4 Quick tech tips to ensure that you never have to say the same thing twice
Are there days in your business life that you feel like a broken record? Are you sick of answering the same types of emails, telling the same stories to your clients, giving the same training to new team members, or re-teaching the same procedures?
As a health professional, I used to see clients (patients) one on one, meaning I would invariably be giving the same instructions over and over again. As I transitioned into the business world, I found I was answering the same type of emails over and over again. As I added members to my team, I had to explain basic procedures over and over again.
The final nail in the coffin to my repetitive ways came in the form of a business valuation task that I participated in during a business course. We all had a sheet full of questions to answer with a yes or a no, which would determine the value of our business.
Question one: Do you know your ‘Why’?
Easy- I ticked yes.
Question two: Do you have every process that you do in your business documented? Well…
For all of us who answered ‘No’ (close to the whole room), we were told that we could not progress any further in the business valuation. It didn’t matter how much revenue we had, how many people we helped, how good our branding or culture was.
If we didn’t have everything documented, we were not worth much at all.
So here are 4 quick ways to stop repeating yourself, and in the process, add true value to your business:
REPETITIVE TASK #1: RESPONDING TO SIMILAR TYPES OF EMAILS
Solution: If you run all of your emails through Gmail (which is a great idea), one of the best things you can do is install a program like Yesware onto your Gmail account. Every time you write ‘one of those emails’, use Yesware to save it as a template, meaning you can simply click a button or two and prepopulate a blank email with the same copy the next time the same question pops up. At the very least, cut and paste these regular emails into an Evernote document for easy access to cut and paste wherever you are.
REPETITIVE TASK #2: EDUCATING YOUR CLIENT WITH THE SAME SPIEL
Solution: If there is a process, a way of using your product, or a handy hints type of list that you find yourself repeating regularly to your clients, get the information down on paper. Use a voice recording app and use your VA to transcribe it for a super speedy option. Send the document to your designer or jump into Canva and design it up yourself. You’ll have a flash looking informative handout in no time.
REPETITIVE TASK #3: ANSWERING FAQS
Solution: FAQs, we all have them in our businesses, and we all still get asked them even if we have a great FAQ page on our website answering them all. So grab your smartphone or laptop camera and a record yourself answering all of the FAQs that you have on your website. Make each one into a separate YouTube video, and then voila, each annoying FAQ asker will receive a link to a very personal feeling video message from yours truly!
REPETITIVE TASK #4: TEACHING TECH BASED ADMIN PROCEDURES
Solution: These days there are many small fiddly tech procedures that we use to run our businesses, like how to use a certain spread sheet, how to add photos to your website gallery, or how to enter timesheets. The repetition of teaching these small tech tasks can be easily solved with a short screen share video. Download Jing, open the task, and record a video of your screen while you commentate what you are doing. Share the link whenever needed, and you’ll never have your precious spread sheet erased again.
These strategies may take a bit of time to set up, but it is easy if you do it in small installments, or simply each time a repetition crops up. You will love yourself silly the next time that task comes up, and you can throw out the solution that you conveniently prepared earlier.
Have you got any favourite #repeathacks? I love to collect them, so please help a fellow business owner out and share!