Before anything else, we want to give a big shout out to all the brave men and women who have served or are still serving in their country’s armed forces. Happy Veteran’s Day in the U.S. and Happy Remembrance Day in Canada! In this episode of the Social Media Marketing Happy Hour, Dawn and Traci get geeky talking about process maps and how they can make your life as entrepreneur a whole lot easier! Better listen to this wicked awesome episode from start to finish!
Question: Do you want to grow your business to the level that you don't have to be in it each and every day?
Sometimes when you're an entrepreneur, you don't always do things neatly and orderly since you tend to do things with your hair on fire, we know we’re guilty as charged! But in order to get to the next level, you need to slow down and create some structure around your business so you can work on the business and not in it.
Importance of Process Maps
Processes are what make your business go round and allow you to be super organized. When you have all your processes organized, you create a process map. Process maps are flowcharts that are actually a visual to-do list that shows you the step by step process you need to take to get to your end goal. It will also help you to create systems in your business. Not only that, you’ll be able to see what tasks can be delegated to other team members or an assistant. A process map will help you to work less.
There’s this ebook that Traci and Dawn have read that which has very much influenced them to be more active in mapping out the processes in their business. It is entitled Working the System by Sam Carpenter and it’s all about creating processes in your business. You should get a copy of it, especially if you think your work is all over the place, or you’ve been wasting time jumping from one task to another without a clear direction.
Organize and Delegate
We entrepreneurs more often than not, feel the need to do everything ourselves. Sometimes we think that we're the only ones who can do it, and we don't delegate the workload. When you do this, it's just like you have a job, and not a business of your own.
In our individual businesses we realized we were doing a lot of things that could have been easily delegated, just as long as we had a clear and correct process they could follow. For example, when you decide to hire a VA, you need to have a job for them to do and they need to know the clear process to get things done, right? With a mapped process in hand, you’ll be able to just give that and they’ll know what to do in a snap!
Another thing is if you start to get into some basic animation, autoresponder series, or advertising, you need to know what your flow is or the steps to take that will address these among other things:
- Where are you sending people at? What’s your landing page?
- What ads are those prospects going to be getting?
- What emails are they getting?
If you keep it all in your head, you'll most likely have a tangled web of mess and you'll also forget important things or crucial steps along the way. Yes, it’s not everybody’s piece of cake, but you have to do process mapping sooner or later, just don’t wait until everything is too messy that it overwhelms you.
Process Mapping Tools
Lucidchart is one of the most helpful tools we use to map out our processes. If you think something is out of order somewhere in your process, you can right away click and drag the shape and move it to another place or level. We suggest you take some time, grab a free Lucidchart account, and map out your user experience and sales funnel. You’ll be able to visually see what the entire process is.
Geru is another tool we use that has everything you need in a marketing funnel and allows you to flowchart your process and add your traffic sources. It will also tell you what needs to be set up using a step by step checklist. But what makes it extra special is that it also kicks out numbers. You be able to see how much you can expect to earn based on percentages. It will tell you how profitable it is for you in a monthly or yearly basis. And to be able to forecast the profitability of your overall funnel is just AMAZING!
If you want to dig in and learn more about that amazing tool, got to https://happyhourhangouts.com/geru.
If you want another set of professional eyes on your process, apply for a free business diagnostic session at https://happyhourhangouts.com/coaching.
Stay tuned to our next podcast!
