February 22, 2024 • 27 mins
Have you ever felt like you're drowning in a sea of tools and software, supposed to make your entrepreneurial journey smoother, but they just add to the chaos?
It may not be you, it could be that you’ve selected the wrong technology/tools for your business.
Many times business owners implement a specific software because someone told them how great it was or they completely shy away from technology altogether.
In this episode, I’ll share:
- The secrets to choosing the right tools that truly resonate with YOUR business's pulse
- The 5 tools (+bonus tool), I use to power my business operations
- Why I selected these 5 tools and how I use them
If you're ready to strip away the excess and hone in on the tools that will skyrocket your efficiency and transform your business operations, then this episode is your blueprint. Join us and equip yourself with the practical knowledge to refine your business success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tonya D. Harrison (00:00):
Running the day-to-day business operations
of your business can beexhausting, but it doesn't have
to be, and it doesn't require abunch of expensive tools that
you won't use and it doesn'trequire all of your time.
In today's episode, I am goingto share with you the tools that
(00:21):
I use and love and how you canimplement them into your
business to start running yourbusiness with more ease.
Welcome to the OperationsToolbox Podcast.
I'm your host, Tonya D Harrison.
Let's create version 2.0 ofyour business, and this is the
(00:41):
version that is called GrowthWithout Burnout.
So let's talk about these tools.
When I first started out in mybusiness, I thought that I had
to have every software under thesun.
I was listening to all of thesesystem gurus telling me that I
(01:02):
needed all of these differentsystems in order to run my
business.
Well, after wasting time tryinga bunch of different platforms
and realizing that I wasn'treally saving time and I wasn't
getting what I needed and I wasstill feeling like a hamster on
(01:23):
a wheel I realized thatsomething has to change.
I just cannot continue to wasteall of this valuable time and
energy that I could not get back, and, besides that, I love
technology.
So for me, it created even abigger issue because I would go
(01:47):
down these rabbit holes with allof these different platforms
and just trying them out andlearning them because, again, I
love technology.
The truth of the matter is theywere not helping me in my
business.
It was just me doing somethingthat I like to do that did not
contribute to the growth of mybusiness, which is a problem.
(02:10):
So finally, I was like I'mspending my wills, I'm wasting
all of this time.
Go back to the basics.
I basically went back to thebeginning basics and I apply
some of the things that Ilearned from my corporate life
(02:30):
in my business because, for somereason, I thought they were
extremely different in thebeginning and I realized it's
like no.
So you'll realize that a lot ofthe techniques I use, I have
modified them from corporate,and this is one of them.
So if you are trying differenttools or you have tools in your
(02:55):
business that you are not usingbecause I know this is true I've
had people that have reachedout to me and say I have, you
know, a honey boats or dubsodoor whatever this tool is and I'm
really not using it in mybusiness.
If that is you, or you haveshied away from technology
(03:20):
within your business because youjust don't want to go down that
rabbit hole, but you know youneed some things.
Then I want you to keeplistening as I share with you
some of the technology that Iuse in my business and why I use
it within my business.
(03:40):
Let's go ahead and get started.
First things first.
We need to take a step back andwe need to do a quick
assessment, and I'm not talkingabout the long drawn out
assessment.
I really want you, as the CEOof your business, to think about
a couple of things.
(04:00):
The first thing I want you toask yourself is what do you need
to know in order to makedecisions?
Remember, our biggestresponsibility as CEO of our
business is to make decisions,to grow or to take our business
to the next level.
(04:20):
What is it that you need toknow?
Because, once you understandwhat it is that you need to know
, that is going to help youdetermine what tools you need to
run your day to day operations.
So think about it.
What do you need to know inorder to make decisions?
(04:41):
An example could be and there'smany things you need to know,
but an example could be you mayneed to know how many visitors
come to your website.
You may need to know how manyconvert.
You may need to know where yourteam is with a process or with
a project.
Think about it.
(05:03):
What do you need to know inorder to make the best decisions
within your business?
If we're talking about goals,you need to know where you are
in relation to that goal, so youknow if you're on track or not.
If you have a strategy in place, how do you know if that
strategy is working?
So I just want you to take astep back, think about your
(05:26):
business and think about whatare the things that you need to
know in order to make decisions.
The second thing I want you todo is think about what your team
needs.
If you have a team, if youdon't have a team yet, keep
listening, because you stillwant to know this at some point.
So what does your team needfrom a day to day perspective?
(05:51):
If you have a marketingassistant, I'm not talking about
the actual tools that they needto post on social media and
things like that.
I'm talking about day to dayoperational tools.
They need to be able tocommunicate.
They need to be able toindicate where they are on a
project.
