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As a business owner, one of the most important things you can do is to streamline your operations. By automating certain tasks and processes, you can save time, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. This is where Dubsado comes in. Dubsado is a business management tool that allows you to automate your workflows, from lead capture to payment collection. In this post, we’ll explore how you can use Dubsado to streamline your business and boost your productivity.

Step 1: Set Up Your Account
The first step to automating your business with Dubsado is to create an account. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to set up your account by adding your business details, branding, and payment gateway information. Dubsado makes it easy to customize your account to match your brand, so your clients will recognize your business whenever they interact with you.

Step 2: Create Workflows
The next step is to create workflows for your various business processes. Workflows are a series of steps that you can set up to automate tasks such as sending invoices, scheduling appointments, and following up with clients. Dubsado has pre-made templates for common workflows, or you can create your own custom workflows to fit your business needs.

Step 3: Automate Your Processes
Once you’ve set up your workflows, it’s time to automate your processes. Dubsado allows you to automate tasks such as sending emails, creating invoices, and generating contracts. You can also set up automatic reminders to follow up with clients or send payment reminders. With automation, you can save time and ensure that your clients receive the information they need in a timely manner.

Step 4: Use the Client Portal
Dubsado also offers a client portal, which allows your clients to access their invoices, contracts, and other documents online. This makes it easy for them to sign contracts and make payments, without having to go through multiple steps or send emails back and forth. The client portal also allows you to communicate with your clients directly, so you can answer any questions or address any concerns they may have.

Step 5: Track Your Progress
Finally, it’s important to track your progress and see how your automated workflows are working. Dubsado offers a dashboard that allows you to track your leads, payments, and projects. You can also see how your clients are interacting with your business and where you may need to make adjustments. By tracking your progress, you can continue to improve your processes and ensure that your business is running smoothly.

In conclusion, Dubsado is a powerful tool that can help you automate your business processes and streamline your operations. By setting up your account, creating workflows, automating your processes, using the client portal, and tracking your progress, you can save time, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. With Dubsado, you can focus on growing your business and providing the best possible experience for your clients.

Want to learn more about how to take your Dubsado game to the next level?
Check out my freebie: How to onboard your clients in your sleep here

When thinking about what business tasks and processes to automate, there are a number of key considerations. Some business tasks are much better suited to automation than others. Having said that, partial or full automation can save a lot of time and money, especially if you find tools that suit your needs and which are free or affordable.

 

Why Automate?

If you are running your own business, there are never enough hours in the day, or a large enough budget to hire help in order to get it all done. Automation provides cost and time savings. In some cases, it will enable you to do things you would simply not be able to do unless you had software to help you.

 

What Tasks Are Best Automated?

The best tasks to automate are standard ones with clear steps and rules to follow, with few variations. For example, email marketing is a great way to make sales and build relationships with your target audience, but you would never be able to build, grow, maintain a list, and market to it, if there weren’t email marketing platforms such as MailChimp and AWeber.

This brings us to another reason for certain tasks to become automated: scalability. You need automation in place that will support your business’s growth over time. The larger the number of customers, the more work there will be. If a task is holding you back in terms of the time it takes or how often you have to do it, because your sales and marketing efforts are growing, chances are it might be worth putting on your list of tasks to consider automating.

 

Time Management

If a task is time-consuming every day, you should try to automate it. If it takes up your time or that of your employees when there are really more important things you should be doing, it’s time to automate. Things like database management and customer service can usually be streamlined with the right software. This can free you up for relationship building with your target audience.

 

Simple to Complex Tasks

As long as a task can be broken down into clearly defined steps, chances are there is a way to automate it. The more complex the task, the longer the set-up time, but the greater the time savings.

 

Working around the Clock

An online business does not work 9 to 5. It is open 24/7/365, in every time zone, all at the same time, even during holidays, your vacation days, and times when you are asleep or sick. Automation is the only way to keep the work going and the profits flowing.

 

Maintaining Standards

If you set up your automation correctly from the beginning, you will be relying less on individuals’ performances, so things will be more standardized and professional, and your business will have a more stable foundation for growth.

