Have you heard about Notion.so, if not I’m here to explain to you why I think it should be your Go-To Business Tool in 2023.
Notion has actually been around since 2013 when a small team of college students initially set out to improve personal productivity and note taking. They quickly realised its potential and that it could be used for so many other things that it quickly evolved. They continue to improve and evolve the product and today it is used by many businesses and individuals who are keen to improve their business operations, performance and productivity.
I first found out about Notion in 2021 and I’ve spent the past year playing around with it myself. Building data bases and templates for myself, testing it with clients. I am obsessed with it. I can just see how it can help so many people who feel overwhelmed with all the tech required to run an online business.
Over the past 7 yeas since I launched my own business and have been deep into the back-end of many 6 and 7 figure online coaching businesses, Notion for me is hands down the best thing I’ve seen. It’s the fact you can run your business all-in-one place. No need for numerous excel spreadsheets to track sales, finance or social media numbers. No need for hundreds of note files in your phone, or multiple physical notebooks (if you happen to be anything like me and start a new notebook just because it’s pretty). The features inside of Notion make it possible to use it for task management, project management, note taking, team communication and much much more.
5 Reasons Why Notion.so Should Be Your Go-To Tool in 2023
Reason #1 – Customisable Interface
Apart from the simple aesthetic in Notion, the customisable interface is what does it for me. It just works for my brain. The fact that I can build something that REALLY works for ME is what I love the most. You can create your own personalised workspaces and dashboards, so you can organise yourself and your business in a way that works best for you, reducing distraction and overwhelm and boosting your productivity and performance at the same time.
Reason #2 – Integrations
Notion integrates with many third party tools and services such as Google Drive, Trello, Slack, Zapier and much much more making it easy to connect all of your business workflows and systems together.
In fact many companies have sprung providing tools that enhance Notions capabilities even further, such as forms, graphs and even the possibility to turn Notion pages into a membership site.
Reason #3 – All-in-one Tool
As I’ve already said and I cannot emphasis this enough, the fact that you can have everything you need to run your online coaching business in ONE single place is the biggest appeal of Notion. It isn’t just limited to task or project management, you can create knowledge databases, an internal wiki (which is how lots of Startups use it), build a CRM and so much more. The functions and features inside of Notion make all of this possible.
Reason #4 – Mobile and Desktop Apps
I know many applications and tools offer Mobile and Desktop apps nowadays, so this is just another reason why Notion is great, it makes collaborating with freelancers, team members and even clients so easy, keeping everyone on track and productive.
Reason #5 – Collaboration
Because of the way you can build Notion to suit your unique wants and needs, plus the strong focus on collaboration inside the tool itself with the ability to comment/communicate inside of Notion it’s self, helps teams to effectively work together in real time and share information easily. The same applies for clients, because I think this would be an awesome way to manage 1:1 clients and even group programmes.
So while Asana and ClickUp are also great, they are predominantely project management tools and are limited to project and task management in comparison to what you can build inside of Notion. It’s the flexibility and all-in-one aspect that is the biggest advantage to me.
I honestly can see more business owners moving to Notion in 2023, so if you’d like to find out more or need some help to get your own Notion space set up, I would love to help you. Book a discovery call with me here. I would love to help and support you on your journey to streamline your operations and achieve your goals in 2023.
How to Conduct a Business Systems Audit for Growth
You might not even be aware, but running an online business involves a lot of processes and systems. Every task you perform is linked to a process and a bigger system.
Systems don’t last forever, sadly. They are in fact an ever evolving part of your business that change as you build, grow and scale. With that in mind, it is a good idea to audit your business systems every quarter to six months by blocking out time in your calendar to take stock.
Time to step into your CEO shoes.
WHY YOU NEED TO AUDIT YOUR SYSTEMS
The whole concept of systems might seem overwhelming, but our everyday life is full of them. The way you clean your bathroom, do your washing, even putting your children to bed at night, is your own little process or system. But systems don’t last forever. Your children grow up and things need to change.
Sometimes systems just stop working. It isn’t because they weren’t good systems in the first place, but rather our needs shift and our systems need to adjust in line with those changes.
Before the whole world was thrown into a pandemic and covid-19 created a new normal, my grocery shopping was disorganised. I didn’t meal plan. I frequently dragged my two children to the supermarket in search of food and inspiration. When the government told us that we were to “Stay home. Save lives. Protect the NHS”, suddenly things needed to change. So we actually started meal planning, making a list of the things are needed for those meals and then going shopping once a week, our one essential trip. I’ll be honest, it has been a complete game changer. The stress of looking at the fridge and wondering what the hell I am going to cook, and then making a desperate trip to the supermarket has stopped and with a new process in place it has suddenly become so much easier, even more joyful. And it is a process that is here to stay.