So those are some of the thingsthat they're going to need to
(06:13):
know, regardless of the positionthey're in.
The third thing is think aboutwhat can make your business flow
easier.
You look across your businessand there may be some things
that you're like, oh my gosh,this really grinds me.
It causes an issue every timeor I feel that this could be
(06:40):
better.
I'll give you an example ofsomething that I used to do and
I'm like things have got tochange.
I really like planners.
At the first of the year, I'mbuying all of these planners.
Anytime I go to Marshalls or TJMaxx or anything, and you know,
at the front they have all ofthese little cute planners and
(07:01):
things like that.
I would always buy them.
So I had a bunch of plannersand what I would do is I would
write my ideas and my to-do listand everything in a planner,
but there was no rhyme or reasonto it.
It wasn't like I had theplanner labeled and this is for
ideas and this is for to-dolists and all of that.
Basically, what would happen iswhatever planner was next to me
(07:25):
was the one that I would startwriting it.
So what that means is I had abunch of planners with a bunch
of information.
There was no centralized placewith all of my stuff, which
presented a problem because Ilost track of ideas.
I didn't keep up with what itwas that I was supposed to do.
(07:46):
All of these things caused aproblem.
So I knew that if I had acentralized place to house all
of this, then my business wouldflow easier.
Those are the kind of thingsthat I want you to think about,
and it doesn't have to be yourplanner.
It could be anything withinyour business, within your
(08:08):
day-to-day operations.
It could be something as simpleas you know what.
I realized that I don't knowwhat's coming in my business and
what's going out.
I realized that things arecoming out of my account and I'm
not tracking it.
I realized I got receipts allover the place.
It can be all of thesedifferent things that you really
(08:31):
think about and you're likethere has to be an easier way.
You may not know what that wayis in the beginning, but you
know enough to know that therehas to be a better way.
That is going to start you onyour journey of looking for the
right tools within your business.
(08:52):
Now I want to share with yousome of my tools that I use
within my day-to-day operations,and I also want to share with
you why I pick this specifictype of tool.
Not the actual tool itself, notthe actual name of it.
Don't get stuck on the actualvendor that I use or the name of
(09:15):
the tool.
I want you to really thinkabout the type of tool that I
use and the reason I use it, thereason why I implemented this
specific tool in my business,and that is going to help you to
be able to see how you canimplement a tool within your
business, even if you need toimplement this tool in your
(09:39):
business to help you run yourday-to-day.
The very first tool I had was aproject management software.
Now, at the time I implementeda project management software, I
did not have an assistant.
It was me.
I still knew I needed it.
(10:01):
Remember the example that Igave you, where I had all of
these planners with all of theseto-do lists and all of these
ideas and all of this stuff allover the place.
This is one of the reasons whyI knew I had to have a project
management software.
Now I have a place, acentralized place, where I have
(10:26):
my to-do lists, I have my ideas,I have my strategy for my
content.
My virtual assistant and Icommunicate back and forth.
I know where she is on aproject without having to pick
up the phone or send her anemail, because I can go right in
the project management softwareand see that.
(10:48):
So I use it for all of thesethings.
I also use it to manage myclient projects.
There are some projects that Ihave that are longer term
engagements and I use it tomanage that.
I also use it to share withthem where I am within a project
(11:08):
, so it's like a project update.
It's a part of my report.
These are just some of the waysthat I use my project
management software, but itstarted because I needed to be
able to keep track of my to-dolist.
I needed to be able to keeptrack of my ideas that I hadn't
implemented yet.
That's where it started.
(11:29):
Today, the tool that I use, thename is ClickUp.
I have used Trello, asana,basecamp, I've used a couple and
I landed on ClickUp because itbest soups my needs.
So, as I'm telling you thesedifferent platforms, one of the
(11:53):
things that I want you to reallythink about before you decide,
beyond the fact that you want aproject management software, but
now which one I want?
You definitely want to do aneeds assessment.
What are the things that youneed and what features do you
need it to have?
And you'll see that there's alot of similarities, but there
(12:17):
are some differences that couldpotentially make a difference in
what you decide.
Alright, so do your needsassessment.
Why do you need it?
Is it just for you?
Is it for you and the team?
Do you want to be able to sharethings with your client?
Just kind of let the juicesflow and go out and compare
different tools and look at whatsome of the features are.
(12:40):
Are you going to realisticallyuse some of the features?
Do you need some of them?
I caution you from getting in atool that's too robust, because
it could be confusing and youmay not use it, and these tools
only work if you work them.
Okay.
So that's number one.
(13:02):
The very first one is a projectmanagement software.
The second one is an accountingsoftware, and I'm saying
software because that's what Ihave, but it could be an Excel
spreadsheet.
