5 Ways to Save Time in your Business Every Day
For a year in my web design business, I had a post-it note on my computer that said “work less + earn the same or more money.” It was a reminder that I needed to take care of myself, take breaks, and work smarter instead of spending 60+ hours a week in front of the computer like I did the year before. And while I still haven’t figured out the 4-hour workweek, I do work a more reasonable 30ish hours a week now, and my earnings have grown. I actively seek out ways to save time, while still providing an excellent experience for my clients. Here are some of the time-savers that have worked for me:
1. Email Templates
I love these. Is a lead not a good fit? I’ve got two versions of “no thank you” depending on what they are looking for and who I can recommend. Is a lead a potential fit? Then I send a link to book a discovery call with more info about the service they are interested in. I have about 15 templates set up so far, and every time I craft a unique email I think I may need to write again, I save it as a template so I can reuse it later. I’m a slow email writer, so this saves me at least 4 hours a week. A couple of my favorites? “No go, e-commerce”: I don’t like working on primarily e-commerce sites in Squarespace. This template lets them know I’m not the right person for the job and gives some potential recommendations for designers who love e-commerce work. “General services”: this is for people who contact me and say something like “I need help with my website. Can you help me?” I have a response that details my three types of services with pricing, links to the pages, and includes a booking link for a discovery call.
If you are using Gmail / Google Workspace, you’ll first need to enable templates by logging into your email then navigating to Settings > See All Settings > Advanced. Under Templates, select Enable.
When you compose a new email you can turn it into a template by clicking the 3 stacked dots at the bottom right, then selecting Templates > Save draft as template > Save as new template. You can have up to 50 total email templates.
2. Scheduling Emails
Sometimes I check my emails in the evening or on the weekend, but I don’t want to have to deal with replies until the next business day, so I schedule them to send the next day during business hours. It’s like a procrastinator’s dream! I think Austin Kleon put it best: “The problem with sending messages is that they’ll get answered with new messages. If I pick a time to write all my messages, but delay sending them, that buys me even more time to be blissfully unmessaged.” I’ve often found that by the time my reply of a “do you still need a hand with this?” is received, the person has already answered their own question. This one doesn't save me hours, but every little bit helps AND it’s a stress-reliever.
If you are using Gmail / Google Workspace, it’s as easy as choosing the dropdown arrow next to the Send button and then scheduling your email to go out later.
3. Acuity Scheduling
I’m grandfathered into a free Acuity plan, but Calendly also works well and has a free basic plan. When I have a potential lead, I send them a link to schedule a time to talk where they can choose an available time on my calendar - no more email back and forth about what day & time work. I also use this for booking my Squarespace Help sessions. I’d estimate this saves me 1-2 hours a week.
4. CRM Tool (Client Relationship Management) - HoneyBook
Before I invested in a CRM, I would email a proposal, then create pdfs of contracts, upload to HelloSign, set signature fields, email to the client, and also manually invoice each client. Now I use a CRM tool to automatically take care of those steps for me. One click of a button and I can send a beautiful proposal, contract, and invoice - all set up based on templates I create. These CRM tools also let you set up email templates and project workflows to save even more time.
I’ve tried a few of these and my favorite is HoneyBook (affiliate link). You can try it out for free, then save 50% off your first year with coupon code christyprice).
Not only does this save me 2-3 hours each week (and often more), but it also makes everything feel seamless on the client’s side. Plus, the HoneyBook interface is head and shoulders over its competitors in terms of ease of use AND it’s the nicest looking CRM I’ve tried.
Want a little help getting started? Grab my FREE HoneyBook Setup Checklist here (no strings attached).
5. Zapier
Zapier is a tool that lets different apps you use “talk” to each other and moves information between them automatically. You can use Zapier for a ton of different things (in this post, I show you how to submit a Squarespace form to two different email addresses using Zapier), but I mainly use it for accounting. I use Zapier to automatically pull in sales to my accounting software so I don’t have to manually enter transactions. Zapier works with both Stripe and Square and connects to Wave (the free accounting software I use). This saves about an hour a week of mind-numbing data entry.
Saving Time
These are the timesavers I use on a daily basis and they give me back at least 8-10 hours a week. Time I can spend working to earn more income OR hanging out by the pool with a good book. If you try one of these, I’d love to hear how much time you save!
