Systemise your wealth
When starting a business, it can become a real challenge in growing your cash flow and managing your time. We are constantly bombarded with tools that claim to help us, and more often than not, just end up being another expense. In this article, Matthew Clark discusses tools that will help systemise and optimise your wealth.
The 2 biggest challenges every growing business faces, are cash flow and time. Most businesses are stuck in a cycle of feast or famine. You are either marketing and selling or delivering, which means your cashflow is not consistent and you’re on a constant roller coaster chasing time. Imagine for a second what it would be like to know your business is growing, based on what you put in. Isn’t that an exciting thought? It certainly was for me.
There are many ways to grow your business; profit being the most important. If we are not turning a profit that increases year on year, our business dies… or we die (metaphorically) trying to keep it alive. I have other intentions for you. I want you to be able to have the time, the money, the fun, the love for your business AND absolutely love the journey along the way. You can do this by implementing systems so you can focus on what you love and are good at, while your business can grow and scale without everything relying on you. You can’t always automate everything, but we can try…
There are a lot of systems, tools and strategies to choose from and it’s easy to get caught up in what I call “The shiny object syndrome”. This is when you get excited and caught up in the hype of all these technologies and end up buying a whole bunch of tech you don’t need, because the people selling it had really great copywriters and awesome videos. You end up wasting money on solutions that don’t deliver results.
I am going to simplify it for you and share 5 tools with you that range from free to paid. If implemented properly, it can skyrocket your revenue AND profits while creating the most precious commodity - TIME.
1| CRM, lead generation, marketing and automated follow up:
Infusionsoft: Leads, Profits, Time
How do you capture leads? Are you putting it into an excel spreadsheet or do you have a drawer full of business cards? Are you using some sort of CRM? The next question is: how are you following up on those leads? Are you trying to get to them and run your business? Do you have sales people making phone calls or are they just not being followed up on?
With the amount of companies marketing nowadays, it takes an average of 7 to 14 touch points before an interested lead becomes a paying client. Here are some numbers to put things into perspective for you:
44% give up after 1 follow up
10% make more than 3 contacts
80% of sales close between 5-12 contacts
If this is you, you are missing out on your biggest revenue generator – the 80% of people who you don’t follow up with regularly.
In order to effectively capture and follow up, there are a few pieces to this puzzle:
A landing page to drive traffic to and capture leads
A CRM to capture customer information
An autoresponder to automatically educate and nurture your prospects to get them to become customers
In the past you would have needed a few different systems to achieve this, but Infusionsoft has made it all available to you in 1 platform that is easy to use. It includes a landing page builder, CRM, automated follow up and much more. Imagine capturing and following up with thousands of leads simultaniously without having to do the work yourself and only talking to your leads when they are ready to buy or they can buy online, automatically.
Infusionsoft is for growth-minded businesses that need a multi-functional CRM platform. This platform organizes all of your customer interactions in one place. Infusionsoft has empowered 145 000 businesses worldwide to deliver more personalized services and close more business deals.
If you are looking to do any one of the following, Infusionsoft will be a good fit for you:
Capture more leads
Turn more leads into customers
Turn more customers into repeating customers
Know what to do next with each customer
Follow up with timely communication
Schedule calls/meetings
What can you expect to pay for Infusionsoft?
You can get an Infusionsoft license from $99 - $397 per month depending on how many contacts you require in your database and how many users you need. The system grows with your business and you can upgrade at any time.
You need to purchase a kickstart package so you can get help from a professional to get you going. These can range from $249 for basic, get started services up to $30k plus for more specialized needs. You can watch a demo of Infusionsoft at www.thevirtualedge.com or contact me directly for more information.
2| Scheduling Appointments:
ScheduleOnce
This is the best scheduling software that I have come across. It is easy to set up, simple for your customers to use and understand and it integrates with many other platforms - like your calendars and CRM’s (including Infusionsoft). ScheduleOnce can also trigger automation.
