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AMY PORTERFIELD: When people look from the outside in at my business, they see a four–day workweek, they see that I have confidence and clarity and control of my business, and some even say that I have the business they hope to have one day. Well, dear listener, that certainly didn't happen overnight. But over the years, through so much trial and error, I feel that I've cracked the code, and now I'm spilling my secrets on how I created this very business.
So if you want to know how to work on your business and not in your business, and you want to be clear about what needs to be done to move your business forward, you want to feel in charge, and you want to make sure you absolutely adore the business you created, then this episode is for you, because when it comes down to it, there is one thing that I know you need to move near the top of your list—heck, maybe even to the tippy top of your list of priorities—to begin shifting toward a business like mine. It's your systems and processes. And while that may not seem all that sexy, hold up, because I'm going to flip that script for you. And today I'm showing you just how important systems are, whether you're two days into being an entrepreneur or twelve years.
INTRO: I'm Amy Porterfield, and this is Online Marketing Made Easy.
AMY: People often ask me, “Amy, what's the secret to your success?” And I always say that I live and die by systems. In fact, without systems, I could not have a multimillion–dollar business and still have a life. I could not have the four–day workweek that we have now and actually make money when we're not working if I didn't have systems.
Forbes recently stated that when you create systems in your business, you can save up to two work hours per day. That's 240 hours a year. Can you just imagine if you worked two hours less a day right now? Just picture that. What would that look like in terms of your wealth and health and your mindset? It's a game changer. And that's why today's episode is so important, because I want you to imagine what it would feel like to no longer be chasing a never–ending to–do list, and instead, feel focused and confident as you create the business of your dreams.
Now, I bet I can take a guess as to why you're listening to this episode of Online Marketing Made Easy today. Maybe you want your workdays to feel like a well–oiled machine, but right now they feel messy and often chaotic. Or maybe you started an online business to create more freedom, but you're working way more than you ever imagined. You left your nine–to–five job only to find yourself exhausted more than you did at your J-O-B. That was me, for sure. Or maybe you're frustrated because you don't know what you should be working on in your business to move it forward and reach your goals. No matter why you tuned in, you're in the right place. I'm going to help you find solutions to what you're struggling with.
So here's what we're going to cover. I'll start by walking you through my ultimate virtual filing system, which literally saves me so much time. After that, I'm going to bring you through a little project–management magic and the number one communication tool that I swear by. Plus, we'll talk about the power of SOPs, standard operating procedures. I know. I know that sounds really not sexy, but I'll explain in detail why they're so important, and I can make them fun. From there, I'm going to show you three ways that you can scale your business, and these are the three ways that I've worked on over and over again in my business, and not only me, but my students. And then, if you love what you're learning in this episode, I'm going to tell you how to get your hands on a resource that I recently created that will bring this all to life for you.
So if you want to know my secrets for going from a constant state of busy business overwhelm to tons of organization, more free time, more money in the bank, and a four–day workweek, then let's do this.
All right, first and foremost, a big part of why you're here is because you probably want to know how my team and I made a four–day workweek successful, because I think any entrepreneur would be silly enough to say, “Nah, I like working five, six, or even seven days during the week.” Well, one of the biggest factors that has allowed us to move to a four–day workweek is, you guessed it, those systems I mentioned.
Now, side note. I recently did an episode about why I moved to a four–day workweek and what it looked like behind the scenes as we transitioned. But I'm talking about something totally different from that today. I'm talking about the systems that have allowed us to build the foundation to get to where we are not always in hustle mode.
But let me take a moment to set the scene for you. I started as an entrepreneur twelve years ago—wow, I'm dating myself—and now I have a team of twenty full-time employees. Mind you, that didn't happen overnight. And I want to be very clear that in order to make a four–day workweek successful or to have more space and flexibility in your business, you do not need a team that size. In fact, it would be much easier with a smaller team. I also believe you can be wildly successful with a smaller team. So just don't let my numbers throw you off. Regardless how big your team is, you need systems.
