Are you struggling to manage your growing business? Feeling overwhelmed by all the software options out there? In this episode, learn why systems, not software, are the key to streamlining your operations. Discover how to build effective business systems without breaking the bank and why focusing on simple processes can transform your business more than any fancy software.

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Systems vs Software

It's the people, it's the tools, it's the, um, workflows that are involved. It's everything that's involved in one particular aspect of your business. That is a system. And within the system, you may have a tool or several tools to actually get the job done. And I hear a lot of new entrepreneurs, especially Getting confused around, well, what systems do I need?

And what I want you to understand, or what I want to help you understand is that. Software is not a system. Software is a part of the system. It's not the whole system. And you may not even need software. Especially when you're just getting started. You may not have an income yet. You may not have a budget for software.

Because a lot of these big software pieces can be really expensive. So I want to make sure that you're making good financial decisions in your business, that you're not buying software that you don't need, that you're not getting things that are overly complicated for the way that your business is currently structured.

You're really just at the beginning need super simple systems to handle the processes within your business. What do I mean by that? So when you're just getting started, you probably won't have very many clients. I'm sorry, it's true. You won't have a ton of clients that you have to keep track of. You will probably be posting a lot to social media to try to get more clients.

So I wanted to make sure that I had someone that was dedicated to helping me find leads to work with. So we created a system where I wrote out an SOP, a standard operating procedure for him. For the types of people that I was looking for, the types of, you know, work that I want them to do, the types of audience that I want them to do, to have, and then also the places that I want him to go and find them.

So, the system is, he goes and finds the leads in whatever tool, adds them to the spreadsheet, and then I go in and I review the spreadsheet. And the only tool or software that we're using is Google Sheets. We're not using any sort of CRM. We're not using any sort of project management tool. We're just using Google Sheets as a tool.

And then the whole system is all of those steps in between. So understanding the difference between a system and software is going to be really important while you're, especially in the starting, beginning stages of building your business.

And it's really important for you to take a step back. First, think about the source of the information that you're looking at. Is it coming directly from the software itself? Telling you that you need their software? Is it coming from someone who might maybe get an affiliate commission for that software?

Is it, you know, some sort of biased review that they're giving you? Because then if you click on their link then they get an affiliate commission. So you really need to do your due diligence and consider where is this information coming from? Is it a valid source? You know, just like anything in life, is it a valid source of information?

Or do they have some sort of bias that I need to be aware of? And just because they have a bias doesn't mean that they're necessarily a bad source, but you want to make sure that you're really taking that into consideration when you're looking at all of these options for your business.

You don't have ways that you're actually breaking down and tracking your work and tracking your goals. And you can put those things into the system and into the tool, but it's not the, it's And you can put those things into the tool, into the software, but if you don't have a system for figuring that stuff out, the tool isn't going to figure that out for you.

It's just going to help you organize it once you've already figured it out. So you need a system to support the software or the tool that you're actually implementing. You can't just throw a tool at a problem or a piece of software and say, Okay, the problem's solved, I don't have to do anything else to it.

You know, how do you actually want your business to run? What do Do you want those touch points for the customers to be? What do you want your projects to look like? How do you want to set your goals in your business? It's important to have all of that figured out before you go and figure out, before you go and select a piece of software to actually use.

Also, by figuring out your systems first, you can identify any opportunities for streamlining, any inefficiencies that are happening. It'll help you figure out how to make your business more scalable by having these, you know, defined, streamlined systems within your business first. It'll help you give consistency on the experience that your clients are getting if you have a defined process.

And it also will help you reduce your mental load and stress by understanding your workflows and your processes and your systems before you start implementing the software, because the software can make it much more complicated. At the same time, it may be making it more simple because the software might have a lot of options that maybe you didn't consider or you weren't sure you needed.

So what are some signs that your business is actually ready for software in addition to the systems that you already have? Well, first, you want to make sure that you have systems in place. You want to make sure that you understand how clients are coming to you, what you're doing once they actually do come to you, what your processes for managing the client experience and how you're off boarding your client.

So what does that look like when someone is finished working with you? What does that process look like? You want to make sure that all of those systems, those processes are in place so that they're defined because that will help you decide which system Sorry, which software you actually need in your business because you'll better understand how you want it to work, how your brain works, how you think through things, and that will help you pick the right system for you.

She was really struggling with Helping them to understand the urgency behind some of the requests that she was giving And so she knew she wanted a project management software, but she just wasn't sure which one she wanted And so we and you know through our coaching sessions actually sat down and did Trials of four different project management systems while she kind of figured out.

