Working Smarter, Not Harder - Flipping the 80/20 with Natalie Franke

Working yourself to the bone in your business? Struggling with staying on top of #ALLTHETHINGS? Feel that you have to go at it alone in order to get things done? As entrepreneurs, we tend to want to control everything and fail to simplify our process in fear of losing that control. In order to grow and scale a business, it is important to learn to let go, delegate, and spend your time in places that you perform best and matter most. On top of that, your time should be dedicated to things that bring you joy! Long gone are the days where we have to be a slave to our business in order to achieve results. Time is a limited resource we cannot buy and so learning to work SMARTER, not harder is incredibly crucial.

Today’s guest believes in systemizing and streamlining your business in order to generate success. Natalie Franke is a photographer, co-found of The Rising Tide Society, and head of Community over at Honeybook. She knows a thing or two about productivity, efficiency, and making things happen. She shares how the incredible CRM system, Honeybook can facilitate this journey in any creative business. From workflows, to templates, to payment scales; Honeybook does it all so that you can build a branded platform that is going to automate, manage your projects, create an elevated client experience, and set you apart!

WHAT IS YOUR WHY?

Why did you get into business? What is your purpose for what you do? Simply put, what is you WHY? I guarantee it wasn’t to send contracts and payments, worry about cash flow, and always feel like you’re falling behind. Most entrepreneurs today get into business to pursue a passion but end up spending 80% of their time working IN the business and only 20% of the time getting to do what they love. Pretty disappointing, right? Time is our most precious currency and successful entrepreneurs understand this truth and hire, outsource, or automate as many things as possible to avoid spending time doing these things. Instead, they invest in leverage their time doing what they do best...working in their zone of genius. In order to get to this level, we need to switch from a solopreneur mindset to a CEO mindset in order to scale our business. Growth will only come when we get comfortable with learning to delegate, hire help, relying on technology for support, and maximizing the time spent doing the things that we love and matter.

WHAT IS A CRM?

What is a CRM
- 1) simplify (their processes), 2) serve (their clients), 3) sustain (their ideal lifestyle), in order to grow their business
- HoneyBook is a business management platform helping creative small business owners simplify their business process from first inquiry to booked so they can grow their business and enjoy the freedom of being their own boss
What does this look like?
- Workflows AKA Automating + templatizing — If you do something frequently (write the same email, send the same type of document, follow a certain process) it should be templatized and automated.
  - Biggest concerns: Control over the process, your brand, etc.
- Client Experience — ensuring that inquiries are responded to as quickly as they are submitted; speed is everything when it comes to booking a client and establishing trust (communication)
  - Online payments are a must — reducing the pain of the payment experience builds trust and improves perception
  - It’s about making the process easier for CLIENTS to remove the feeling of transactionality from the experience (relational > transactional)
  - Cash flow — goodbye to the days when you need to stick to a deposit and secondary payment structure; the beauty of using a CRM is that you can build out payment plans simply to support client needs or combat seasonality in your business
  - Payment reminders go out automatically so that you also get paid on time without having to worry about a thing

Concluding with talking about WHY again… and the fact that when we optimize our business to be as efficient as possible… it gives us FREEDOM to lean into what we love and spend more time with the people that matter to us.

PEEK INSIDE THE EPISODE

[11:15] Natalie Franke explains her first time realizing that when you start a business you spend only 20% of your time actually doing your passion, with 80% of your time spent running the business side of things. “Time is your most precious currency!”

[15:50] Have you been setting yourself up for success when it’s time to scale? Those seasons of growth will pop up and your business will grow. Resentment can build if you do not have a network of support via systems, manuals and community.

[21:15] Honeybook is a must have tool, useful for setting yourself apart from competitors, handling customer relationship management, taking payments and more.

[32:40] Taking the time to set up systems and putting things in place saves you tons of time, which in turn saves you money. A good customer relationship management tool is life changing and Natalie explains how.