So what I started noticing was that when I looked around at my team and at my lifestyle, I thought, “Oh, my gosh. We need more intentional margin on our team.” And I learned that phrase first from Michael Hyatt and his team. They really value intentional margin, where there is time to rest and recharge so that they can do their best work when they are working. And so when I first heard that phrase, intentional margin, I thought, “Well, I want some of that.” I noticed that we were all burned out and tired, and we had way too many plates in the air. Essentially, we were doing too much, working late nights, and a few people on my team, including myself, were working weekends. And I thought, “Okay. We've got to do something about this.” And that's when I started playing with the possibility of a four–day workweek.
So I started to put the wheels into motion, and I realized that if we were going to make this work, we needed to double down on our systems so that our team of twenty could work a shorter week and still be profitable. Which leads me to where we are today, because I want to share with you some of those exact systems that we use.
Now, it might just be you and your business right now, but wouldn't it be amazing to work less and make a bigger impact with just a one–woman and a one–man show? I think yes. Or maybe it's you and a virtual assistant or maybe a few other part–time or full–time employees or a lot of contractors that you're working with. Doesn't matter. The point is, wouldn't it be amazing for all of you to have that extra time off so that you and your team, whatever that looks like, can come back more creative, more relaxed, and recharged?
For me, I wanted my team to work smarter, not harder. I wanted to escape the hustle mentality, and I knew that couldn't happen overnight, but I needed to take some big steps to start making it happen. I wanted us to be more productive, efficient, and creative, all while having more room to breathe and relax. I also wanted to be an example of what is possible because I wanted to show you how to do it as well. The systems we’re going to go over today are going to set you up to be more efficient, more efficient than you've ever been, actually. And trust me, through these, you'll start to see the possibility of working less.
All right. I know you've been waiting, so let's get to it.
System number one, the “never waste another minute searching for a Google Doc again” virtual filing system. I know that's a mouthful. Question for you. How many times have you hunted and pecked all over your computer, looking for a file? I mean, all of us have done that, right? In fact, I've done it so much and wasted so much time in the past that I thought, “Never again. This is ridiculous.”
So that's why I'm obsessed with Dropbox, because it saved me. Now, I'm going to show you how to use Dropbox to organize your business. And I know you already know about Dropbox, but you have to ask yourself, am I using it in the most efficient and effective way? Because not only have you probably spent hours searching for something, but what happens when you can't find it? Now you're starting from scratch. So a virtual filing system that runs like a well–oiled machine is a game changer.
So I've used Dropbox for years, and the way I used to use it looks very different from how I'm using it now. On my team, we have a rule that we store absolutely nothing on our desktops, because how are we supposed to work collaboratively if I need something that's on one of my team member’s desktop and I can't find it? Or what happens when that computer fully shuts down, and we can't get the files back, or worse yet, gets stolen? Nothing goes on a desktop.
So right about now, I want you to look, if you're around your computer, look at your desktop. Is it fully cluttered with tons of files just, like, speckled all over the screen? That's typically where most people are. Imagine if that was completely clean. Like, you had this, like, beautiful screensaver, and every time you came to your computer, you just took a deep breath. You felt calm. You were ready to dive into the day. All of those files all over your desktop are stress inducing. I know it seems like a little thing, but they are.
So one beautiful thing about Dropbox is that it allows you to keep all of your assets on the cloud. It also allows you to sync between computers and share all your assets easily with your team. Now, here's a tip for you solopreneurs. If you're a one–woman or a one–man show, learn this now and get in the habit of using this system so that when you grow your team, you'll be ready to teach them. You're already in the habit. It's never too early to implement this.
All right. So first, all assets go into Dropbox. So an asset is anything that's not a Google or Word document or spreadsheet. We're going to talk about where those go in a minute. Right now, I'm talking about video files, audio files, Keynote or PowerPoint files, images, PDF files, and website assets. When you organize all of this in Dropbox, it takes you literally five seconds to find anything.
So when I teach Dropbox, I always say that there are a few main levels. You have your folders and then sub folders and then sub sub folders. Typically everything is three layers deep and sometimes even four, five, six layers deep, depending on what type of folders that you actually need.
So let me give you an example from my own business. So the main level, which is, like, a main folder on Dropbox, would say something like Launches. And when you click on it, you can see all of the launches that I've done or I'm currently doing. From there, you click on the appropriate launch, which is the subfolder. So let's go with Digital Course Academy. From there we have sub sub folders for the Promo and the Training. If you click on either of those, we have all the years we've done a launch. So I could click on Training, and then March 2021. In that folder, you'll find folders for modules and bonuses and Facebook Lives and all that good stuff. Do you see how quickly this system would allow you to find what you're looking for? Like, we literally have a folder for Promo and a folder for Training for each of our launches so we can quickly get to what we're looking for.
