My name is Karen Carey and I am the asset that entrepreneurs need to successfully grow their business without stress.And what that means is I help entrepreneurs implement systems and automation because the only way I found that you can scale successfully is if you have systems in place and it doesn't necessarily have to be automated systems, but you do have to have systems in place systems help you to scale.

And today we're gonna talk about five systems that will help entrepreneurs to run their business with less stress so they can reclaim their time. So let's get started and excuse me, if I get a little bit excited about this, I honestly love systems and automation. So I am the asset that entrepreneurs and small business owners need to grow. Asset is an acronym for automation and system strategy expert and tactician. That means not only can I help you to iden systems, I can help you to implement and customize them so they meet your needs and I help small businesses to grow by helping them to generate realigned and optimized workflows. You can find me at structure over chaos. So what are those five systems that every female entrepreneur, regardless as to length of time you've been in business. What are those systems you need? You need a business management solution, which is synonymous with the CRM, which is client relationship management. You need an email marketing solution, an online appointment scheduling tool. You need content and social media management. And most importantly, you need to have financial systems in place so that you can receive your funds that your clients are paying you. And also so you can pay expenses and manage your money properly. So now we saw the five systems that every entrepreneur needs these serve two purposes. They're for client attraction and client retention.

So your CRM or your business management solution, that's gonna help you to attract clients as well as retain them because you get to stay in contact with your clients. You're uh actually going to track their contact information and you're gonna reach out to them on a regular basis so that you stay top finding with them. Your business management solutions slash CRM allows you to um keep track of the correspondence or the communications you're having with them so that each time you speak with them, you can follow up on a previous conversation or a previous email message. And that way you stay top of mind with them because each time you reach out to them, you can reference your past communication. You need an email marketing solution because one of the ways that we have found that is most effective for client attraction and retention is email marketing. Think about your inbox every morning. You are inundated with email messages because one, it's cost effective. Two, it works.

I can't count the number of times I've made a purchase because I clicked through on a link that was included in an email message. The good thing about email messaging, it allows people to read it at their convenience. So email marketing works. It is very cost-effective. It's time proven and tested. You also want to make it easy for people to schedule an appointment with you, please, if you have not done so, create an online appointment scheduler. If someone is in the middle of the night, thinking about a solution that you offer that they need, make it easy for them to schedule an appointment with you. You should also think about having at a minimum a landing page. If you do not have a website, create lead magnets, what are lead magnets? Those are things that are of value so much so that your ideal client is willing to give you their contact information in exchange for that document of value that you've created that also showcases you as the expert in your area. And of course, we would be derelict in managing our business if we didn't have financial systems in place. So all of these systems serve different purposes and they work individually. But together you have an entire system. So how do you put it all together?

Ideally, your ideal client is going to give you their contact information through a lead magnet or through communication with you. You're gonna enter that information into your CRM or your business management solution. You're going to send them email marketing to keep yourself top of mind and to provide them with content that shows that you are the expert in your area. You're going to create content for social media that's going to make you stand out and further prove to your ideal client that you are the person with whom they need to work. Because you are identifying and solving their pain points, you're going to have an online appointment scheduler.

So when they're ready to pull the trigger and work with you, they can easily and quickly schedule an appointment with you and then you're going to have a financial management system so that you can keep all of your finances in order you can collect payment that is due and you can also pay your expenses and then you can get dashboard glances at how you're doing in your business and whether or not you're on track to meet your goals.

So it all works together, they're all independent, but together, it gives you an entire system. So what should you do first if you can afford to do? So make sure you have a website. Why? Because most consumers start their research online, they're going to know everything there is to know about you before they even reach out to you. So make sure you have a website that they can easily find information. Try to think of this less is best. Do not write war and peace in your desire to tell your ideal client everything you can do for them. You want to use as few words as possible because most people don't read long passages. They're looking for keywords that are gonna stand out to them that's gonna solve their problems. So make sure the content that's on your website is relevant to their pain points. If you have them include reviews and testimonials, if you do not have them because you've not been asking for them, start asking for reviews, start asking for testimonials. Keep your site current. One of the things that I found that small business owners do is they will throw up a website and I'm using that word correctly. They throw up a website, there is a system to everything. Website development is a system.

But make sure if you have a website that your content is current, you don't want your clients coming back day after day and seeing the same content because then they're gonna think, well, they just put this up, they're not actually updating it. So keep your content current and updated at a minimum monthly. So what should you do first if you don't have a website and you don't have a landing page, consider starting a blog because you can start a blog without any money. Google makes it very easy for you to start a blog. A blog. Yahoo makes it very easy for you to start a blog. So you can start a blog without any money and you can blog about topics that relate to your area of expertise, which further showcases you as the expert in your area. If you write a blog a week, you increase your visibility. Why? Because Google loves fresh content. If you are writing a blog weekly, Google is going to allow you to rank higher in the search engines because you're creating fresh content and Google loves fresh content. If you write a blog a week, you can also share your blog on social media. If you do so, Facebook and IG will also allow you to rank higher in their search engines because they love fresh content. Fresh original content is the way to increase your visibility.