 

Fewer Issues with Outsourcing

If you want to grow your business, you will usually have to hire workers or outsource tasks. Human beings can be unpredictable, unreliable and even dishonest. Automate as much as possible, and you will not have to hire so many freelancers to tackle your daily chores such as social media interactions.

 

Better Record Keeping

In most cases, the automated software you use will keep a record of everything that has been accomplished. You should then be able to track the metrics about the work, such as email marketing via your autoresponder. In this way, you can see your results and improve upon them.

 

Use these tips to help you decide which business tasks to automate. If you plan well and choose the right tasks, it will save you both time and money.

If you are a small business owner, you know there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. If you don’t have a budget to hire freelancers to help you, your next best solution is to automate as many of your processes as possible. Here are a few suggestions.

 

Content Creation

You will always need new content for your website in order to attract more traffic and customers. Using blogging software like WordPress (rather than traditional HTML) for your website means you can upload your content ahead of time, set the date you want it published, and the program will do the rest. You can upload about a month’s worth of content in one day if you are really organized, freeing your time up for your many other tasks.

 

Email Marketing

Similarly, automate as much of your email marketing as possible by using your autoresponder. Load up each list with great content that will be sent out to each new person on your list. Add more content as they continue on your list. As long as your prospects hear from you at least once a week, you will stay on their radar and can continue to build a relationship with them.

For more newsworthy items, use the calendaring feature in the Broadcast area to load the emails and have them sent out at the right time. Also, save all of your most successful past promotions and reuse them regularly. For example, once Christmas is over, assess your metrics and copy the top-selling emails. Copy them and edit as needed, then queue up for next year.

 

Social Media Cross-Promotions

A lot of programs now have social media sharing built right in. For example, if you publish a new broadcast email, it can also be posted to your Facebook and Twitter accounts if you wish. Log into your social media accounts first, then activate the robots to connect accounts.

If you are using WordPress, there are plugins that will allow you and your visitors to share the information with others with just a click. Go to your plugins tab to look for AddtoAny Share.

 

Zapier.com

Zapier allows you to link up many of your apps so that a particular event will trigger one or more other incidents that can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your business. For example, imagine you receive a payment via PayPal. You could set the email sent to your Gmail account to file the message in your Google Drive.

Zapier connects a wide range of apps. Start with the apps you use most and see their various pre-set suggestions to determine if any will be useful for your business.

 

IFTTT.com

IFTTT stands for IF This, Then That. It is similar to Zapier and very easy to use. As the name suggests, if this happens, then that should happen. If you publish a new article at your site, for example, it should be promoted at your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

 

Customer Service

You can set up your customer service emails with auto-replies, so people feel you care about their communications. You could also use a portal like Zendesk.com with frequently asked questions (FAQs) so your customers don’t have to wait for a basic answer and you don’t have to spend so much time giving them.

Use these tips to automate the most time-consuming processes in your business, so that you are freed up to concentrate on the tasks that no-one else can do.

There are a number of common mistakes small business owners make when they start thinking about trying to automate some of their business tasks. Automation can save time and money, and free up your resources so you can do other things, but only if you proceed slowly and sensibly. Here are seven mistakes to watch out for.

 

1. You Don’t Have a Plan

If you are going to automate a task, you need to have a plan for automating it. First, pick a task that is taking up a lot of time. Start by breaking it down into steps that are reproducible. Then begin looking for technical solutions that can help get the task done.

 

2. You Haven’t Done Enough Research

You might be so desperate to automate that you haven’t done the research to find the right tool for the job. Consider at least two or three solutions and weigh the pros and cons based on the time it takes to set up and maintain it, training, and costs.

 

3. You Don’t Use the Tool to Its Full Potential

Some tools are more robust than others and offer a number of different features and opportunities for growth. Once you have got your automation set up, look under the hood a bit more to see what other time-saving and money-saving features it offers.

 

4. You’re Using Too Many Tools

Some business owners use a range of free tools without always being clear about what role they have to play in the overall growth and success of their company. If you are using more than one tool to do the same task, it might be time to narrow down your options and stick to one. It will streamline things and not put so much of a demand on your time in terms of learning new interfaces and so on.

 

5. You’re Scared to “Let Go”

Some business owners micromanage and are real control freaks when it comes to running their business. You might be hesitating to automate your business because you don’t want to let go of the task. You get nervous and feel as though things are going to go beyond your control.