The main thing is do you knowwhat's coming into your business
(13:22):
in terms of revenue?
Do you know what's going out interms of expenses.
I like the accounting softwarebecause now I can also run
reports.
That is the biggest benefit tome and it makes my life easier
because it makes my accountant'slife easier.
(13:42):
So anytime her life is easier,my life is easier.
Okay so, but I use Waveaccounting and this is an
accounting software.
It allows you to, like I said,you can track your revenue, you
can track your expenses, you cancategorize your revenue and
(14:04):
your expenses.
You can do your basic reports.
You know your cash flow reports, your profit and loss
statements.
You can do you know a lot ofthat stuff in there.
So it's a really basicaccounting software.
Think about what it is that youneed.
Think about if you need someintegrations.
Mine integrates with Stripe.
(14:25):
So if somebody makes a Stripepayment, that information comes
over.
It integrates with my bankaccount.
Think about those type ofthings.
But the main thing is I gotthis platform initially because
I needed to know where my moneywas at all times, what was
(14:46):
coming in, what was going out.
The added features, like I said, is the reporting, the fact
that I can communicate with myaccountant easily via the
platform.
So kind of think about thosethings.
But at the core, in order forme a CEO to run my business.
I didn't know where the moneywas Right, so it's kind of like
(15:07):
show me the money.
I need to know what's going on.
The next one this is mainlybecause I am a service based
business, not saying thatproduct based businesses don't
use this platform, because someof them do, especially when they
sell more expensive products.
But it is a CRM CustomerRelationship Management software
(15:32):
and initially I was usinginitially I use my project
management software to trackthis information.
So initially I was using Trelloand I would track my potential
clients Right.
So this is one of the thingsthat this does.
So let's talk about what a CRMdoes and how it impacts service
(15:56):
based businesses.
It allows me to keep track ofmy potential clients, inbound or
outbound, but it allows me tokeep track of my clients.
I know when we first initiatedcontact what we talked about.
I understand the value of eachdeal.
It helps me when I am doinggoal setting and planning.
(16:19):
But having a CRM the reason whyI went from a project management
software to a CRM is because ithas additional.
I can do invoicing out of there.
I can send them an invoice,they can pay and it comes into
the software.
I can do proposals in there, Ican do estimates in there.
I can also do if I can set upworkflows.
(16:43):
So maybe I have this outboundprocess where I initiate contact
on day one and then, based onthe response or lack of response
, I mean want to have anotheremail go out, you know, in a
couple of days.
These are things that I cankind of set up.
Even if I'm manually doing it,I can set up templates that
(17:04):
automatically go out.
The other thing that I like isthat it tracks if someone opens
a message.
So if they opened it and readit, I'll know if it was opened
or not, because I may have adifferent flow for people that
opened versus people that didnot open.
So customer relationshipmanagement it helps you manage
(17:26):
the customers relationship, evenfor the people that are current
clients, right, I am able tomanage that, that relationship
as well.
So it's not just potentialclients but it's current clients
as well.
The one that I use is client joyand it has all of the features
that I talked about and it alsohas a client portal, which I
(17:49):
found to be extremely helpful.
A lot of the engagements that Ido, like my 90 day ops
experience where I'm workingdirectly with CEOs for a couple
of months.
There are times that they needto upload information and I need
to upload and share informationwith them.
(18:10):
I can do this via the clientportal.
They can go in, they can uploadinformation, they can upload
documents.
They can have their assistantupload documents.
I can upload documents to sharewith them.
It shows them their proposal,their invoices, all of the
documents that we've shared.
So I don't have to depend onGoogle Drive Not that that's a
(18:33):
problem, because that's where Istarted, but I just like the
client portal better, and itdoesn't mean that I don't save
things in Google Drive because Ido, which we'll get to that.
So that is the CRM and that iswhy I use it.
You may have, you know, gainedsome ideas about if you need one
(18:54):
and how you can use it withinyour business.
I really love templates.
Anybody that is in the savvyoperations society my membership
can tell you.
I love templates because Idon't like reinventing the wheel
and for me, a big part ofoperations is being efficient.
We have templates that we coulduse and you can set up within
(19:17):
your CRM.
That is awesome.
The next tool that I use is mymetrics tracker.
Now my metric tracker is aGoogle spreadsheet, so
everything is in this bigplatform right.
(19:38):
It's a Google spreadsheet thatI set up and what I do is there
are metrics and KPIs that Itrack on a weekly basis.
I go in there and I track them.
All of this I'm thinking aboutfrom a CEO perspective and what
makes my business flow better.
When I'm talking about mymetrics tracker, it's kind of
(20:00):
like a dashboard if I'm ontarget, if I'm not on target, if
I'm behind, it shows the red,yellow and Green.