Okay, this is working for me I don't like this. I don't like how this one looks these colors are weird, you know, whatever it was that she didn't like about the system or it wasn't the way her mind worked. So even though these project management systems all generally work the same, they do have different quirks and different ways of looking at the information and different setups.

So it's important that you understand how your mind works, what your processes are, how you want to manage information and handle information. If you have other people in your business and how they need to handle and see the information, you have to have all of that knowledge and all of that sort of documented before you can start deciding on a piece of software to add to your business so that it actually fits in with the way your business runs and what you actually need it to do.

So when you're picking software for your business, there's some tips that you can keep in mind when you're, you're starting to look at them and consider them because there's a lot of options out there is even for the same thing, there's dozens and dozens of different tools out there that kind of do the same thing.

So, that may mean using a Zapier integration, that may mean, you know, uh, uh, already Um, built in option for the tools to connect to each other. Um, you know, so just make sure that the tools align with each other and that they don't, um, you know, that they're easy to connect. 'cause you're always gonna be wanting, be passing information between different tools.

You wanna make sure that they can talk to each other somehow. You wanna make sure that your tool that you're implementing or your software solves a specific problem. So. So, don't look at these, you know, all encompassing, all inclusive tools that solve every problem. if you don't understand the problem that you're trying, the specific problem that you're trying to solve.

So it's not the right fit for me. So you want to make sure that you're understanding the specific problem that you want to solve. this tool to solve for you so that you can go in with a specific goal in mind when you start using it. And you also want to consider the learning curve and team adoption.

Not every tool is the right tool for you and for your team. I really love Notion, but I know that for most of my clients who are very new to technology, they're not super comfortable with it. I know that Notion has a pretty steep learning curve because it's based around databases and it's all about building things and customizing.

But for someone who's not as comfortable with technology, Notion is not necessary. It's not necessarily going to be the right fit. Something like Trello might be a more, uh, something like Trello might be an easier adjustment for them because it's a lot simpler or something like Asana, like, you know, my other client chose.

And then finally be really cautious of those shiny new tools that are always coming out because they're always coming out with new tools and new software. So you want to make sure that you're choosing the tool that's right for you and not just because oh it's new and it's shiny and they're having a deal and a discount.

Make sure that you're really investigating the tool. Do a free trial if you can. Make sure that it's the right tool for the system within your business and that it's the right tool for you and the way that you work and the way that your team works.

What are you doing to actually bring in clients, bring in the money, bring in that income that you need to then build your business and build your team. I think that it's really important for new business owners to have some systems within their business and have processes within their business, but I don't think that they need to go out and immediately buy the shiny new tool as soon as they start and start focusing on building that out as opposed to focusing on the things that are actually going to generate income and generate clients.

I made this mistake when I started my business. I am a systems person, so I was really excited whenever I would find a new tool. And I would spend hours, you know, building out different things in my CRM and Dubsado. I would spend hours building out things in Notion. Even now I still sit and spend hours, I think I spend all day Monday, building out some automations in Zapier, because I really wanted to make my client onboarding a little bit more seamless.

And these are the tools that I could implement to actually help that process. So as a new entrepreneur, really focus on the systems and not the tools and not the software. Have the money coming in, have a couple clients going, and then you can start figuring out, okay, how do I operationalize this? How do I implement a tool for this?

I do have a free gift for you that you can start to use that to streamline your business. It's seven days to streamline your business. It's a free email course. You can get that at the show notes in the description below or at laringlund. com slash resources. You can go and start that email course. It will help you understand the operations of your business and then help you find ways It's to streamline it more, automate it more, maybe add tools where it's right.

So laringlund. com slash resources. Before we wrap up, here's your action item for the week. I want you to take five minutes right now to create an email template message for you to send frequently in your business. This could be a client follow up, a meeting recap, or a project update if you have, you know, project based clients.

You can leave space for customization because you're going to have to, but by having the basic template ready, it will really save you time and mental energy in the future. You can put it right in a word document just to kind of keep it for the future or a notes app like me. I keep my whole life in the notes app, whatever you have to do to kind of keep it to the side, but I would really recommend that's your your homework for this week is to go and write out at least one email template that you're sending frequently.

Give it a try. Let me know how it goes. You can share your results with me on threads. I'm at Lauren G consulting on threads. I'll put a link in the show notes for that as well. And I would really love to hear from you. How is it going? How is your email template working out? What kind of time is it saving for you?