Now, there are a few tips that I want to share with you when it comes to Dropbox. Number one, use one Dropbox account for your entire team. This is something I did many years ago, and it changed everything. So that means that everyone has the same log in, one team account, and we're all seeing the same thing. This leads me to number two: it's essential to create a set of guidelines for yourself and for your team for best practices. When you're setting these guidelines, think of how you want people to label the folders. Is there a naming convention for the files? How do you want the folders and sub folders to look in your Dropbox? Are there rules around deleting files? Things like that. And then number three, share files both internally and externally. So with Dropbox, you can share files internally with your team, but you can also share specific files with external contractors, without, of course, giving them the log in to Dropbox. So I love that I can send a contractor a link to a folder in Dropbox with everything they need to do their job. So that's another way we use Dropbox.
All right. It doesn't stop there, because I want to get into Google Drive. This is where you'll manage and organize your documents. I highly recommend Google Drive because it allows you to create content quickly, change it up at any time on any device, and you can collaborate and share with ease. I honestly don't know what we would do without Google Drive.
So here are some specific things that we put into Google Drive: blog posts when we're writing or editing, podcast outlines, course outlines, lead–magnet copy, video scripts, sales–page copy, ad copy, offer details of our products, email copy, and Q&A trackers for my live videos. Now, I absolutely love Google Docs, but it's very different from Dropbox in terms of what we store in it. However, how we use and organize it is similar to the folders, sub folders, and sub sub folders.
So, for example, if you were in Google Drive and went to our main folder for Digital Course Academy, you would select the year, so let's say 2020, and then in that folder you'd find more folders. So let's say you go into the Content folder, which is all about the DCA trainings, and let's say we need to build scripts. We put them in here for each module, and I can collaborate and edit them with my team.
You might have heard that you don't need Dropbox and that's because Google Drive will actually store assets as well as documents. And if you're just starting out, you might find the solution to be what's best for your business. However, I recommend separating them, especially if you plan to grow and scale in the future, which is why we're here, right?
So Dropbox has some features that we just talked about that really help you stay on track with managing and changing and deleting assets. They also have some benefits for synching and file sharing. And Google Drive doesn't have those same features. So I suggest you use both: Dropbox for assets, Google Drive for your documents.
So with that, I want to pause and remind you of just how important systems and processes are in your business. In fact, companies lose up to 20 to 30 percent in revenue every single year due to inefficiencies. So that means that the time you couldn't find files or when you literally deleted something and you never, ever can get your hands on it again, you are recreating something from scratch. You are being inefficient. And you could be spending that time on ways to serve your customers and bring new customers into your business. This is serious stuff.
I know it might seem silly to say Google Drive and Dropbox can literally save you money, but I do believe that they can if you get them dialed in. It's not enough to have or use them; you have to get them dialed in. And that's what I'm most passionate about talking to you about how you use them. It's not enough to have them; it's how you're using them. At the end of the day, these things slow you down and cost you money. So when you have better systems and processes in place, you can make more money, and it's easier to do the things that you need to do and you want to do, like maybe down the road, go to a four–day workweek. That is why I'm so passionate to teach you all of this, so let's keep going.
System number two, effective communication strategies and “never miss a deadline again” project–management systems. So I love talking about project management. Let's talk about my favorite, Asana. A-S-A-N-A, Asana. This platform allows you to systematize your project management and get really clear on who's working on what and when it's due.
So what is project management? Well, it's the process of planning and organizing and executing and completing a project. When it comes to project management, my number one tip is to find one that you love. Like, find a digital project–management tool that you love and just stick to it. So if you already have one in place, just keep using that one. And I want you to get really good at it so as you grow your team, you can teach them how to use it as well. Like I said, my favorite is Asana, but there's others out there that are really great as well.
For the sake of this episode, let's talk about what information you need to set up a project plan, let's say, using something like Asana. So first of all, you want to think about your end goal. So you're working on this project. What is the end goal of the project? And then, of course, what's the deadline? And then, I believe, the most important part is all the tasks that it will take to get it done. You'll also include the person or persons taking part in the project and any other important details, like certain requests that are going to be made or different links that you need to include.