I know if there are some thingsI'm like, oh, we really need to
pick that up or I'm doingextremely well in a specific
area.
That's one of the things thatthe tracker tells, but I can
actually see when I am inrelation to my goal, where I am
(20:24):
in relation to some of themetrics that I decided that I
wanted to track within mybusiness.
So it's a metrics tracker, issomething that I created, is in
Google sheets and that's what weuse it for, and on a weekly
basis, I go in, I review mynumbers and it helps me to make
decisions for the next week andit helps me to make overall
(20:47):
decisions is my strategy workingor not, and how things are
going All right.
So that is another one that Iuse.
Last tool that I want to talkabout is Google Drive, and when
we're talking about from aday-to-day operations
perspective.
A lot of times we are housinginformation and we want to make
(21:09):
sure that we are doing it in anorganized way.
We want it to be organizedbecause if you're always hunting
for documents, where did Istore this, where did I put this
?
That's a waste of time andthat's a waste of energy.
I have my Google Drive and itis organized in a way that I can
(21:30):
understand it and thankfully,my sister understands it too.
But it is organized like, forinstance, I have an operations
folder and then, within theoperations folder, I have a
subfolder for my standardoperating procedures Right, so
all of that is in there.
I have a folding for all of myplanning.
(21:50):
So every year when I go throughmy planning and even my weekly
metrics, all of that is in myplanning folder For the year for
2024, my SWAT analysiseverything is stored in a folder
.
Having a Google Drive, dropbox,some type of place that you
(22:11):
store all of your information,you definitely want to make sure
it is secure.
You want to make sure that youare able to limit access.
So if you do have a team,everyone doesn't need access to
everything is underneath the nobasis.
You can kind of shareinformation as you need it.
But for me, I use Google Drive.
(22:31):
It is something that I use inmy day-to-day because I'm always
in there looking for something.
I house my, my contracts inthere.
You know a folder for that.
All, all of the stuff, all ofthe stuff.
But you want to make sure thatit is like I said, it is
organized, and I have that onthe list because, as the CEO,
(22:56):
that's something that I use,that's something that your team
would use, that's something thathelps my business flow easier,
and I want to give you one bonustool.
So those are the five toolsthat I wanted to share with you,
but I want to give one bonustool with you, and this is
Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free tooland, if you set it up right, it
(23:19):
is a wealth of information.
Not only can you see who'scoming to your website or
hitting different landing pagesor how a specific campaign is
working because you can do allof that but you can set up goals
Conversion goals so you cantrack conversion of certain
things.
If you have a freebie thatyou're using, you could set up a
(23:40):
goal and every time somebodysigns up for that freebie, you
can count it as a conversion, soyou can see how you know it is
converting.
So there are different thingsthat you could do with Google
Analytics and for you, my CEOs,that is definitely something
that you probably want to lookinto.
Okay, so, before we wrap uptoday's episode, I'm gonna take
(24:02):
a moment to share those fivetools, plus the bonus, with you
again.
The first one is projectmanagement software.
I Use click up, but, like Isaid, there are many.
Asana Trello Basecamp, Kanbanthere are several.
Accounting software is numbertwo, so you can use tools like
(24:26):
Wave QuickBooks, Xero.
Number three is a CRM.
This is a customer relationshipmanagement software.
I use client joy.
I have used others like theside-o and honey boats as well.
A Metrics tracker is numberfour.
(24:48):
So making sure that you have away to track what's going on in
your business, to track theperformance, and if you want to
learn more about that, you canlisten to our last episode where
I talked about Performancemanagement from the business
perspective.
But you're gonna have, you needto have something to track and
(25:08):
there there are platforms, thereis software out there that you
can go and you can use as well.
I find it easy to use a Googledocument as my metrics tracker.
Number five is Google Drive, somy workspace.
That is where I house all of mydocuments, where I share
documents with people.
(25:29):
I have folders.
There's a system to how Istored things and it works.
It saves time and again, itsaves energy.
The bonus tool I mentioned isGoogle Analytics, again a free
tool.
There are others out there thatyou could use.
I Recommend you get startedwith this one.
(25:51):
But If you want a way to beable to track your traffic, to
track to see if your campaignsare working, to track some of
your conversions, googleAnalytics is a great place to
get started.
So those are the tools that Iuse in my business to run my
day-to-day Operations.
Now do I have other platformsand software in my business?
(26:13):
Absolutely.
I have some tools that I use tohelp me post on social media
and things like that.
And, of course, like, I havethe Canva and Like how do you
not?
I have Canva that is one of theones that I use, but it's not
one of the ones that I use torun my day-to-day business
(26:34):
operations.
