Getting the right systems in place will help your business run like a well-oiled machine.

As a solo business owner there are about a million things you need and want to get done in a week but obviously there's only so much time in every day. So how can you make sure you get the most out of the time you have available for your business? Today I'm sharing three awesome things I use to keep my business running smoothly.

1/ Batching

Batching just means choosing a task that you have to do regularly and doing a lot all at once. For example, I batch videos for my business — I am do a whole lot of videos in one go so that I've got content every week for my blog and for my subscribers, and it means that I can do my hair, and my makeup, and have a few different wardrobe changes, but that it gets done in one go so I don't have to be doing it every single week. It makes life a lot easier. Batching when you're blogging is a really good idea as well.

I also write my blog posts in batches. Every year I build an Excel spreadsheet with each month of the year ahead and I give myself some key topics. So I might have business branding, or systems, or building community, and then I brainstorm different headings that I could write about about that topic. Then when I'm in a creative mood I can write out a bunch of posts and schedule them. Batching like this means that you've got content there ready so that you don't have to be writing if you've got other things to do, or you're just not feeling it.

Think about the things that you do in your business that you do on a regular basis that you can potentially be batching, like processing receipts, replying to emails, or writing media releases and give it a go.

2/ Systems

Having clear systems in your business can make like a lot easier and keeps things running smoothly.  These are basically tools (free or paid) and processes that you use to achieve an outcome and they're the same every time. One example is 17hats, the CRM system I use. If anybody contacts me on my website it automatically goes into my CRM system as a lead, and I can easily create projects for those people if they become clients of mine. I can also send them out automated questionnaires, quotes, invoices, contracts, and so on. It's all in a workflow within 17hats, so all I have to do is add clients to the workflow and the system takes care of everything by itself. I can obviously check it at each stage, but by creating systems like this in your business you lessen your workload, and it will make life a lot easier for you, and for you to track what's going on, as well.

See what processes you work through on a regular basis for clients (or even for yourself) that you find tedious, hard to manage, or hard to get information out of, and see how you can streamline those things and what tools might help.

3/ Outsourcing

I'm a big fan of outsourcing. It's really important for you to work to your strengths, the things that you shine at, that bring you clients, make you money, make you happy. If you're always doing things that you find frustrating or that you don't want to do, then you won't produce great work. For example I hate doing worksheets and admin, so I outsource those things to a virtual assistant. When I need worksheets for my eCourse I send through the content in a Word document and she puts the content on beautiful worksheets for me. Now I could do that and it'd be fine, but they wouldn't look as good because that's where she shines (whereas I want to crawl in a hole rather than put those things together).

Spend some time articulating what you do well an outsource things that you don't — it'll give you more time to do what you shine at, which hopefully brings more business, and other people can do an awesome job at the things you don't like to do.

If you feel like you've got a bit much on your plate at the moment, those are my 3 recommendations for streamlining your business: batching, systems, and outsourcing.