Disclaimer: I earn from qualifying purchases. Some of the links on my website are affiliate links, which means, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Not having systems set up in your business can cause overwhelm and chaos. Things tend to be more all over the place, which can cause you not to be as confident in any area of your business. This could look like a process you haven’t documented, and you forget about it because it’s not in your project management process or workflow. I can be pretty forgetful myself, so documenting everything is a must for me. Creating systems inside your business, especially as an introverted entrepreneur, is essential for helping you to work smarter, have better time management, and have more overall productivity. This sets your business up for success and gives you more confidence along the way.
In this episode, I dive into:
- How setting up systems in your business can help with your confidence and bring more ease into your business
- Project management systems as an entrepreneur and the exact project management tool I use
- Other systems I have in place for my business and how I use them
- Keeping your business moving forward while letting go of perfectionism
- …and much more
How Implementing Systems in Your Business Give You Confidence
I am not a fan of hustle culture at all, which is why I really love systems for your business. When it comes to systems, I believe they are even more essential for introverts because systems, processes, and workflows are great for your time management and confidence. This is where they are really a benefit for introverts. If you have things in place, you will feel so much more confident finding clients, bringing on new clients, completing your tasks, and delivering the work that you do. You will have the confidence behind your marketing and your visibility methods, too. You will feel more at ease with selling if you know that you have all of your amazing systems in place. For example, if you have an onboarding process for new clients, you will feel so much more confident when you are networking and marketing because you know what the next steps will be when somebody wants to work with you. You have those steps in place. You have them mapped out along with the workflows needed to complete the tasks. You don’t have to worry about what to do when a client signs on or to keep them up to date with their project. You have the confidence to market and promote your business and engage with clients because you know what’s going to happen.
Essential Project Management Systems for Every Entrepreneur
Every entrepreneur needs to have a project management system in place for their business. I have probably used every project management system out there, but I now use ClickUp for absolutely everything in my business because I am just a little bit obsessed with it. However, not everyone will like using ClickUp as much as I do. When it comes to choosing a project management system that’s really going to work for you, it’s a really personal choice. Some people really love Trello, while others really love Asana. It doesn’t really matter which system you use, as long as you have it set up in a way that will work for you and your business.
Here’s the thing with project management software, you also have to have accountability, and you actually have to use the software. Some people may try a project management system and feel like it’s not really working, but that’s because they haven’t set it up for success. They haven’t been putting all of their tasks in there, and they haven’t created workflows. When it comes to setting up your main project management system, you need to start thinking about what your major projects are, what your recurring business tasks are, what your client onboarding workflow will look like, what your workflow for each service package will look like, and then you need to start building out your project management system consistently. Many people think that they need to dump everything in there at once, but that’s not the case. No matter what project management system you are using, you will not have it fully functional and working 100% for months. A project management system grows alongside your business.
Things look a lot different now in ClickUp for me than when I first set it up. Once I got everything in there, I started mapping out templates, workflows and setting up automations. Building it out took a lot more time than just the initial setup. That’s where I think people get discouraged is once they get everything in there, it’s like that’s it, and it should be working for them, and then it’s not. Some people will even decide to stop using the system altogether, which will not help long-term. Just get everything in there as much as possible, and then work on building it out over time. After getting all of your main projects in there, start thinking about how you can make it work better for you. Make each space in your project management system work better, what template you can create, what workflow you can create, and some automations that might be useful in this space. Those things will not happen right away when you set up the system. Don’t feel like you need to be a perfectionist and get everything set up as it’s going to stay because it’s going to be a work in progress.
The Different Systems That Have Changed My Business
ClickUp
As mentioned above, this is a project management tool, and it’s my go-to system for everything. I literally map out every meeting, every project, and task because everything I have to do lives in ClickUp. It’s been a game-changer for me because I have a horrible memory, and if it’s not in ClickUp, I’m probably not going to remember to do it. I’ve made it a point that anything I need to take action on, I put it in ClickUp with a due date. If there is an email that I thought was awesome and want to see what was being shared, I will add that email as a ClickUp task and set a due date for next week to go back and look at it to keep it on my radar. I have made it my priority system for everything and have made it work for me.
Notion
This is a project management, note-taking, and task management tool. I’ve tried using Notion in the past, and it’s a little confusing to get started as a blank slate, but I have been learning a little bit about it. I ended up creating a Notion template for my annual content calendar. I have anything that I’m launching, any new paid live training, any new course launch, any new digital product, and then I also map out emails, social media posts, and blog posts that go along with the topic of what I’m launching. Then it automatically gets added to a ClickUp task with a due date. Again, it might not get done if I just had it in Notion; it might not get done. I use Notion as the hub to plan out my months and content, but it also automatically gets added to ClickUp with a due date because that is essential for me.
Want to grab my free Notion content and launch planner? Click here to get it set up in minutes!
Airtable
This is a space that holds your data, so then you can use it in processes, integrations, and more. I mostly use Airtable for member support, like forms. When somebody submits a form to ask a question before a coaching call, if they want to submit it for any help that I have within my courses, all forms are connected to Airtable. We house our speaker forms for the summit in Airtable to keep them in a separate space. We also use Airtable for organizing lists, as our main SOP library lives in Airtable.