Writing a blog showcases you as the expert in your area, writing a blog about your ideal clients, pay points will keep them coming back to you because then they can see how you are the person that understands their needs and has a solution that will get them from pain to pleasure.

So what is this business management that I'm referencing? There are many and no one is better than the other. It's a matter of personal preference, but you can start by looking at all of them, all of these that are listed, have a trial test them to see which works for your lifestyle. Trello is not a true business management solution, but I've seen small business owners use it to do project management, client management, client communication so you can kind of make them all serve your needs, Asana and click up. Those are all project management tools, client management tools.

The good thing about all of them, you can share them with your clients so that you can have a one stop shop for communication. Now, true business management solutions are deso hubspot honey book 17 hats. All of those have trial versions and they all offer a complete method of managing your clients, your projects, your financials, your whole life. In essence, email marketing, select an email marketing solution for your email marketing. That could be mailchimp, which is the most common and the oldest constant contact convert kit flow desk active campaign, a Webber. Again, they all do the same things. So I can't say that one is better than the other. It comes to be a matter of personal preference and the size of your database will influence the pricing so that if pricing is a factor, then the size of your database will determine which of those will work best for your budget. You wanna use email marketing to make sure you're consistently touching your database. Gary Keller with Keller Williams Realty says that you should touch your database 33 times a year while that might sound excessive. I get an email every day from Macy's. I get an email every day from uh Louis Vuitton. I get an email every day from uh Whole Foods. So in essence, they're reaching out to me 365 times a day. So, one of the things I want you to consider is how you can do those touches.

These are examples, if you do a monthly newsletter, that's 12 times a year that you're reaching out to your database. If you do quarterly updates about things that are going on in your area, that's four times that you're reaching out to them. If you reach out and say happy birthday to everyone in your database, that's another time that you're reaching out to them. Happy anniversary, happy New Year. Happy Valentine's Day. You get the jest. You can find a reason every month to send an email message and you can quickly get to 33 touches. Just thinking outside of the box, social media management and content management is critical to your success today. If you don't have a social media presence, you're often overlooked.

And I will venture to say that your social media presence is more important now than your website. And the reason that I say so is because people will check your social media before they go to your website. So while it's important to have a social media presence on all of the social media cha uh channels, you don't have to be active on every platform, establish a presence and at least monthly create content, choose one or two platforms on which you will be consistent and post on those content content that solves the pain points of your ideal client.

So when you're identifying the type of content that you want to post, think about who you're trying to reach what their needs are, how you can solve those needs and create content that's going to help you to stand out to those people, you can curate content, meaning if you seek content elsewhere that you think will be useful for your ideal clients, create what we call a swipe file.

So you're gonna copy and paste that content into a word doc or a Google doc, make sure you include where you're getting it from because you wanna give attribution to that content. If it is not your content and then start planning how often you're going to post and show up. So if you're going to post three days a week, pick three days, post those three days, because what you're doing is showing your followers that you're consistent and that they can always come to your social media platforms on those three days and get fresh content. So don't overwhelm yourself trying to post seven days a week, just pick the number of days that you can post post consistently on those days with content that speaks to your ideal client. Make sure you have an online appointment scheduling tool, acuity calendly book like a boss or even Google calendar, makes it easy for you to communicate with your ideal clients. And it allows them to schedule an appointment with you when they are able to do so at a time that's convenient for them. So always think about making it convenient for your client.

Again, the business management solutions, they give you a one stop shop for managing your clients, your projects, your financials and some even include the online scheduling feature. You do need to have a financial management solution so that you can receive and collect funds that are due you and pay expenses. Quick books, quicken wave. Those are three that are commonly used for account management, financial management and then Stripe and Moon clerk are two that I use personally to send and receive funds from clients. So I know I've covered a lot. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and linkedin at Structure Over Chaos. If you want to reach out to me personally, I'm Karen at Structure Over Chaos. And yes, Nicole, I will uh actually post these slides so that they're available. Yes. Um Michelle, I'm going to have this whole slide deck available. So you can reach me at structure over chaos on all social media platforms and you can email me at Karen at Structure over Chaos. And thank you so much. I enjoyed this and I'd be happy to do a 15 minute discovery call with any of you. Just reach out to me and I'd be happy to help you in any way that I can. Thank you so much, ladies.