It does help me when it comesto my marketing when I'm
creating posts and things likethat, but definitely, a big one
that I use a lot within mybusiness.
So that concludes anotherepisode of the operations
toolbox.
I'm Tonya D Harrison, your host, reminding you that with the
(26:56):
right tools and the rightmindset, you can build Version
2.0 of your business.
Until next time, keep buildingand growing.
Running the day-to-day business operations
of your business can beexhausting, but it doesn't have
to be, and it doesn't require abunch of expensive tools that
you won't use and it doesn'trequire all of your time.
In today's episode, I am goingto share with you the tools that
(00:21):
I use and love and how you canimplement them into your
business to start running yourbusiness with more ease.
Welcome to the OperationsToolbox Podcast.
I'm your host, Tonya D Harrison.
Let's create version 2.0 ofyour business, and this is the
(00:41):
version that is called GrowthWithout Burnout.
So let's talk about these tools.
When I first started out in mybusiness, I thought that I had
to have every software under thesun.
I was listening to all of thesesystem gurus telling me that I
(01:02):
needed all of these differentsystems in order to run my
business.
Well, after wasting time tryinga bunch of different platforms
and realizing that I wasn'treally saving time and I wasn't
getting what I needed and I wasstill feeling like a hamster on
(01:23):
a wheel I realized thatsomething has to change.
I just cannot continue to wasteall of this valuable time and
energy that I could not get back, and, besides that, I love
technology.
So for me, it created even abigger issue because I would go
(01:47):
down these rabbit holes with allof these different platforms
and just trying them out andlearning them because, again, I
love technology.
The truth of the matter is theywere not helping me in my
business.
It was just me doing somethingthat I like to do that did not
contribute to the growth of mybusiness, which is a problem.
(02:10):
So finally, I was like I'mspending my wills, I'm wasting
all of this time.
Go back to the basics.
I basically went back to thebeginning basics and I apply
some of the things that Ilearned from my corporate life
(02:30):
in my business because, for somereason, I thought they were
extremely different in thebeginning and I realized it's
like no.
So you'll realize that a lot ofthe techniques I use, I have
modified them from corporate,and this is one of them.
So if you are trying differenttools or you have tools in your
(02:55):
business that you are not usingbecause I know this is true I've
had people that have reachedout to me and say I have, you
know, a honey boats or dubsodoor whatever this tool is and I'm
really not using it in mybusiness.
If that is you, or you haveshied away from technology
(03:20):
within your business because youjust don't want to go down that
rabbit hole, but you know youneed some things.
Then I want you to keeplistening as I share with you
some of the technology that Iuse in my business and why I use
it within my business.
(03:40):
Let's go ahead and get started.
First things first.
We need to take a step back andwe need to do a quick
assessment, and I'm not talkingabout the long drawn out
assessment.
I really want you, as the CEOof your business, to think about
a couple of things.
(04:00):
The first thing I want you toask yourself is what do you need
to know in order to makedecisions?
Remember, our biggestresponsibility as CEO of our
business is to make decisions,to grow or to take our business
to the next level.
(04:20):
What is it that you need toknow?
Because, once you understandwhat it is that you need to know
, that is going to help youdetermine what tools you need to
run your day to day operations.
So think about it.
What do you need to know inorder to make decisions?
(04:41):
An example could be and there'smany things you need to know,
but an example could be you mayneed to know how many visitors
come to your website.
You may need to know how manyconvert.
You may need to know where yourteam is with a process or with
a project.
Think about it.
(05:03):
What do you need to know inorder to make the best decisions
within your business?
If we're talking about goals,you need to know where you are
in relation to that goal, so youknow if you're on track or not.
If you have a strategy in place, how do you know if that
strategy is working?
So I just want you to take astep back, think about your
(05:26):
business and think about whatare the things that you need to
know in order to make decisions.
The second thing I want you todo is think about what your team
needs.
If you have a team, if youdon't have a team yet, keep
listening, because you stillwant to know this at some point.
So what does your team needfrom a day to day perspective?
(05:51):
If you have a marketingassistant, I'm not talking about
the actual tools that they needto post on social media and
things like that.
I'm talking about day to dayoperational tools.
They need to be able tocommunicate.
They need to be able toindicate where they are on a
project.
So those are some of the thingsthat they're going to need to
(06:13):
know, regardless of the positionthey're in.
The third thing is think aboutwhat can make your business flow
easier.
You look across your businessand there may be some things
that you're like, oh my gosh,this really grinds me.
It causes an issue every timeor I feel that this could be
(06:40):
better.
I'll give you an example ofsomething that I used to do and
I'm like things have got tochange.
I really like planners.