Google Drive
This tool allows you to store all of your documents online in a cloud-based way that you can then access on your smart devices. We keep all of our files and our documents here. We use a pretty good system to keep things organized in separate folders for each of my three businesses. We have folders for admin, launches, digital products, courses, lead magnets, blog posts, marketing, and podcast episodes. We have everything broken down and organized really well, which I love.
Zapier
This tool is great for connecting different systems together that don’t have a way to begin with. I mostly use Zapier for my memberships to communicate with Slack and ClickUp in order to add new tasks for failed payments or canceled memberships just so we’re notified, and we have a task for that. Zapier is also great for my for sale notifications, so we get them in Slack as well in a specific Slack channel. Zapier also creates a Google Calendar event for any meeting that is booked in Zoom, and then Google Calendar automatically adds it to ClickUp for me. I love that I can map out and piece systems together in an automated way.
ThriveCart
As an online shopping cart solution, this tool let’s you collect payments on you website from the checkout pages you have created. It’s great for both digital and physical products. I use ThriveCart for all of my lead generation for my sales funnels, for my checkout for my digital products membership, and then also now I use it for course delivery. They came out with their new Learn platform that’s now included, so I can actually host my courses and digital products right in ThriveCart as well. It’s now like an all-in-one where I use it for sales funnels, bump offers, tripwires, and then all of my digital product payments go through ThriveCart and are connected to PayPal and Stripe.
ConvertKit
It’s a great tool for email marketing and lead generation solutions. This is my email marketing platform of choice. I’ve integrated ConvertKit with all of my Thrive cart products. When someone purchases in ThriveCart, they get added to a tag in ConvertKit, which automatically adds them to the automation. It’s also great for membership management. Anytime somebody has a failed payment for their membership or they cancel their membership, they automatically get a tag and get added to the applicable automations. They get sent emails with a feedback form if they’ve canceled and if their payment has failed then they get email reminders letting them know that they need to go in and update their payment or their memberships gonna be canceled.
Dubsado
What a great all-in-one system for client communication including invoices, contracts, and proposals, where you can set up workflows and automations to do the busywork for you. Dubsado is mainly for my one-on-one services, VIP days, and one-on-one coaching. I use it for contracts, invoices, and I also use Dubsado as my calendar. For all of my meetings, coaching calls, and podcast guest interviews for people coming on the Introvertpreneur Podcast. Then they can book through the Dubsado scheduler, and I really love having it in one place. We also have a workflow setup, so when somebody books a podcast interview, they automatically get reminder emails, and they’ll also in those reminder emails, get a reminder to fill out their form giving us their info before their interview.
Slack
A great tool to communicate with your team in a fast and organized way. Slack is what we use for all of our team communication for just chatting or any urgent tasks, we also drop in Slack and tag whoever needs to be notified.
Being More Productive and Moving Your Business Forward
If it wasn’t for these systems in my business, how we use them for business, and how they keep my business moving forward, then my business would not be as productive. I would not be able to do as much as I do with the time that I have. I hope this has given you some ideas around systems that you can use, how to manage your time better, and be a little bit more productive. Again, if you’re an introvert, setting up these systems will give you so much more confidence as you are marketing, networking, and bringing on new clients. You will feel so much more at ease when a client says ‘Yes!’
I’ve talked to some people who say they can market their business but are scared to actually get a new client because their systems are a mess. The beauty of getting them in order is that you won’t feel scared anymore. You will have confidence, and you will feel at ease with onboarding your next new client.
While using ClickUp in my business allows me to be more productive, I could still maximize some spaces. There are still templates I could create. There are still automations I could set up in my spaces. It’s never going to be perfect because my business changes all the time. My ClickUp is also going to change from time to time. I’m going to maybe start a new project that looks totally different than any other project I’ve done before, so I need to map it out in a new workflow and figure out new automations. Don’t get stuck in perfectionism as you set up your systems. As long as you are consistent and you stick with it, you will get your systems set up for success.
If you don’t already have a system in place for something, or you want to try a new tool, be sure to check out my favorite tools that have been a game-changer in my business.
What systems are you using in your business right now and which one(s) are essential to help keep you as productive as possible?
a breakdown of this episode
[0:57] How systems are essential for you in your business and for your overall confidence and productivity
[2:37] Project management systems, how every entrepreneur needs one, and the project management software I use in my business
[6:05] The different systems I use in my business, how I use them, and that has helped me feel more clear, given me confidence, and made me feel organized
[14:56] Keeping your business moving forward and feeling more confident around marketing, networking, and bringing on new clients as an introvert
[16:09] Not getting caught up in the perfectionism of setting up your own systems
If you enjoyed this episode, I invite you to take a screenshot and tag me on your Instagram stories @introvertcoach and tell me your biggest takeaway!
Download the Episode Transcript
resources mentioned this episode:
This one's on me. Complimentary free stuff coming right up.
leaving so soon?
The training vault contains on-demand access to several trainings and presentations around growing your business and creating additional revenue streams.
the training vault library
Want to learn the 4 marketing methods that work best for most introverts + how to use them effectively to grow your business? This free webinar covers it all.
market your business as an introvert
Featured Masterclasses:
Here's your FREE pass!
