Why Is Everyone So Scared of Systems?!

Part of any business is keeping it organized and functional. This is why we LOVE having certain systems in place (hello, Asana!) to do this for us. It’s amazing when so many business owners – even some who are making 6 figures a year – are still using spreadsheets to track #AllTheThings. SPREADSHEETS!

Now don’t get us wrong, we love a good spreadsheet. But there is a better – more efficient – way to track projects and clients.

One of the main advantages of using a system over a spreadsheet is that those sheets can be finicky and not always work the way you want them to. Sure, systems can crash, but it’s rare and chances are your information is still safe.

We’re lucky in that for some of our clients, they’re all about finding the right system that works for them (typically a CRM system). Recently, we did a comparison between a few and landed on one, Pipedrive, which we’ve never used before but looks like SO much fun and we’re excited to get started on building it out. The best part: it eliminates 3 separate spreadsheets that we are using for tracking various things! THREE! That alone will boost productivity and our efficiency at least tenfold, as we won’t be jumping sheet to sheet trying to remember which information is where. We can just go into the CRM and find it right away.

With that said, not all CRM’s are created equal. There are so many out there, with some higher ranked than others, but it all depends on what you need it for and what you want it to do for your business.

The absolute worst case, setting up something like Trello or Asana to keep track of your tasks, clients, projects, etc. is a fantastic alternative if you aren’t ready to start paying for a CRM. And really – we are still using the free versions of both Asana and Trello (as some clients prefer one over the other) and they’re fully functional for what we need! There’s nothing wrong with sticking with the free version of something, especially if it means you’ll be more organized AND more efficient. Get those to-do lists and pads of paper out of here and jump into today’s virtual workforce.

It’s time to start prioritizing our own businesses and setting them up to work for us – not have us work for them. We recommend checking out another post, “Where Are You Wasting Your Time In Your Business … And How to Get It Back” for other ways to improve your efficiency!