Four Steps To Designing A Systems-Based Creative Business
We remember the first time we made our first $700 as a team. We called each other instantly screaming and thanking God that we made a sale. We’ve worked our entire life as freelancers and being able to sell to a complete stranger online was and still is mind-blowing. We can’t lie, our attitudes instantly shifted and all of the money we lost leading up to that time, felt totally worth it. After we made $700, we did the first thing a lot of creative entrepreneurs forget to do, we paid our bills and ourselves. We made a total of $30 after bills and happily paid each other $15. We love our jobs so much that we took the $15 and reinvested it back into the business. So, we really made $0. But, hey it feels good to pay the bills for once.
But it wasn’t easy. We had to be honest with one another and really challenge everything we were programmed to believe in. Is it impossible? Absolutely not. You can be a full-time creative and make a lot of money, you simply have to put the right systems into place. Systems help you stay organized and help you scale your business. You don’t want to get in the habit of running every detail of your business.
You can start designing systems by taking these few simple steps:
Create a list of everything that must happen for your business to function and make money. This includes marketing, sales, and operational strategies.
Start documenting the processes you are manually doing each day for 5 days. It doesn’t have to be neat, just put it in a place where you can easily view your notes.
Next, ask yourself how you can systemize the processes in your day. For some people, this can be creating templates that are reusable for various administrative functions.
Break down your daily activities. What do you do each day for your business? What software do you use, and what strategies do you use to market your service?
Even if you don’t have a lot of followers or clients. Or maybe you only have one client. This is a great time to start designing those systems. A lot of time is spent on marketing and promotions and not enough time is spent on creating systems that will eventually help do the work for you.
Nobody makes it to the top alone. You need a support network—people to advise you, coach you, cheer for you, and give you a heads-up when you’re about to make a costly mistake. You don’t have this kind of network yet? You do now. Join Style Sense Collective. Your tribe is here > Join our community of creatives