At the first of the year, I'mbuying all of these planners.
Anytime I go to Marshalls or TJMaxx or anything, and you know,
at the front they have all ofthese little cute planners and
(07:01):
things like that.
I would always buy them.
So I had a bunch of plannersand what I would do is I would
write my ideas and my to-do listand everything in a planner,
but there was no rhyme or reasonto it.
It wasn't like I had theplanner labeled and this is for
ideas and this is for to-dolists and all of that.
Basically, what would happen iswhatever planner was next to me
(07:25):
was the one that I would startwriting it.
So what that means is I had abunch of planners with a bunch
of information.
There was no centralized placewith all of my stuff, which
presented a problem because Ilost track of ideas.
I didn't keep up with what itwas that I was supposed to do.
(07:46):
All of these things caused aproblem.
So I knew that if I had acentralized place to house all
of this, then my business wouldflow easier.
Those are the kind of thingsthat I want you to think about,
and it doesn't have to be yourplanner.
It could be anything withinyour business, within your
(08:08):
day-to-day operations.
It could be something as simpleas you know what.
I realized that I don't knowwhat's coming in my business and
what's going out.
I realized that things arecoming out of my account and I'm
not tracking it.
I realized I got receipts allover the place.
It can be all of thesedifferent things that you really
(08:31):
think about and you're likethere has to be an easier way.
You may not know what that wayis in the beginning, but you
know enough to know that therehas to be a better way.
That is going to start you onyour journey of looking for the
right tools within your business.
(08:52):
Now I want to share with yousome of my tools that I use
within my day-to-day operations,and I also want to share with
you why I pick this specifictype of tool.
Not the actual tool itself, notthe actual name of it.
Don't get stuck on the actualvendor that I use or the name of
(09:15):
the tool.
I want you to really thinkabout the type of tool that I
use and the reason I use it, thereason why I implemented this
specific tool in my business,and that is going to help you to
be able to see how you canimplement a tool within your
business, even if you need toimplement this tool in your
(09:39):
business to help you run yourday-to-day.
The very first tool I had was aproject management software.
Now, at the time I implementeda project management software, I
did not have an assistant.
It was me.
I still knew I needed it.
(10:01):
Remember the example that Igave you, where I had all of
these planners with all of theseto-do lists and all of these
ideas and all of this stuff allover the place.
This is one of the reasons whyI knew I had to have a project
management software.
Now I have a place, acentralized place, where I have
(10:26):
my to-do lists, I have my ideas,I have my strategy for my
content.
My virtual assistant and Icommunicate back and forth.
I know where she is on aproject without having to pick
up the phone or send her anemail, because I can go right in
the project management softwareand see that.
(10:48):
So I use it for all of thesethings.
I also use it to manage myclient projects.
There are some projects that Ihave that are longer term
engagements and I use it tomanage that.
I also use it to share withthem where I am within a project
(11:08):
, so it's like a project update.
It's a part of my report.
These are just some of the waysthat I use my project
management software, but itstarted because I needed to be
able to keep track of my to-dolist.
I needed to be able to keeptrack of my ideas that I hadn't
implemented yet.
That's where it started.
(11:29):
Today, the tool that I use, thename is ClickUp.
I have used Trello, asana,basecamp, I've used a couple and
I landed on ClickUp because itbest soups my needs.
So, as I'm telling you thesedifferent platforms, one of the
(11:53):
things that I want you to reallythink about before you decide,
beyond the fact that you want aproject management software, but
now which one I want?
You definitely want to do aneeds assessment.
What are the things that youneed and what features do you
need it to have?
And you'll see that there's alot of similarities, but there
(12:17):
are some differences that couldpotentially make a difference in
what you decide.
Alright, so do your needsassessment.
Why do you need it?
Is it just for you?
Is it for you and the team?
Do you want to be able to sharethings with your client?
Just kind of let the juicesflow and go out and compare
different tools and look at whatsome of the features are.
(12:40):
Are you going to realisticallyuse some of the features?
Do you need some of them?
I caution you from getting in atool that's too robust, because
it could be confusing and youmay not use it, and these tools
only work if you work them.
Okay.
So that's number one.
(13:02):
The very first one is a projectmanagement software.
The second one is an accountingsoftware, and I'm saying
software because that's what Ihave, but it could be an Excel
spreadsheet.
The main thing is do you knowwhat's coming into your business
(13:22):
in terms of revenue?
Do you know what's going out interms of expenses.
I like the accounting softwarebecause now I can also run
reports.
That is the biggest benefit tome and it makes my life easier
because it makes my accountant'slife easier.
(13:42):
So anytime her life is easier,my life is easier.
Okay so, but I use Waveaccounting and this is an
accounting software.