And yes, there's no beating around the bush. The first time you put together a project plan, like a template for a project plan, it's a lot of work. But once you have that template, you can repeat the project. It's like a copy and paste. Can you imagine how much time that will save you?
So think about it this way. We put together an entire project plan to launch Digital Course Academy. So we put together all the steps it takes to do the pre launch, all the steps it takes to put together the webinar and the webinar–registration page and webinar thank–you page, and all the emails that need to be written, everything. We put that together in a project plan, every single task.
Now, here's a little hint. For those of you in Digital Course Academy, you can literally take the Digital Course Academy Project Plan, where I lay out every single action item you need to take to create and launch your course, and put it into a project–management tool like Asana. I've already done this for you. You're literally going to type in the tasks that are in that project plan that I gave you. So that's how you put together a project plan.
But in Digital Course Academy, I teach you all to launch more than once, right? I want you launching two to three times, and then, if you want to move into evergreen, I highly encourage you to do so. So imagine on your second launch how much easier this is because you already have a template that now you can just repeat and tweak, of course, to make it more appropriate for the second launch, things you want to do differently.
So that's the kind of stuff that I believe somebody who is growing and scaling their business, they're willing to do the work up front so that the second time around it's way more efficient. You got to put the work in up front to get to that place.
So every project we do in my business goes into Asana, whether we're doing a live launch; a special email campaign for, let's say, a smaller promo; a live event; redoing our website; obviously, my podcast. That's all in Asana project plan.
So every single Thursday, I put out Online Marketing Made Easy, right? And you can bet that we have a project–plan template for how we get a podcast live. From me recording it to having the audio edited to the show notes being written to social media and everything in between, we have a template that we literally copy and paste every week to make it simple and efficient.
And listen, if you don't want to use Asana, just do some research. Read some reviews and find out what works best, but there is no project–management tool that's going to be perfect, that does everything you want it to do. But most of them are really, really good. And check out Asana first, because I've already done the research. It works really, really well to run a business. But if you don't like it, use something else. But use something and get your team on board as well. You don't have to create all those templates. If you have a small team, if you have a virtual assistant, they can help you.
And here’s one more thing. This is like a mindset thing. If you're multitasking, if you're not really paying attention anymore, this part is gold. Come back to me. When you create your first project plan, just take some educated guesses. You won't know every single task you need to do for something that you've never put together a project plan for before. But do your very best, and then you can just keep adding to it. “Oh, I forgot this. Oh, I need to add that.” But least start from somewhere. Let's not go for perfection. Let's just go for some progress here.
All right. Now, let's switch gears because I want to talk about communicating with your team. So you've got to have your project–management tool, of course, but what about communicating with your team, because most of us have virtual teams, right? Now that I'm in Tennessee, I've always had people all over the U.S., but I had a handful of people in California, specifically Carlsbad, where I lived, that I don't get to see any more on a regular basis. And so the communication and how we stay in touch has become even more important, but also communicating and how we communicate became even more important when we moved to a four–day workweek, because we had to be careful that going back and forth, chatting online wasn't sucking up all of our time because we only had four days to get it done.
So this part's important. For those of you who have, say, one to two people on your team, like a virtual assistant, or like me, if you have a full–time team, I highly suggest you use Slack, which is a channel–based messaging platform that can be used to communicate in real time with your team or any contractors, either as a group or individually, like direct messaging. Now, it often feels like an instant–messaging tool, which can be good and bad, so stay with me here because there's some pros and cons, and we likely use Slack very differently than most.
Inside of Slack, you can have conversations segmented by channels, which allows you to keep your communication organized. I'll go into more detail about that in a sec. What's great is that you can also direct message people in Slack to have a private conversation or use the channels to connect with multiple team members at once.
Now, like I said, if you're multitasking, if you're doing something else, come back to me. This is so important. Slack is not a replacement for a project–management tool. On my team, we do not communicate anything in Slack that is a task that needs to get done, meaning if there's a deadline, if it's an action item, we're not throwing it in Slack, like, “Hey, can you make sure that you review this email copy by tomorrow afternoon?” That would not go into Slack. That goes into Asana. So we have very strict guidelines because things get lost in Slack, believe me. The action items will get buried instantly with how fast conversations move in Slack. We found that when we started putting tasks into Slack, things would get lost and projects would be delayed, or people would say, “I didn't even know I needed to do that.” So we had to put some guidelines together.
