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Don’t you wonder how some people do it?
How do they run a successful business while still having plenty of time for creating and delivering new products and services? What do they know that you don’t?
The answer often starts and ends with having the right mix of systems, tools and support in place.
Val Geisler is my guest this week and she is the founder of Aspire & Grow, a company that’s focused on improving the entrepreneur experience through the art of sweet systems simplicity.
She is on a mission to make every creative business owner feel organized, light, accessible, open, clear and joyful. I don’t know about you but I want to feel more of that!
“Creating an incredible customer experience is actually really easy, but recovering from a bad one is really hard”
– Val Geisler
Val is going to share how she’s helped people build and grow successful businesses by setting up the right systems and tools. She’s also going to get very specific and share her experience about which tools and processes are the most important if you’re just getting started.
Here is Val’s list of non-negotiable tools and processes for every new or aspiring business builder. These are the must have tools and processes that will set your business up for success and allow it to scale and grow:
- Create an effective email management system with filters – set up email in a way that works for you. Don’t wake up and check email first thing in the morning, otherwise you’re allowing others to set your schedule for you. Set specific times to batch email tasks two or three times a day. Here’s a tutorial from Val on how to set up email filtering.
- Use an automated scheduler – especially if you’re a consultant, coach or anyone that has a business where scheduling happens frequently. Acuity Scheduling or ScheduleOnce are great paid options to use. YouCanBook.me is a great free option.
- Set up an online calendar – Google Calendar is Val’s calendar tool of choice and she uses the Sunrise application for accessing her calendar.
- Set up an email marketing tool and start building an email list as soon as possible – you’ll want to start connecting with your ideal clients and building an email list of people that want what you’ve got. Aweber and MailChimp are both great solutions for this.
- Zapier is Val’s favorite tool for connecting different applications and automating pretty much anything you can think of.
The demise of any business usually happens because of a lack of revenue. But the real reason behind a lack of revenue is often an overwhelmed and overworked owner. An owner that’s trying to do everything himself.
If you’re an owner that wants to spend more time doing what you love, and less time worrying about all the repetitive tasks in business, then this is the episode for you.
Here are some of Val’s favorite things:
Most Influential Book
- Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
Business Super Power
- Connecting business owners with the perfect system for their business.
Most Effective Strategy For Growing Your Business
- Running her Facebook group.
Favorite Business Tool or Resource
- Asana – A project management tool that we’ll talk more about in next week’s episode.
Most Recent Exciting Adventure
- Val just had a baby 7 months ago. Now that’s an adventure like none other!
Show Highlights
- Hear how Val started her business on the side and then leveraged it into a full time gig after she was fired from her job.
- How Val hustled to fill her new business with clients in less than a week!
- Why job security is a myth and how to create your own self-reliance through entrepreneurship.
- Embracing the simple concept of building a business around teaching what you’ve learned.
- How to spend more time on money-making activities in your business. (Hint: this is where Val’s expertise can really help you shine)
- Val explains the concept of the ‘layover test’ and why it’s so important when hiring support for your business.
- Are you leading your business or is it leading you?
- Val describes the essential tools and processes that every new or aspiring business builder needs to have in place as quickly as possible.
Question: What’s your favorite tool or process for simplifying your business? Please share in the comments section below.
Interview Links for Val:
- Aspire & Grow – Be sure to check out Val’s main website where you will find incredible resources for simplifying and streamlining your business.
- Systems Finishing School – Systems Finishing School is designed for business owners who are serious about saving time and money – and seriously want to get their affairs in order. The next session starts in January so be sure to get on the list if you’re interested.
- The 12 Days of Systems Challenge – a fun peek into the systems used by 12 different successful entrepreneurs.
- Say hello to Val on Facebook or Twitter
