When you have clients – both current + prospective clients – inundating your inbox, it gets to where you start missing things.

And it’s not because you’re a bad boss or you aren’t cut out for business. It’s because you’re growing + you need help!

You can only send so many package details before you lose track of who got what. It’s a reality that you’ll forget to have that contract signed or where you’ll be researching whether that payment was made.

Fortunately, there are ways for you manage the emails, the forms, as well as the leads and the clients and the actual project work you’re having to deliver on. Did I mention I can set you up to do this for free? Yuh-huh!

ESTABLISH A PROCESS

The truth is that when you’re working with clients, you’re basically a carnival side-show juggler. To be able to keep all those balls in the air without dropping them, you need to have a plan.

That plan is called a WORKFLOW ::  this is an OUTLINE of everything that goes into a service + a TIMELINE by which your deliverables are scheduled.By having a workflow in place, you are positioning yourself to ::

  • Be ORGANIZED AF with your entire paper-trail – from contracts to invoices to scheduling – getting done like the freaking professional you are… except you spend exactly zero minutes managing any of it because it all happens on auto-pilot, hands off the wheel;
  • Never have to bring up overdue payments again because being streamlined means you GET PAID ON TIME, EVERY TIME;and
  • Ditch the WTF feeling + start each workday with the CONFIDENCE THAT YOU’VE GOT THIS FREELANCING THING COVERED like Sweet Caroline at a tourist trap karaoke bar.

SET UP YOUR PROCESS

Tracking what’s next on you workflow shouldn’t be just another thing to add to your To Do list or that you have to track. A good workflow should act as a guide that IS your To Do list and just – BOOM! – tells you what needs to be done. Once you’ve done it? You let your system know that it’s done so that next time you check in – BOOM! – you again immediately know what has been done and what needs to be done.

While there are plenty of traditional CRMs (aka :: Customer Relationship Manager or Client Response Manager) like Dubsado or 17hats that can help manage this for you, I have another tech solution to consider :: AIRTABLE!

It has all kinds of Views to allow you to do things like collect data via forms, track deadlines with calendars and manage projects in Kanban, galleries or grids – and did I mention it’s FREE? Oh, and did I mention you can swipe the bases I use to sell services with them, too? Allow me to show you!

Here’s the TL;DR of this :: YOU GOTTA GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.

If your processes are chaos? If your projects are disorganized? Your clients will feel the same chaos and disorganization you’re feeling and putting out there. When you are unhappy about the way you’re operating, it’s contagious AF! So get it together, boss.