5 counterintuitive strategies for simplifying and streamlining your online business

The biggest, most exhausting mistake I see online business owners making is this: Trying to do all the things, without any real idea of what they're trying to achieve. Doing more does NOT mean you're being productive if you're making things more difficult than they need to be.

In today's episode, I'm sharing 5 helpful ways to simplify and streamline your business, even though they may seem counterintuitive:

– Why understanding where you're putting your time and energy is the first step to change.
– How you can use today's tech and tools to make your life easier, not harder.
– Why getting really clear on your marketing and sales processes will help you to streamline what you can to lighten your workload.
– The importance of becoming really intentional about what you do AND what you don't do.
– How identifying the complications in your business that you don't love will help you to save a lot of time and energy.

 

 

Today I'm sharing five counterintuitive strategies for simplifying and streamlining your online business because I think when we've been running a business for a while, it can very easily grow into a little bit of a monster, let's say an untidy monster, where we just keep adding more and more and more without really stopping to think about whether we need the things that we are doing or whether we need to be doing more, and maybe we need to be doing less. 

So today, let's dive into the strategies to simplify and streamline your online business. 

 

1. Identify all of the areas that are taking up a lot of your time

So the first way to streamline your online business is to really identify all of the areas that are taking up a lot of your time or that are taking a lot of manual work from you and then start to put a strategy into place for how you will save time in each of these areas. 

Now, I know it feels really counterintuitive because it can feel overwhelming to do this kind of work. Like you're probably too busy to sit down and write down all of these areas that are taking too much of your time and to really look at all of these things on one piece of paper.

But overwhelm aside, you're not going to solve it all overnight. And if you can see where your time is going, then at least you can start to put a strategy into place to save your time and your energy. 

 

2. Lean on the tech systems and tools that are available

Now, when you think of simple, I know that tech and systems are probably the last words that come into your mind, and this is fair. You know, they can be really complex. If you don't know what you're doing.

But in reality, they've come a really long way since all of the clunky things that were available to us 10 years ago, you know? And right now, a really simple way that you can streamline things is, by putting in a scheduling system, a booking system. 

Like if you are going back and forth with a client trying to schedule their coaching calls, use Acuity or Calendly so that they can find a time that works for them in your calendar. You can even use these tools to collect payments so that you're not having to chase up those client invoices. 

 

3. Optimise your marketing and sales processes, streamline and automate as much of them as possible

Now, the biggest, most exhausting mistake that I see online business owners making is trying to do all of the marketing things without really any idea of what they're trying to achieve, posting all of the reels, engaging with all of the other accounts on Instagram, maybe even running Facebook ads, but with no real strategy behind it. And I could talk about the importance of strategy in your marketing and sales, literally until the cows come home. But this episode isn't about that. 

Now instead of trying to do all of the things, get really clear on the journey that you want somebody to take with your business. 

 

4. Become really intentional about what you do and what you don't do in your business 

The next strategy to streamline and simplify is to become really intentional about what you do and what you don't do in your business and doing less can feel really hard when you have spent most of your career thinking that your value is defined by how productive you are. And if you're an overachiever like me, I know, I feel you. And especially in business where the input that you are putting in directly can influence the end result.

Now, you can do anything, but you can't do everything. And you're actually more effective when you're doing less but with more focus and intention. So spending a little time each month or each quarter planning for things, what are your goals for this quarter? What actions do you need to take to get there? And all of this becomes even more important when you have a team. 

Otherwise, you run the risk of running your business really reactively, doing the things that pop up as the most urgent tasks rather than proactively and intentionally doing the things that move the needle and I know I'm guilty of trying to achieve all of the goals all at once.

 

5. What complications can you remove from your business? 

Now, when I say complications, what in your business feels a little bit icky or doesn't feel aligned? Like what is it that you dread doing? What have you been putting off for months? What has been sitting on your to-do list every day that you keep delaying? What is taking a lot of your time and energy that you don't love and that doesn't deliver a worthwhile return on the time and energy invested? 

 

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