed out at the moment. She is expanding the territory in which her business operates, hiring more employees, and getting tons of leads. Some days she feels like she can barely keep up.
If this sounds like you (or even it doesn’t and you want to be prepared for when your success hits hyperspeed), you might want to review the processes and programs that you have set up for operating your business. Here are some common areas that all business owners need to review from time to time, but especially when their business is expanding.
- Email Management – Is your email out of control??? Can you barely keep up with which ones need a response? You may need to take some time and get your email a little more organized. Use filters (These are called rules in Outlook) and folders to organize these emails into categories such as Important, Pending, Personal, Delegate, To Read Later, and more.
- Calendar Management – Do you need to make appointments with future and current clients on a regular basis? If so, you can save a lot of time and avoid phone tag by using a calendar scheduling program (Calendly and Acuity Scheduling are two popular options.) in your business. With these programs, you are able to use prescreening questions to get information so you will be prepared for your meeting. In addition, you no longer have to call or email the person in order to set up an appointment. They simply click a link on your website, in your email, or on your social media to set up an appointment with you. You can even set it up so that the person will get email or text reminders of that appointment.
- Password Management – Most entrepreneurs have a ton of passwords that they use to get into their accounts. It is important to have a system for managing these passwords (No, a notebook filled with your passwords is not my top recommendation, although, I often find that this is exactly how many entrepreneurs are keeping up with their passwords.). There are several password management programs on the market but my favorite is LastPass (www.lastpass.com). This program has a lot of benefits:
- LastPass will keep track of all of your passwords, digital records, and credit card numbers in a secure, encrypted format.
- You can share a password with someone else and still maintain control to revoke their authority to use that password.
- LastPass also gives you the ability to generate strong passwords which can then be stored in your LastPass account.
Reviewing these areas of managing your business can save you time in your business and help your business run in a much more efficient way. If you need help setting up or maintaining any of these systems, I would be glad to help. Feel free to set up a free 30-minute consultation with me at bit.ly/TBSFreeConsult.
