Systems and Organization Tools To Keep Your Side Hustle Running Smooth And Efficient
As a side hustler, saving time is one of your most important goals. While working a full-time job, there aren’t a lot of hours in the day you can devote to running a business and having a social life and/or household responsibilities. Because of that, it’s important that side hustlers make every minute count and find systems to work for them, while they aren’t working.
Putting systems inside your business should be a priority while running your side hustle. You want to streamline as much as you can, create efficiencies and passively run your business. This way when you are working on your side hustle, you are only working on needle-moving tasks. You’re not slowing down due to administrative or repetitive to-do’s. Let’s dive into a few systems and organizational tools that you can use within your business to save time and run an efficient and profitable side hustle.
Where do you need systems
The first step in saving time with managing your side hustle throughout the week is noticing where you need systems. Audit your business for anything that may benefit to have a system or organization tool in place. These could be tasks that you do on a daily basis, tasks you don’t enjoy, repetitive tasks and/or administrative. Approach this audit as if you had a team working for you. What would be smaller things that you would hand off to a team member instead of completing yourself?
Write down all steps, workflows and operations within your business that you discover in this audit. Let’s explore if we can put systems around any of these tasks to streamline with ease or make them passive! Here are the top three systems I use within my business to streamline and automate my systems and workflows. These systems help me make the most out of my time. With these, I also know that my business is organized and working for me, even when I’m not.
Getting organized
First, it’s important that you and your side hustle are organized. Side hustlers can lose a lot of time during each week just by organizing their task lists and what they need to do over and over again. The goal is to start your side hustle workday already knowing what needs to happen. Trello is an amazing tool for this. Visually layout your entire business, organize your lists and tactically put a plan in place with Trello. Best part, accounts are free!
Trello is a versatile tool that you can use, to invite team members or guests, automate workflows and organize all of your data and tasks. And if you’re a visual person, it’s a great way to see all of the moving parts at once. Explore this free app for yourself using my free Side Hustler Trello board! Trust me, it’s worth a try and can be a game-changer when it comes to organizing your business and saving time.
invest in a CRM platform
A CRM or customer relationship management platform is where and how you can manage clients throughout your business. If your side hustle sees service-based clients on a regular basis, like a photographer, copywriter or she-shed flipper, then a CRM could save you countless of time throughout the week. A CRM platform holds all of your clients in one spot, allows you to create & send contracts, send & collect payments and automate your workflows.
If you find that a lot of your time throughout your side hustler workweek is sending emails, invoices, checking in with clients to see “where they’re at”, then a CRM could save you a lot of time. Even if you don’t spend a lot of time on these things now, be sure to consider what you want your business to look like in a year. Investing in a CRM now and learning how to efficiently streamline and manage client administration can be a great asset when your business doubles, making time a hot commodity!
There are two major CRM platforms that I recommend and have used. Honeybook and Dubsado. Dubsado most recently managed my client relations in my photographer business for four years. Explore both platforms and see which is best for you and your budget. Having a CRM can feel like having an employed secretary. Plus it can free you up in your business to work on bringing in new clients, knowing your current ones are taken care it.
passively run your business
Now let’s talk about passively running your business. Passively running your business means your setting yourself up to make money, even when you’re not working. This is the ultimate goal in time management as a side hustler. Depending on your business type, there will be different levels of passive opportunity. However, one system that can passively run within any business is email marketing!
Email marketing is a wonderful way to passively promote and operate your business. You can do this in two main ways. Through automated email sequences that have an end goal in mind (usually tied to sales) and through scheduling regular emails or newsletters to your audience.
When you create email sequences for your side hustle, you are putting in place a series of emails that are released to a subscriber after doing something like subscribing for a free opt-in. This allows you to passively promote your business throughout the sequence or sell a product or service. You’re able to provide the same level of energy and strategy to each potential client all through automating your sequences.
Flodesk is the number one way I do this in my business. Flodesk allows me to create an email series from opt-in and beyond with intentionally designed and beautifully crafted email templates. Explore Flodesk to see if it’s a good fit for you and your business to begin automating your systems. And if it is a good fit, save 50% of your subscription here.
Regardless of what email service provider you use, email marketing is a wonderful way to automate your business and save time. And it’s never too early to start. Read this blog post that teaches you how email marketing can also be a time-saver while building your side hustle!
where you go from here
Observe your side hustle and see where you can begin incorporating systems into your business. Systems and organizational tools can allow you to work smarter rather than harder. And as a side hustler, any time saved is worth its weight in gold due to your already limited schedule. The best side hustles are streamlined, self-sufficient, sustaining and passive. No matter your business type or model, you can build systems to align your side hustle this way.
And your first system is on me! Download my free Trello board template and begin organizing your side hustle and all the things. This template will introduce you to the beautiful world of Trello and get a feel for putting systems inside your business to save you time.
