I’m a systems gal – that probably stems from my Type A personality, I’m also a 3w2 enneagram if that tells you anything! But either way, I thrive when I have systems and a schedule in place!
This is both true for life and my business. In the beginning stages of my business when I was juggling a full-time job, a new marriage, new home, and then babies – I knew that the only way that I had any shot of making this business dream of mine work was to have some sort of systems in place that kept me on track.
I’ll be honest – while I had “systems” in place in the beginning, they weren’t super pretty, but you know what, they worked at that season in my life. But as my business grew and thank the Lord technology grew, so many new opportunities opened up for systems.
And so my goal is to help you skip over those first few years of growing pains I had with my “systems” and talk to you about the systems that I use now.
Below are some systems I currently use in my stationery business to help keep me and my clients on track and a little bit about why I love them so much!
Dubsado
Dubsado is hands down the #1 tool that changed my business about 3-4 years ago. A very intuitive CRM that actually works for my stationery business. It helps me automate almost 85% of my business and keeps me on track without missing a beat on all of my projects. Want to see how I use Dubsado as a stationer, check out this free video tutorial!
Google Drive and DropBox
Google Drive and DropBox help me to keep a lot of my thoughts and files organized and easily accessible. I store all of my client work and files on DropBox so I can just work on them as normal, but instead of being saved on my computer, they’re saved in the cloud. I use Google Drive to house a lot of my day to day items such as to-do lists, email marketing, blog posts, etc. This is also an amazing tool if you have someone helping you with different tasks in your business so they can easily access files as well!
Flodesk
If you’ve been on my e-mail list for any length of time, you know that my love language is connecting with you in your inbox. I truly believe that is where the biggest impacts are made and are far superior to social media. I use Flodesk for my email newsletters and communications. I would like to think that if Dubsado and Showit had a baby, it would be Flodesk. It is super easy and intuitive to use and a designer’s dream! They are currently still in Beta and have ah-mazing pricing at $19/mo for life – no matter how big your list is or how many emails you send! Use the code CULTIVATEDCREATIVE for your 50% off! Curious how you can e-mail market as a stationer, check out this blog post!
Planoly
While I do believe that social media isn’t the end all be all anymore with these dang algorithms and “pay to play” tactics, I do believe it is important to still remain active on social media. While you may not be organically reaching your ideal client as much, I can guarantee you that when you do have ideal clients researching you, they will go straight to your social media channels before reaching out to you. I use Planoly to schedule out my social media content 1-2 months in advance. I will tweak and edit as it gets closer, but Planoly takes away the stress of posting daily or even a few times a week and struggling with what to post.
Quickbooks Online
My Quickbooks Online account goes hand-in-hand with my Dubsado account, I have them synced up so they talk to each other with my invoicing and payments and saves me so much time when it comes to balancing my books and paying taxes each month (I do still choose to do my own bookkeeping at this point!)
These are just a few of my favorite systems I use in my stationery business and why I love them so much!
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