A more realistic view is that you are in control because you will be setting up everything yourself from scratch, and monitoring it from time to time just to make sure everything is running smoothly. Once it is automated, you won’t have to worry as much about not having the time to pay attention to the task, or of making a mistake. You also won’t need to worry about outsourced workers doing anything you don’t wish them to do.

 

6. You’re Scared of Technology

With so many tools on the market, it is easy to get overwhelmed by your number of choices. It is also easy to become intimidated by a new program and struggle to learn it in order to get the best use out of it.

Fortunately, many tools are free, or offer a free trial. You can then try before you buy and get a sense of how easy the tool will be to use, and how good the reporting is so you can track your results. Aim for the most popular software in its class, and chances are you will find a tool that will prove invaluable for the automation and growth of your business.

 

7. Trying to Do Too Much at Once

Focus on automating one task at a time, then move on to the next item on your list.

 

Avoid these mistakes that others have made before you, and you’ll save yourself both time and money.  And don’t be afraid of asking for professional assistance.

Being a business owner and a traveller is, sometimes, not an easy thing! It could be easy to get distracted by your travels or not having the proper tools to perform all the tasks you need. Especially when you’re working from a coffee shop, library or even an airport. Of course, we think that getting some help during that time to make sure your business is under control is your best idea; but if getting a VA is not an option this time; these apps will help you to do your job a bit easier:

 

Currency converter:

Travelling overseas can be a bit tricky sometimes. Currencies are not an easy thing to handle when you get to a new country… until you get this app!

This fantastic app will do the entire job; it will show you the exchange rate of up to 15 currencies at the same time on your screen and if you want to do some math you can use the built-in calculator.

The best part: It’s free and you don’t need an Internet connection to use it! How great is that?

 

Google Keep:

This one is an easy and powerful to do list and notes app. Why? It allows you to link your Gmail account to get email notifications and reminders and you can have shared lists with friends or your team/staff. You can also have audio notes and pictures as reminders! Of course this is a free app as well.

 

Camscanner:

Do you need to send some documents to a supplier or sign an invoice and send it back? No worries, this app helps you do a professional job on the road.

You may wonder, why using Camscanner instead of just taking a picture? Easy, you are not only able to crop your picture in a fantastic way with the document in a great quality to read and print, but also they have a very useful search feature. For example, by entering “I like eating cake” in the search box, all pictures containing the text “I like eating cake” will be listed. You don’t have to dig out the entire contract you scanned or that Italian restaurant menu for Fridays nights.

Other cool features:

– It allows you to convert your pictures into PDF

– Magic colour: for coloured documents, rich and sharp colour ensured.

– B & W: removes shadows, the best for printing and faxes.

– Grayscale: preview document as printed.

– Lighten: add some fill-in lights for pictures taken in insufficient light.

 

Timebuddy:

This is also a tricky one. Missing meetings just because we got confused with the time zones isn’t funny. This app will help you with this issue, just by selecting the cities you need.

The free version allows you to see 4 cities at the same time in your dashboard. This is one of the great apps for business!

 

Mobills:

Are you good with money while you travel? This app can help you and your business to control your expenses. This app has calendars, charts and several tools to make it easy. You can upload all the invoices you get, sort them by day, month or even locations. Also, they have a Travel mode to assign expenses to a specific trip and have your bills more organized than ever. And of course, you can sort your bills in different categories such as clothing, education, food and drink, rent, shopping and much more. All these features are in the free version, can you imagine all it can do on the PRO one?

A great app to keep you organized not only when you travel but also in your everyday life!

 

Google Translator – Speak & Translate:

These great apps for business are useful, but… Are you travelling to an exotic country and have no idea how to ask for a print service or a toilet? No worries, you can ask for your favourite dessert, attraction or that souvenir you wanted so bad from now on. You can use it on your computer here.

Also, if you have iPhone you can try Speak & Translate, where you don’t even have to write! Just talk and wait for your lovely assistant to talk in the language you want. You choose what language to speak in and what language it translates to. With a press of a button the languages flip so the person you talk to get translated.