So like I said, I'm not going to put something like, “Hey, can you edit that video for the pre–launch runway and get it done by Friday?” I'm not putting that in Slack. However, I might DM one of the project managers and say, “Hey, just wanted to make sure you're on track for editing that video. Is everything going good? Are we going to hit that deadline?” That's fine to put in Slack, just to check in. But the action item lives in Asana. I didn't have rules for many years with Slack, and all of a sudden, people weren't hitting their deadlines, and they were confused as to what was going on. And again, people were saying, “I didn't know I needed to do that.” So we said, “Okay. We need to slow down here. We need to fix how we're using Slack and get clear on how we use Asana.”
Now, I want to give you a couple of examples of some channels that we have in Slack. We have one that's called Amy Check Ins, because I'm the leader of this team, and once in a while, I want to jump in there, make a video, and give a little love note to my team or a pep talk or just a quick announcement. So whenever I have something to share team wide, I put it in Amy Check Ins.
We also have a Full Focus Planner channel. So on my team, everyone on my team uses the Full Focus Planner from Michael Hyatt and Company, and that's a physical planner. So yes, we use a physical planner in addition to the digital project–management tool, Asana. And every day my team members, we each, including me, we choose three things that we're committed to getting done that day, come hell or high water. These three things are getting done. Now, yes, we get done way more than three things each. But these are the three things that are priority, and these three things we're going to get done every day, that we commit to, they tie back to the goals we set for that quarter or for that year.
So every morning, every team member gets into the Full Focus Planner Slack channel, and they share their top three action items they're going to get done that day. It's just accountability. And we really enjoy having a system like that to keep our minds clear. Like, what are we working on today?
And then we have some fun as well. So we have a channel where we just share fun stuff. So like if we were in a physical location and we all were meeting around the water cooler, we would chat about our weekends and share pictures of our family and all that good stuff. So we actually have a channel for that so we stay connected on a personal level as well. We don't have a lot of rules around that one. We just make sure that we share our lives with each other.
All right. So homestretch. System number three, your bold business blueprint, build processes and procedures that seamlessly streamline your daily operations. So what I'm talking about specifically is our standard operating procedures, SOPs. I know that sounds so boring, right? Basically, this is a way to systematize your in-house tutorials or any procedure that you're going to do over and over again or that multiple people on your team are going to need to know how to do.
Don't worry. I'll give you lots of examples. But here's what I need you to know. An SOP is a set of step–by–step instructions, in written or video format, to complete a specific task or procedure. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up, even though I said I know this doesn't sound very fun, is that when you have some SOPs in place, how great would it feel when a new employee comes on, and you can say, “Here's a Google Doc explaining step by step how to do x, y, z,” so that they literally have the steps to do their job in an efficient way, so that you don't have to sit down with everybody that comes into your company and say, “Okay. Let me explain how to do this for, like, the hundredth time”?
So let's say you have an employee doing a task and they leave. This happens to us all the time. So if somebody quits or unfortunately gets let go or they get to move—we have a lot of promotions on our team as well. They get to move to a new position on the team—well, thank goodness we've got these SOPs of how they did their job, because that person doesn't now need to sit down with the new person and explain everything they've ever done. They can give them a handful of SOPs and they can say, “Here's how I do all of this, step by step by step. If you have any questions, let me know.”
So I'm going to give you a bunch of ideas to get your creative juices flowing. So these are SOPs we have in our business. How to format a blog post in WordPress. How to embed a video into a blog post. How to create a social–media–post graphic in Canva, using the fonts we like and the colors we like. How to create a lead magnet in a Google Doc. How to organize everything in Dropbox. How to search for things in Google Drive. How to set up an opt–in page for a lead magnet. And the list goes on.
Do you see how incredibly valuable it would be if you start to create these SOPs for the most important tasks in your business? The reason why this saves you money and will make you money is that now you're not bogged down with repeating yourself or teaching things over and over and over again. You only have so much time in a day. As your team grows, you're going to want more and more SOPs. So let me give you an example of what one of our SOPs consists of.
