Imagine if you were productive and the impact you can have on someone. Not just your business, but the impact you can have on someone's life. It’s powerful.
Once you put processes in place it really is incredible what will start to happen around you. People start to respect you. Your time. And your process as a leader. People will find you and people come to you instead of you having to chase them. People ask for you. That is the power of putting a process in place which results in being more productive.
One of my favorite stories to share is also one of the saddest. Back in 2010 my hometown flooded in Nashville, TN. I will never forget it. It was like God put me in a nightmare. We had eight displaced weddings and events all downtown where the water gushed through the streets and towered over the buildings. Many of our vendors lost everything. I mean everything! Cars, filing cabinets, client books, furniture; it all rapidly floated away. The worst part. They did not have flood insurance. Many filed bankruptcy and had to rebuild. This time they knew they needed to have a paperless process. One where all of their client files were backed up in the cloud. Something I had been preaching for years. Yet it took a tragedy to happen before acting on a change.
Don’t be that person. That person that says, “oh that will never happen to me.” Because you'll never know.
I had seen first hand working in healthcare how powerful EMR was (electronic medical records) and how quickly files could be transferred over the cloud.
If you are saying to yourself…
I can’t take on this client
Not one more thing on my plate
Am I ever going to get to bed
Gosh, I am stressed
I don’t have enough time to get it all done
The struggle is real for entrepreneurs.
Let’s recap. The first P is People. The second P is Processes; internal and external. You need paperless processes to grow your business.
The first process to consider is time blocking and using colors to see how your calendar looks each week. The color coding can provide an overview snapshot for you. I had every excuse in the book as to why this would not work for me. But shifting your mindset and commitment to your business and well being will be life changing.
The second process to consider is to your email. Do you ever feel like you are in email jail? That is what I used to call it because I would spend hours entertaining non sense. There were two FREE tools we implemented in the business that decreased our email by 300+ a day. Do you know how much flipping time that saved!!
In my next article, I will share with you some of my tools that I mentioned above. Just know that there are so many ways to automate and so many options on the market, especially now.
Remember, Money follows Processes. And if you do this right, follow the processes. You will be able to get clear on being present in your everyday life.