It allows you to, like I said,you can track your revenue, you
can track your expenses, you cancategorize your revenue and
(14:04):
your expenses.
You can do your basic reports.
You know your cash flow reports, your profit and loss
statements.
You can do you know a lot ofthat stuff in there.
So it's a really basicaccounting software.
Think about what it is that youneed.
Think about if you need someintegrations.
Mine integrates with Stripe.
(14:25):
So if somebody makes a Stripepayment, that information comes
over.
It integrates with my bankaccount.
Think about those type ofthings.
But the main thing is I gotthis platform initially because
I needed to know where my moneywas at all times, what was
(14:46):
coming in, what was going out.
The added features, like I said, is the reporting, the fact
that I can communicate with myaccountant easily via the
platform.
So kind of think about thosethings.
But at the core, in order forme a CEO to run my business.
I didn't know where the moneywas Right, so it's kind of like
(15:07):
show me the money.
I need to know what's going on.
The next one this is mainlybecause I am a service based
business, not saying thatproduct based businesses don't
use this platform, because someof them do, especially when they
sell more expensive products.
But it is a CRM CustomerRelationship Management software
(15:32):
and initially I was usinginitially I use my project
management software to trackthis information.
So initially I was using Trelloand I would track my potential
clients Right.
So this is one of the thingsthat this does.
So let's talk about what a CRMdoes and how it impacts service
(15:56):
based businesses.
It allows me to keep track ofmy potential clients, inbound or
outbound, but it allows me tokeep track of my clients.
I know when we first initiatedcontact what we talked about.
I understand the value of eachdeal.
It helps me when I am doinggoal setting and planning.
(16:19):
But having a CRM the reason whyI went from a project management
software to a CRM is because ithas additional.
I can do invoicing out of there.
I can send them an invoice,they can pay and it comes into
the software.
I can do proposals in there, Ican do estimates in there.
I can also do if I can set upworkflows.
(16:43):
So maybe I have this outboundprocess where I initiate contact
on day one and then, based onthe response or lack of response
, I mean want to have anotheremail go out, you know, in a
couple of days.
These are things that I cankind of set up.
Even if I'm manually doing it,I can set up templates that
(17:04):
automatically go out.
The other thing that I like isthat it tracks if someone opens
a message.
So if they opened it and readit, I'll know if it was opened
or not, because I may have adifferent flow for people that
opened versus people that didnot open.
So customer relationshipmanagement it helps you manage
(17:26):
the customers relationship, evenfor the people that are current
clients, right, I am able tomanage that, that relationship
as well.
So it's not just potentialclients but it's current clients
as well.
The one that I use is client joyand it has all of the features
that I talked about and it alsohas a client portal, which I
(17:49):
found to be extremely helpful.
A lot of the engagements that Ido, like my 90 day ops
experience where I'm workingdirectly with CEOs for a couple
of months.
There are times that they needto upload information and I need
to upload and share informationwith them.
(18:10):
I can do this via the clientportal.
They can go in, they can uploadinformation, they can upload
documents.
They can have their assistantupload documents.
I can upload documents to sharewith them.
It shows them their proposal,their invoices, all of the
documents that we've shared.
So I don't have to depend onGoogle Drive Not that that's a
(18:33):
problem, because that's where Istarted, but I just like the
client portal better, and itdoesn't mean that I don't save
things in Google Drive because Ido, which we'll get to that.
So that is the CRM and that iswhy I use it.
You may have, you know, gainedsome ideas about if you need one
(18:54):
and how you can use it withinyour business.
I really love templates.
Anybody that is in the savvyoperations society my membership
can tell you.
I love templates because Idon't like reinventing the wheel
and for me, a big part ofoperations is being efficient.
We have templates that we coulduse and you can set up within
(19:17):
your CRM.
That is awesome.
The next tool that I use is mymetrics tracker.
Now my metric tracker is aGoogle spreadsheet, so
everything is in this bigplatform right.
(19:38):
It's a Google spreadsheet thatI set up and what I do is there
are metrics and KPIs that Itrack on a weekly basis.
I go in there and I track them.
All of this I'm thinking aboutfrom a CEO perspective and what
makes my business flow better.
When I'm talking about mymetrics tracker, it's kind of
(20:00):
like a dashboard if I'm ontarget, if I'm not on target, if
I'm behind, it shows the red,yellow and Green.
I know if there are some thingsI'm like, oh, we really need to
pick that up or I'm doingextremely well in a specific
area.
That's one of the things thatthe tracker tells, but I can
actually see when I am inrelation to my goal, where I am
(20:24):
in relation to some of themetrics that I decided that I
wanted to track within mybusiness.