Let's use How to format a WordPress blog post and show notes. So we start by sharing the time required to complete the SOP, which is about fifteen to thirty minutes for this one. Next, we share why this task is important, at the very top. So we say, “This is important because” something like, “We like all of our blog posts to look the same and formatted easily so that our readers can find exactly what they're looking for,” whatever it might be. And then we just go step by step by step and outline exactly how to do it. And the more specific you are, the better. Yes, it requires a little time to create these SOPs, but over time, you'll just start collecting more and more. And just remember, you save tons of time once it gets done. That's the thing that most people won't do. They won't spend the time to set things up, because they're forgetting how much time they're going to save year after year after year once these are in place.
So let me give you a few quick tips. Tip number one, SOPs are a huge timesaver, productivity booster, and error minimizer, meaning less mistakes are made when you have it dialed in step by step by step.
Number two, good SOPs are key training documents for your virtual assistant, new team members, and contractors. So you can hand over the SOP and say, “Here's how to do it.” And here's what I want you to do. I want you to start out with creating maybe just one or two SOPs a week until you have about ten dialed in for all the things you do in your business. And here's another tip. You do not need to do all of them. There are people on your team, even contractors, that can help you set up SOPs around different tasks that they do. So don't think that this has to all fall on you. And also, remember, SOPs are intended for the person responsible for the task, but they're also helpful for anyone on your team to step in and perform that task.
Like, let me give you an example. There's a woman on our team that is pregnant, and she had some complications, and she went out over a month earlier than we had intended. And there were tons of tasks that she was responsible for. She went out a month earlier than planned, but thank God we have SOPs around the podcast that other people could step in right away. So things like that are going to happen as you grow your team. These SOPs are important.
All right. We are in the homestretch. We're going to totally switch gears here. Let's talk about the three ideas to scale your business. You're going to love this part because I'm going to explain to you what scaling your business means and looks like, because I don't know if I fully understood what scaling a business meant in my first few years of building my business, and I wish somebody would have shared this with me when I was starting out so that I could really kind of dial in the idea and move toward it faster.
So what does it mean to scale a business? Number one, it means to increase revenue exponentially. Number two, increasing revenue while keeping operating costs the same or minimally higher. Number three, working less. And number four, making sure you have the correct infrastructure in place.
So I'm going to repeat this one more time. What does it mean to scale your business? Number one, it means to increase revenue exponentially. Number two, increasing revenue while keeping operating costs the same or minimally higher. Number three, it means working less. And number four, making sure you have the correct infrastructure in place. That's how I look at scaling a business.
Now, these are the four main areas that you want to dial in before you scale. And with that, you also want to cultivate a scaling mindset. This is critical to have a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, meaning you've got to think about how much opportunity there is. And while there are so many different things you can do, think about one thing right now that once you have that infrastructure in place, once you start putting the systems in place, once you have a project–management tool to use, and your SOPs, and you're starting to make more money, how can you scale that?
So there's three ways that will help you scale, and I don't want you to do all of them if you're not doing any of them yet. I want you to consider maybe doing one. Number one, become an affiliate marketer. So what I mean by this is that you can promote somebody else's program or you can promote a software to your audience that would be valuable to them based on what you are already teaching them. Or maybe it's a product that you absolutely love that you don't offer, so you're going to promote somebody else's product. And of course, you're going to promote in exchange for commission. Now, when you have your business dialed in, adding an affiliate–marketing opportunity won't tax your team as much, and you can make money while working less. So I love affiliate marketing. As you all know, I do affiliate marketing all of the time, and I do believe it's a way to supplement some revenue without you having to create something new.
Number two is to add a group–coaching program to your product suite. So you can take your expertise, and instead of working one on one with clients, you can put together a new offer where maybe you put ten people into a small group and you do coaching with them. So this allows you to expand your reach in your business because there's only one of you, and trading time for dollars can get really tough. And so if you're able to put together a group–coaching program, this allows you to reach more people, make a bigger impact, and make more money.