It seems like everyone and their mother (and grandmother!) has a website these days.  That’s why it’s important to be able to build a quality website to help promote your business and sell your products.  Here are ten quick tips to help even a novice build a quality site.

 

1.  Know your audience.  If you watch the latest hot cartoon and then watch reruns of shows from the 60s, you’re probably going to see not only commercials for different products, but they’re going to be totally different styles.  In the same way, a website whose audience is older shouldn’t have things that will appeal to teens or a younger generation. Knowing your audience is the first step to meeting their needs.

 

2.  Keep it simple.  Simple websites are not only easier to navigate, they also load faster so your customers don’t get frustrated waiting to find what they’re looking for.

 

3.  Ask for feedback.  Always have a way for your users to send you feedback.  This will help you make changes your customers want to keep them coming back, and even recommend you to their friends.  You can put feedback boxes or questions on different pages, or you can add a message board with a feedback section.

 

4.  Don’t branch out too much.  It’s best to focus your website on one area or product.  If you offer several different products or types of products, you need to have several websites to promote them so visitors aren’t bombarded with things they don’t want.

 

5.  Be consistent.  Make each page the same format, font, color, etc to keep visitors from getting confused at where to find what they’re looking for.

 

6.  Be readable.  Not only do you need a font that’s readable and colors that don’t hurt the eyes, but it’s also extremely beneficial to have correct spelling and grammar.  Customers aren’t likely to stick around if they think you’re lazy or don’t know what you’re talking about.

 

7.  Add RSS feed.  Many people keep themselves updated by using RSS feeds instead of checking websites constantly.  By adding a RSS feed, you can not only catch these users, you can also tailor feeds specifically for their interests.

 

8.  Keep it current.  Besides the danger of having out-of-date information, pages that are updated more often get visited more often, and give you a better chance of keeping more customers.

 

9.  Make things easy to find.  Everyone wants things fast, and adding a search box or an easy site map will help them find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

 

10.  Have fun.  Ultimately, if you do everything right, but your site is just like every other well-made site, you still may not be able to make money off it.  Your site needs to have something unique that reflects who you are and what you can provide.

 

Keep in mind you don’t have to do it yourself, you can always hire a website developer and give instructions of your expectations and what you’re looking for.

Amazon Associates is one of the most popular affiliate programs online because it is so easy to get started and Amazon is such a popular shopping site. Join the program, create links, and you will be helping customers access millions of hot products in exchange for a commission.

 

Program Changes

When you join the program, you will be asked to give an email address. It might be a good idea to create a separate one from your regular address because you will get regular emails from Amazon about payments, changes to the program, special offers and bounties, and more. There are many ways to earn with Amazon, and taking the time to read these emails as they come in can help you make the most of the opportunity.

 

Recent Changes You Might Wish to Know About

The biggest change has been the closing down of the Associates stores. You used to be able to create an entire store with affiliate links in just a couple of clicks that you could then give the URL to in order to drive traffic. Unfortunately, Amazon’s research showed it was one of the least successful money-making parts of the site, so they have phased it out.

 

Bounties

Bounties are a flat rate commission when you get people to sign up for certain parts of the site. The newest bounty is $3 per person who signs up for the baby registry.

 

Amazon Channels

Amazon Channels is for Amazon Prime members. Prime members pay an annual fee and get various perks, such as free standard shipping, eBooks, audiobooks, original Amazon TV shows, and more. The annual fee is currently $99, so you would get a bounty on everyone who signs up.

As part of the Prime service, Amazon has been adding TV channels, so you might no longer need cable if you subscribe to certain stations and watch the shows on your computer or other devices. Prices vary depending on the channel. Channels include HBO, Showtime, Starz and more. You would also earn commission for new registrations.

 

The Influencer Program

Many associates have a website or blog and post their affiliate links there. But not everyone has a site or blog, or wants to go to the time, effort and expense of creating one. Blogging requires a lot of content to be produced on a regular basis as a context for selling affiliate products. For example, if you were running a cooking-related blog, your articles and recipes would be the perfect places to put links.

The Influencer program opens up affiliate marketing to people who have no site or blog, but are active on social media.

Influencers across any category can participate in the program. They must have a YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook account to qualify. Amazon will look at the number of followers you have, and the degree of engagement you get from your posts. Above all, they will be looking at the type of content you post at your account, and how relevant it is to Amazon customers.

