Things you can automate in your business that will save you TONS of time!

Be honest with yourself... is there something you do in your business over and over again, maybe it’s sending the same email each week. You tell yourself, I really need to make a template for this email, it would save me from having to type out the same email each week, over and over again. You make a mental note, but then you don’t do anything about it - so next week when it’s time to write that email again, you think to yourself, UGH - I really need to make this a template. But, again, you don’t. This might not be a big deal for one email, but imagine if there are multiple areas in your business you’re doing this, that time adds up. Today, I want to share with you some of the things you can automate in your business to save you tons of time! So, let’s stop wasting time, and just get to it!

Notion Template (or your preferred project management system):

I use Notion for both my own personal brand and our business, Creatorly Media, as well. With all of this, there are a lot of moving parts. I am using it to plan my YouTube, Podcast, Instagram, and TikTok Content. It’s also where I track and plan my brand collaborations, and store my branding, affiliate links, and other resources I need frequently. On top of that, we use it to plan content for our clients, we use it for their content calendars, branding, team resources and assignments, and the list goes on. It would be so inefficient if myself (or my team) would recreate each of these pages or tables in Notion each time they were needed. But, the great thing about Notion is that you can create templates in many different ways to help save you loads of time. Here are just a few examples of how we do that.

New Post Templates: For my content calendar, I have 4 “New Post” Templates set up in Notion. I have one for YouTube, Podcast, Instagram, and TikTok. When I select the template, it will create a page that holds a checklist of everything I need to do for that post. Using YouTube as an example, if you open up the New YouTube Video template, it will hold a checklist of everything I do when creating a new YouTube Video, for example: Research title with TubeBuddy, Write Script / Outline, Film Video, Edit Video, etc. There are also prompts for coming up with the Title, Description, Thumbnail, and even planning the video itself.
To-Do List Templates: When planning weekly to-do’s, you will find that there are some tasks that are repetitive each week, so it only makes sense to create a template out of those tasks, so you can easily drag and drop them into your weekly to-dos. This could be content creation tasks, admin tasks, meetings - anything that you do every week, but still would like a little reminder to add to your to-do list - create a template for these tasks.
New Client Templates: With every new client that comes on with Creatorly Media, we have to get them set up on our Client Progress Tracker page in Notion. We noticed we were doing the same things over and over again for each new client when setting up their page. Now with the click of one button, the new client page is fully set up and only needs the more personal details of that client added.

If you are new to Notion and these examples seemed a bit confusing, make sure to check out some of the videos I have done on my YouTube channel that provide a little insight on how I use Notion. Also, if you want to get your hands on my Notion Content Calendar, I will have that linked in the show notes.

Dubsado Workflows:

If you are unfamiliar with Dubsado, it is a business management solution designed to cut out busywork, let me tell you - getting set up with Dubsado was one of the best moves I could have made for my business. Before using Dubsado, I was handling all client communication and transactions inside my inbox. I would have to customize everything, there were no templates, no packages, just emailing back and forth with a potential client. But then I switched to Dubsado, which helped take so much off of my plate. Here are some of the ways Dubsado helps me automate my business.

Forms: Dubsado allows you to customize reusable form templates for your contracts, lead capture forms, questionnaires, and proposals—all with your unique branding.
Payment: You can create invoice templates with payment plans and keep track of every dollar earned or spent.
Workflows/Reminders: Dubsado takes the repetitive work off your plate with automated workflows, recurring payments, confirmation emails, payment reminders, and more.
Meetings: The scheduler lets clients book right from your website, so you can spend less time coordinating and more time connecting.

And honestly, the list goes on. Having these workflows and systems set up in Dubsado cuts down on the worry I used to get when tracking everything manually.

Flodesk Email Marketing:

Connecting with your community is such an important part of building an online business, but it’s hard to always be available to email every second, of every day. Which is why I love email marketing so much. We have been using Flodesk for all of our email marketing, for both our weekly email newsletters and for any of our freebies or email courses as well. Here are two major ways that Flodesk saves you time and helps you automate.

Templates: The templates in Flodesk can speak for themselves. They are stunning and completely break the mold of any other email provider on the market. But on top of that, you can create your own templates (even based on theirs) and organize them in folders, so you can simply duplicate the template and use it for future emails when needed. Once you have your templates all set up, you can easily create new emails and schedule them ahead to keep things automated.
Workflows: The workflows were so simple to create in Flodesk. Let’s say you decide you want to grab one of my freebies. When you fill out the form, which is created in Flodesk, you will automatically be sent an email to confirm your subscription. Once the subscription is confirmed, you will receive another email with your freebie. The next day, you will receive an email including your first taste of our weekly newsletter (the Creator Letter) and then after that, you will automatically be tagged to start receiving our weekly newsletter. The best part - once you create this perfect workflow, you can duplicate it for your other freebies.

Flodesk makes it so easy for us to keep up with our emails and make sure all of our freebies are sent out, without having to constantly be in our inbox. Also, I will have the links to all of the tools mentioned in this podcast linked in the show notes.

Email Templates / Scheduling Emails:

Speaking of emails, you can save so much time by just using regular email templates and scheduling them in your inbox as well. Here is an example of how we use this method for my business, Creatorly Media. We like to help our clients by reminding them when they need to submit their raw footage for YouTube videos. So every Monday - we send them an email to remind them that their footage is due by the end of the day. This is all done by our Client Communications Manager, Tanja. But what she will usually do is use the template email she created for these reminders and on Fridays, she will go ahead and prep these emails, scheduling them to be sent out on Monday morning. This keeps her Monday’s a bit more clear and makes sure that these emails are promptly sent first thing in the morning.

For me, Mondays can quickly become hectic, so I think planning ahead like this can truly save you tons of time and keep you on track.

Content Creation System:

Creating content for social media can be, well ... overwhelming. This is why I use the content calendar and post templates in Notion, as I mentioned earlier. But you can create even more automation and systems surrounding content creation that can save you time (and headache). Here is how you can do that. You can create specific days to complete certain tasks needed in content creation. For example, let’s say you want to designate each day of the week for a different type of action.

Monday: Admin Day - This could be the day you catch up on emails and any other admin-related tasks.
Tuesday: Writing Day - This could be the day you do all of your strategy research and write your captions, scripts, blog - whatever written piece of content you need to create.
Wednesday: Filming/Shooting Day - This could be the day you film videos, take photos, or gather any content you need for creation.
Thursday: Creation Day - This could be the day you edit the videos, create the graphics, etc
Friday: Review/Schedule - Finally, this could be the day you review everything you created and get it scheduled.

This is just a sample idea of how you could automate your week by planning what type of tasks you do each day.

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Automating the operations of your business doesn’t JUST save you time. It helps increase productivity, reliability, availability, and can even increase the quality of work you are producing. Try out some of these various methods and let us know over on the Creatorly Media Instagram page which ones have helped you the most in your business!