So it's a metrics tracker, issomething that I created, is in
Google sheets and that's what weuse it for, and on a weekly
basis, I go in, I review mynumbers and it helps me to make
decisions for the next week andit helps me to make overall
(20:47):
decisions is my strategy workingor not, and how things are
going All right.
So that is another one that Iuse.
Last tool that I want to talkabout is Google Drive, and when
we're talking about from aday-to-day operations
perspective.
A lot of times we are housinginformation and we want to make
(21:09):
sure that we are doing it in anorganized way.
We want it to be organizedbecause if you're always hunting
for documents, where did Istore this, where did I put this
?
That's a waste of time andthat's a waste of energy.
I have my Google Drive and itis organized in a way that I can
(21:30):
understand it and thankfully,my sister understands it too.
But it is organized like, forinstance, I have an operations
folder and then, within theoperations folder, I have a
subfolder for my standardoperating procedures Right, so
all of that is in there.
I have a folding for all of myplanning.
(21:50):
So every year when I go throughmy planning and even my weekly
metrics, all of that is in myplanning folder For the year for
2024, my SWAT analysiseverything is stored in a folder
.
Having a Google Drive, dropbox,some type of place that you
(22:11):
store all of your information,you definitely want to make sure
it is secure.
You want to make sure that youare able to limit access.
So if you do have a team,everyone doesn't need access to
everything is underneath the nobasis.
You can kind of shareinformation as you need it.
But for me, I use Google Drive.
(22:31):
It is something that I use inmy day-to-day because I'm always
in there looking for something.
I house my, my contracts inthere.
You know a folder for that.
All, all of the stuff, all ofthe stuff.
But you want to make sure thatit is like I said, it is
organized, and I have that onthe list because, as the CEO,
(22:56):
that's something that I use,that's something that your team
would use, that's something thathelps my business flow easier,
and I want to give you one bonustool.
So those are the five toolsthat I wanted to share with you,
but I want to give one bonustool with you, and this is
Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free tooland, if you set it up right, it
(23:19):
is a wealth of information.
Not only can you see who'scoming to your website or
hitting different landing pagesor how a specific campaign is
working because you can do allof that but you can set up goals
Conversion goals so you cantrack conversion of certain
things.
If you have a freebie thatyou're using, you could set up a
(23:40):
goal and every time somebodysigns up for that freebie, you
can count it as a conversion, soyou can see how you know it is
converting.
So there are different thingsthat you could do with Google
Analytics and for you, my CEOs,that is definitely something
that you probably want to lookinto.
Okay, so, before we wrap uptoday's episode, I'm gonna take
(24:02):
a moment to share those fivetools, plus the bonus, with you
again.
The first one is projectmanagement software.
I Use click up, but, like Isaid, there are many.
Asana Trello Basecamp, Kanbanthere are several.
Accounting software is numbertwo, so you can use tools like
(24:26):
Wave QuickBooks, Xero.
Number three is a CRM.
This is a customer relationshipmanagement software.
I use client joy.
I have used others like theside-o and honey boats as well.
A Metrics tracker is numberfour.
(24:48):
So making sure that you have away to track what's going on in
your business, to track theperformance, and if you want to
learn more about that, you canlisten to our last episode where
I talked about Performancemanagement from the business
perspective.
But you're gonna have, you needto have something to track and
(25:08):
there there are platforms, thereis software out there that you
can go and you can use as well.
I find it easy to use a Googledocument as my metrics tracker.
Number five is Google Drive, somy workspace.
That is where I house all of mydocuments, where I share
documents with people.
(25:29):
I have folders.
There's a system to how Istored things and it works.
It saves time and again, itsaves energy.
The bonus tool I mentioned isGoogle Analytics, again a free
tool.
There are others out there thatyou could use.
I Recommend you get startedwith this one.
(25:51):
But If you want a way to beable to track your traffic, to
track to see if your campaignsare working, to track some of
your conversions, googleAnalytics is a great place to
get started.
So those are the tools that Iuse in my business to run my
day-to-day Operations.
Now do I have other platformsand software in my business?
(26:13):
Absolutely.
I have some tools that I use tohelp me post on social media
and things like that.
And, of course, like, I havethe Canva and Like how do you
not?
I have Canva that is one of theones that I use, but it's not
one of the ones that I use torun my day-to-day business
(26:34):
operations.
It does help me when it comesto my marketing when I'm
creating posts and things likethat, but definitely, a big one
that I use a lot within mybusiness.
So that concludes anotherepisode of the operations
toolbox.
I'm Tonya D Harrison, your host, reminding you that with the
(26:56):
right tools and the rightmindset, you can build Version
2.0 of your business.
Until next time, keep buildingand growing.
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