3 Tips to Operating your Service Based Business More Efficiently
Back when I was younger, one of my favorite shows to watch was How It’s Made. You know the one. They would take an everyday ordinary THING out of nowhere, and show you the entire production process behind something as simple as a crayon.
When things are mass-produced, it’s important to have processes in place that allow the production of things to actually be sustainable. We all know this.
In fact, we know that this is true with a lot of things in life.
We have subways and trains because mass transit is helpful and more streamlined than trying to park several thousand cars inside of a major city.
The fact of the matter is that there are some things in this world that just make SENSE to have processes for.
One of the BIGGEST mistakes I see entrepreneurs making? Not having processes for how they operate their business. If you sit and ponder, it’s really the exact same thing as mass-producing crayons.
Stay with me: I’m not here to tell you to produce MORE → It’s actually quite the opposite.
Growing your business to your first five-figure month is all about getting the pieces in place, nailing your messaging and marketing, and really making sure that the foundation of who you are and who you serve is set in place
So many entrepreneurs and service providers struggle with this piece of things for a LONG time – and the reason why is another post altogether.
But once you’ve sorted out who you are, who you serve, and why the heck you are in business in the first place – now you are cooking with gasoline.
After this hurdle of 5 figure months, I have seen a lot of entrepreneurs get lost somewhere in the middle where they don’t really know where they want to go next, and they KNOW that their business is amazing and that they love it; but each one hits a hurdle.
It’s the time and money dichotomy. Either they take on MORE work as a service provider in order to make more money, or they figure out a way to take on LESS and make more.
When you see the writing on the wall, it either means your prices are going up (they probably should anyway, but again – another post) OR it means that you are taking on more clients.
What if I told you that there was a third way? A way that you can have your time freedom AND make more money consistently?
It’s called operations management → And no matter what your business model as an entrepreneur or service provider, it is CRUCIAL to hitting the next level in your business.
Operations management in principle is the WAY that you operate. By definition: It is the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver a business’s primary product or service.
It’s the HOW you deliver your services and create things.
As digital service providers and entrepreneurs – that is all that we do all day! We create content on the regular, we serve our people, and we show up with FORCE. The reason that so many people are getting burned out and TIRED is that they aren’t operating their business efficiently.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Organizing and operating your business more efficiently is one of the key pieces to hitting that seven-figure mark. The Million. The Big M.
It’s true. And I am going to teach you a really basic decision tree to improve your operations so you can be more efficient.
1. SIMPLIFY
I am not joking when I say that this is the number one thing that I see entrepreneurs struggling with. Either their energy is in too many places, or they don’t have a way to simply talk about what they are offering. It’s painful to watch.
Not sure where to start? Take an audit of your current offers. Are they in alignment with the lifestyle that you are trying to build? Are they priced correctly? Is your time being spent the way that you want it to be spent inside the offer itself?
Sometimes simplifying can be only showing up on the platforms that really light you up, or starting with ONE piece of content and breaking it down from there into the OTHER pieces of content.
For me, my content usually starts with a blog post. From there, I can create LOTS of content, including YouTube videos (psst. Go subscribe to my channel!)
2. ELIMINATE
The second thing that I see busy service pros doing in the online space and in general, is wasting time on things that don’t move the needle.
This one fires me up, so I will do my best to contain my inner soapbox here but come on. Stop doing things just to feel productive. If it doesn’t help you accomplish your CURRENT goals, then you need to stop spending time and energy on it right now.
As a service provider, we can only do 3 things with our energy at any given time (thanks to my coach who taught me this handy trick): We can serve, we can sell, or we can create new offers and things. But it is REALLY hard to do ALL of them at the same time to the level of execution that we desire. So pick two. There is a season for everything. And if it doesn’t belong on your plate – get rid of it.
If it doesn’t bring you money, joy, or EASE to your business, I suggest you think long and hard about why you are trying to spend your energy on it right now instead of those other things.
3. DELEGATE
This third one is like a unicorn to most service pros. The idea of having someone to help us in our business IS the goal – and it sometimes seems like it’s just not possible because of the income goals that we want.
Ironically, it usually is one of those “leap of faith” things that as soon as you invest in getting support from the RIGHT people, then the pieces start to fall into place too.
Don’t know where to start? I suggest you look at the tasks on your list that are either taking up the most TIME or the most ENERGY for you to accomplish.
A perfect example? I freaking HATE bookkeeping. It’s not my jam. Neither are taxes. Which is exactly why I KNEW that I needed to hire a bookkeeper ASAP. It was a huge money and energy leak for me. And for you, that could be copywriting, setting up tech, building websites – whatever it is.
Stop trying to MAKE yourself like doing it if you really just don’t. Your energy IS your secret sauce and it’s the thing that really makes YOU who you are – and allows you to serve your clients with excellence.
So which one of the three areas do you need to focus on this season? Simplifying, Eliminating, or Delegating? I am a writer, so I always say journal it out – but sometimes talking with a biz bestie can help a lot too.
Till Next time – Keep it simple.