At times it can be very obvious that things aren’t working out and something needs to change. Other times you might not be fully aware that things are broken. This is why taking the time to check-in and review is so important, so you can actually ask yourself – is this really working? Or could this be done better?
Whilst conducting a business systems audit in itself isn’t really rocket science, blocking out time to go through every process with a fine tooth comb, is pretty dull and boring. But it is essential. Take the time to ask yourself whether the systems and tools that you DO have in place are being used and leveraged to the best of their ability or if there are further systems and tools you need to look at implementing. Doing this will save you time (and subsequently more energy) and will help you move your business forwards.
Having clear systems and processes in place will remove the overwhelm each time you have to tackle something you dread, such as client on-boarding or writing a blog post. It might not be the most fun or sexy task (like creating graphics in Canva), but trust me, taking the time to go through this will be worth it in the end because you will be able to remove yourself from a lot of the ‘busy’ work and that is the end goal we are all working towards.
Whilst conducting a business systems audit might not be rocket science, it is pretty dull and boring. But oh so worth it to see your business grow the right way, without the stress and overwhelm.
HOW TO AUDIT YOUR SYSTEMS
The best way to approach a systems audit is to break it down into three parts: Reflect, Review and Refresh.
STEP ONE: REFLECT
Make some time to sit down and reflect on the past 6 months. Ask yourself these questions:
How do you feel about the past 6 months?
What has worked well? What hasn’t worked so well?
How do you feel about your business over the past 6 months? What are you happy with? What needs to be improved?
How was your work/life balance?
How did you spend your time over the past 6 months? How do you feel about that?
What did you prioritise over the past 6 months? How do you feel about that
Have the past 6 months bought you closer to your big goals, your big picture vision or taken you further away?
STEP TWO: REVIEW
Time to walk through and review all of the systems in your business and ask yourself these questions:
How do you feel about the systems you have in place? Are they working for you?
What systems and tools are working well? What aren’t working?
Do you have recorded processes and systems for ALL parts of your business?
Do you feel like something can be improved?
Are there people or automations that can replace some parts or even some steps?
Is there a step that doesn’t make sense?
Is there a step that is missing?
Has something shifted or changed in your business that now renders a particular step obsolete?
STEP THREE: REFRESH
Now you have identified what is and isn’t working and the areas for improvement or change. It’s time to implement. Re-record any videos you have created, rewrite the checklists, update the documentation, tell all team members about the changes and run through them. Either test them yourself if you don’t have a team or get your team to run through them and check they are working.
Now the only other thing left to do is to schedule in another business systems audit for the next quarter or for six months time.
I’ve created a Business Systems Audit Worksheet for you, that you can print off and reuse every 3-6 months.Click here to download it now.
If you want to join other like-minded female entrepreneurs who want to create a simplified and streamlined business that enables them to focus on maximising you impact, income and influence come and join the Facebook Group.
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How to Boost Passive Income with Automated Follow Ups
As any smart business owner knows, the key to passive income is a well-established (and full) funnel.
So of course you’ve optimised your opt-in pages and monetised your download pages and encouraged more buyers through well-placed upsells and downsells.
But what about the follow-up? Do you contact customers about the products or services they didn’t buy? Do you encourage them to use the products they have purchased? Are you making sure they know about all your other wonderful programs?
If not, you’re missing the boat. But the good news is, this can be easily managed with just a bit of simple automation, and when done right, it will smoothly lead your customers from one purchase to the next, at the exact right time for them to take advantage of your best offers.
Know your audience and your products exceptionally well. Study your stats. Know your open and click rates. Pay attention to the promotions that work, as well as those that fall flat. With information in hand, you’ll be better able to effectively segment your lists and make the most of all the parts of your funnel.
Segment Your Audience
Many autoresponder services allow you to target emails based on reader action. Want to send a follow up email to those who clicked a specific link? Create a segment and mail away. Want to re-engage with those who haven’t opened your emails in a while? Easy to do, and you can potentially recover subscribers who have gone missing.
In more sophisticated systems, such Converkit (which is the Email Marketing System I use and LOVE), you can dig even deeper, and move people from one series to another based on their buying habits. That way you’ll never promote a product that a reader already owns. Not only that, but you’ll always be able to offer the best next thing, no matter where a subscriber is in your funnel.
Still another way to segment your list is according to what they do not buy. If a subscriber has been on a list where you’re promoting your top-level coaching program, and she has not yet purchased, it may simply be too expensive for her at this time. Consider moving these readers to an autoresponder series promoting a lower cost option instead.