For example, if you write a lot about pets and make recommendations often for the best pet products, and get a good response from your target audience such as likes, comments and shares, you will probably be a good fit for the program.

Whether you’re a WAHM (Work at Home Mom) or employed outside of the home, being a good manager of your time is paramount. You want to be able to plan out your day effectively to accomplish what needs to be done. This is necessary to ensure no important details fall through the proverbial cracks.

If you work outside of the home you’re probably armed with a day planner or agenda of some kind. You know when you need to be in meetings or when the best time is to make phone calls. You know when your co-workers need you the most, and when you can take your lunch break and run quick errands.

As a parent, you probably have everyone’s activities and appointments marked on a calendar in a public location. This permits planning around soccer practice and orthodontist appointments. Your routine is set chores and errands. You know when is best for planning outside activities. You know when the kids get home from school and when the baby needs her nap.

If your office is in your home, time management takes on a whole new meaning. Not only do the previous tasks apply, you now need to use some time management skills to find that perfect balance between work and household tasks, caring for children, maintaining a relationship with your partner – and at some point in the mix you need to take care of yourself.

By considering some effective time management skills, you can have them lead you through your day. You will have the knowledge you need to keep you from forgetting children at soccer practice and showing up for a dentist appointment two hours earlier than needed. Here are some tips:

 

* Set a schedule – By creating a schedule you have the most important item already taken care of. Knowing in a glance what you need to accomplish is the most important thing you can do to keep track of your family while remaining as productive as possible.

 

* Choose office hours, and spread the word – This is a great way to prevent family and friends from wanting your time when it’s not ideal for you. Let them know they are important to you, but outside of your office hours is best for you.

 

* Schedule your day with the kids in mind – When your children are young enough to be taking naps, this becomes your prime work period. Chores such as dishes or sweeping the floors can be done when little ones are awake. Get as much work done as possible during naptime. Learn to multitask by throwing a load of clothes in the dryer or getting supper started too.

 

* Schedule regular breaks and spend some time with the children – It is important not only for your children but for you as well. Go for a walk, or sit and play at the sandbox with little ones. Show them that although you work from home, they are still most important.

 

* Write a to-do list – Put the most urgent items at the top of the list and work down from there. The important business work will be done first, and cleaning your closet can be done another day.

 

Take time for yourself. You’re still only one person. Life happens whether your work is done or not. Run yourself a bath, grab a good book or just sit with your husband for a bit. After all, he’s the one you are going to receive the most help and encouragement from, so these little gestures will let him know how much you appreciate it.

Being a good decision maker can help you in business and life. It’s been said that highly confident people make decisions clearly and stick to them rather than changing their minds or being indecisive.

And even if decision making doesn’t come naturally to you, it is a skill which can be built on. Here are a few tips to help you:

 

Start small. Even making small everyday decisions will help you accomplish the bigger goal. Small decisions such as what food to eat at a restaurant are not to be underestimated. A good way to start is the next time you’re eating out, look at the menu and decide what you’d like to eat. Then put the menu down and don’t change your mind. Don’t ask your companions what they’re having and base your decision on that – make the decision on your own and then stick to it.

Small steps like this can be empowering and help you to tackle the bigger decisions to come in the future.

 

Approach decisions logically. Many of us tend to make emotion-based decisions rather than logical ones. In business, this can spell disaster. A good way to help you approach decisions in a logical manner may be to write down a list of pros and cons.

Simply grab a sheet of paper and label one side pros and one side cons. Then list all the good and bad points of your choice. Logically think through your comments and then make your decision. This way you can leave emotions out of the equation and concentrate purely on the facts.

 

Cut yourself some slack. Making decisions is a skill which can be learned but even pros don’t always make the right choices. Realize that making decisions effectively takes confidence and is a great first step, but your decisions may not always be the right decisions. If you happen to make the wrong decision, give yourself a break and take comfort in the fact that you thought out your decision clearly and logically and made the best choice possible at the time.

 

Being a good decision maker takes time and practice. However, it’s a worthwhile skill to develop. Making decisions regularly may help build your confidence level and also help people know where they stand with you – two great entrepreneurial qualities.