With ScheduleOnce, you can set up your available times and segment it in order to have times set up to talk to new leads or do sales calls. You can also set up times to talk to existing clients through a different link. One of the most appealing features is the ability to set up a form so that, when people book appointments, you are able to get the required information before the meeting. I use this extensively in my own sales process and it is incredibly effective.
Here are some of the awesome features that this great tool boasts:
Payment collection for consultations - You can have a payment link in the booking form (must be an integrated payment gateway) when you do paid consultations or calls and
Book group sessions and team sessions
Integrate it into your website for direct booking
Fully customizable with your company’s branding
Automated reminders and follow ups with sms notification
Full reporting on all historical appointments
What can you expect to pay for this amazing tool?
Between $5 and $49 per month depending on how many booking forms and users you need. The most popular option is $19 per month, which is a steal for how much it allows you to do and how much more productive you are able to be. Here is a link to get this amazing software - https://www.scheduleonce.com/pricing?refcode=yjkCgV
3| Organizing shared documents:
Google Drive
Trying to find documents and have all your files easily accessible can be ‘fun’ if you are not an organized admin person. I travel a lot and don’t always like to carry my laptop with me. It’s important for me to have access to my files and documents and to share it with my clients and my team while getting real-time updates.
One of the most exciting features is the ability to work on documents live with clients or your team. You can have a document open in Word, Excel or PowerPoint while multiple people are working om it at the same time - no more back and forth and trying to figure out which is the correct version. You don’t need any servers or any hard costs for equipment.
This tool has been one of the biggest game changers for my business, as well as for many of my clients.
I use Google Drive for 3 main purposes:
Storing internal files so my team works from one central place.
To back up my hard drive. Google’s apps make access to those files seamless anywhere in the world.
Storing client projects and files granting them access to certain folders, which makes the transfer of files painless.
What does it cost?
Free to $5 per month per user. If you want your business emails to be integrated with Google Drive and if you need more storage you can upgrade at any time. You can get google drive here: https://www.google.com/drive/
4| Saving passwords and access to sites:
LastPass
LastPass is online password management software storing passwords and logins and organizing them in folders for easy access. It allows you to share access to your sites with team members, freelancers and colleagues without actually sharing your password – you control the access they have. LastPass automatically populates your logins, so you never have to remember all the crazy passwords you come up with. You’ll never have to click the “Forgot My Password” button ever again!
How much does it cost?
This is why I love it so much – its FREE! There is a paid version which will give you access to the mobile app, but the free version is pretty awesome.
5| Online Meetings
ZOOM
This is one of my favourites! It is similar to Skype, but provides a more stable and versatile platform. The free version can record calls and has a simple link to click to launch the app so you don’t have to look for the other meeting attendees before they join. This means you can have a call set up and going within 30 seconds anywhere in the world. They also have a mobile app.
The one limitation on the free version is that you can only run group calls for up to 45 minutes before it cuts out, but the paid version is only $20 a month, so it’s well worth the upgrade.
Some other features of the paid version:
Breakout rooms
Video webinars
Connect to existing systems
This tool also connects to other platforms like your CRM which makes it an incredibly powerful tool to be more productive in your business by not having to travel so much.
How much does it cost?
The price of this amazing tool starts with the FREE version, which suits most businesses. If you’re looking to do more, it ranges between $20 and $69 per month. Enterprise users can expect to pay a couple hundred dollars.
You can get it by going to their site – www.zoom.us or you can use my referral link http://bit.ly/2D3XhxQ
All these systems have helped me to increase revenue and profits by 300% year on year. It allowed me to scale without adding big overheads and more staff. We have helped hundreds of businesses worldwide how to become more productive by using these tools and have seen incredible growth from the ones that have implemented.
If you are able to free up more time and create more revenue and profit without adding extra overheads, your business will grow fast. Maybe your goal isn’t to grow, but to create more time and freedom. Whichever it is, these tools will help you achieve them in a simple way and with little cost.
Written by: Matthew Clark