All of these tactics require that you know your audience and your products exceptionally well. Study your stats. Know your open and click rates. Pay attention to the promotions that work, as well as those that fall flat. With information in hand, you’ll be better able to effectively segment your lists and make the most of all the parts of your funnel.
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When it comes to leveraging your time, automation is the sharpest tool in your CEO toolbox. It allows you to get more done in less time, and to smoothly move people through your funnel.
For many small business owners, though, the one area that’s often overlooked is your website.
Use Your Blog to Build Your Mailing List
Like any smart business owner, you likely have opt-in forms on your website. They’re in the sidebar or maybe the footer, and you might have a pop-up to capture attention as visitors are about to leave.
But do you have a solid call to action at the end of your blog posts? When a new reader is finished consuming your posts, she’s primed to learn more. Give her the opportunity by offering an opt-in at the end of each post.
Even better, make it a logical next step by creating a related offer for each post. Called a content upgrade, these offers typically consist of a simple checklist or worksheet, and capture attention by providing even more information about a topic they’re already interested in.
Keep Them Reading With Related Links
How often do you revisit old blog posts to link to newer content? This is an important maintenance job that will help provide visitors with the information they’re looking for by linking related posts together.
Not only is this strategy good for keeping visitors on your site, but Google approves as well. Posts that link to each other encourage search engine bots to crawl your site more thoroughly, and help boost the rankings of your most relevant posts.
[Hint: This is a perfect job for your VA.]
Automation is the smartest tool in your CEO toolbox when it comes to leveraging your time.
Make the Best of Your Download Pages
Whether you’re giving away a free report or paid product, your download pages can pull double-duty by offering visitors a “what’s next” option. For free download pages, a related, low-cost product is best. It gives readers the chance to learn more about you with a small investment.
For paid products, consider offering a complementary product instead. If you’re protecting your download pages with a membership script such as Customer Hub, you can even offer upsells based on what they already own, making the choice even easier for them.
And if you’re using a double-opt-in mailing list, make use of that confirmation page, too! That’s the perfect place for a quick upsell or an invitation to join you in your Facebook group or weekly Periscope.
Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow on your website: Whenever a reader lands on a page, she should be offered the next logical step. When you write your blog posts or create your download pages, keep that in mind, and your funnel will practically fill itself.
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If you’ve ever looked at another entrepreneur and wondered how she manages to get it all done, the answer might surprise you.
She’s got good systems.
It’s true. The most productive people all have one thing in common: they don’t reinvent the wheel every day. Instead, they’ve figured out the best, most efficient way to do every task, and they create a system to do just that.
No matter what business you’re in and what projects you find yourself tackling, a systemized approach will help you:
Work faster and produce more
Produce higher quality results with fewer mistakes
Easily outsource the tasks you don’t like to do
The Magic of Templates
How many times do you answer email from potential clients? What about responding to customer complaints? Or mailing your JV partners about an upcoming launch?
All of these tasks and more become effortless when you create fill-in-the-blank templates that can be repurposed for specific cases/people. Templates can be as simple as a “canned response” in your email client or help desk, or you can use software such as Text Expander (for Mac) or Phrase Express (for Windows). You might even create a template document in Dropbox or Google Drive to house all your templates for easier access.
While templates will undoubtedly save you time, the real beauty is that once they’re created, you can easily outsource things like email and even sales. Simply instruct your assistant on the proper use of your templates, and you’ll be free to do other, more important things.
The most productive people all have one thing in common: they don’t reinvent the wheel every day. Instead, they’ve figured out the best, most efficient way to do every task, and they create a system to do just that.
Checklists Prevent Mistakes
It might seem counterintuitive, but when you perform the same tasks over and over again, it’s easy to miss a critical step. You might think you paid your affiliates this month—you might even remember doing it—only to look back and see it was never completed.
But when you implement checklists, it’s suddenly much more difficult to miss an important task.
You can easily create checklists for all your common tasks and projects using nothing more than a text document. If you’re managing a team, checklists in your project management system allow you to see exactly what tasks are complete, and which are still outstanding.
Templates and checklists turn smart business owners into productivity superstars, and it’s easy to get started. The next time you answer an email you’ve answered before, save your response. The next time you set up a new product in your shopping cart or create a new opt-in page, take the time to record the steps. These documents will make future projects easier and faster to complete, and best of all, you can hand them off to your assistant to do instead.
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In today's digital age, harnessing the power of AI has become increasingly important for businesses. One such AI tool that has revolutionised my own creative process and productivity is ChatGPT. Since I started using ChatGPT in November 2022, I have discovered new...
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