Now, number three, I can't help myself. You know what I'm going to say here, right? You can scale your business by adding a digital course. I know a lot of people want to leave the one on one behind, and some of you even want to leave the group coaching behind and you want to serve one to many, and, of course, a digital course will help you do that. So my motto is you create one digital course, and you sell it over and over and over again. And the goal is to move that into evergreen so you're not having to do a bunch of live launches, which over time can be really stressful. So I'm all about live launching first, moving into evergreen. But I love this idea of a digital course, where it's you serving many.
So I just wanted to plant the seed that there's different ways you can scale your business. Those are the three that I feel are very doable for you. And something that I want you to consider if you're not doing any of those yet, think about one and say, “Okay. Maybe in this next six months, I can scale my business by adding x, y, z.” Just something to think about. Now that you know what scaling looks like, it's worth exploring.
Okay. So I just covered a lot, and I know I went pretty fast, and quite honestly, on a podcast, I can only scratch the surface of what it looks like to put together these systems from Dropbox to Google Drive to Asana to Slack and so much more, including your SOPs. So I've never done this before on a podcast, but I want to tell you, if you want me to help you with your systems and your processes and show you literally behind the scenes of how I have the infrastructure set up in my own business, then I want you to check out my program Systems That Scale. We have reengineered this program from the ground up, totally brand new, totally rerecorded, and it's extra special, and I’ve never sold it until now. It used to be a bonus that I offered in some of my affiliate–marketing programs, and it was so wildly popular that I thought, “I'm going to rebuild this. I'm going to make it even better, and we're going to put it into our product suite.” So that's exactly what we've done. So it's called Systems That Scale, and it's a program full of the processes and systems and operational playbooks that I've used within my own business over the twelve years that I've been in business, and now I'm teaching and sharing all my secrets with you. That's what I'm doing in this program.
And like I said, I don't usually promote my programs directly on my podcast, but I'm kind of breaking my rules today because I think it's so important that you learn to set this up in your business so that you can have more of that intentional margin that I talked about. So if you want to know about this, stay with me for a few more minutes. I'm going to give you a quickie breakdown.
There are four modules in Systems That Scale, and you get the entire program right away. So you literally can go through it as fast as you want. Or you can pick and choose the different systems and the different templates and swipe files that you want. So it just becomes your entire system resource.
Module one is how to set up a solid foundation in your business so that you can have more time in your day to day. You'll also learn how to track your progress measurements, how to get your financial and legal houses in order, and I'll even show you how to use my own financial calculator to project how much money you can make with each of your promotions so that you can plan your annual revenue. That’s just module one.
And then, module two, you'll organize everything you need to set up and optimize your calendar. We didn't even get into that today. But I'm going to get into how to totally streamline your calendar so it's working for you, not against you. Plus, I'll get into all the details about that virtual filing system to manage your assets and how to manage your documents so that you will find everything you need instantly.
Module three, systematize. And this shows you how to create and manage project–management systems, as well as how to streamline your internal communication systems to create more efficiency in your work. And I'll give you literally a project–management template that you can work off of.
And then, module four is scale. So you'll find out who you really need on your team, how to find them, how to hire them, how to bring them on board, as well as some surefire ways to scale your business when you're ready. We just covered three different ways, but we're actually getting into more specifics in this module.
And here's how I look at it. I want to help you eliminate your days of overwhelm or stress or those endless amounts of late nights where you're trying to get that master class done or trying to get that email written so you can get it out on time. I want to help you work ahead of yourself so you're not feeling all that stress and overwhelm every single day in your business.
So you get those four in-depth training modules, foundation, organize, system, and scale, all at once, so you don't have to wait for any of the trainings. Now, here's the best part of Systems That Scale. You get videos, audio files, PDF guides, Swipe files, plug–and–play templates. I’m literally giving you the templates I use in my own business so you can quickly use them within your own business without having to do the extra work or reinventing the wheel.
So here's what you need to know. If you're ready to scale and grow your business and get rid of that hustle and grind and have more time freedom and maybe, maybe, maybe just one day move to a four–day workweek, then go check out Systems That Scale. Amyporterfield.com/systemsthatscale. That's amyporterfield.com/systemsthatscale.
Now, I know what systems have done for my business, and I want that for you as well. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you have to work to exhaustion for the rest of your life. I want to redefine what it looks like to be an entrepreneur, and that starts with systems. So go check out Systems That Scale. My hope is that you fall back in love with your business if things have felt really tough, or if you're just getting started, I'm going to help you put these in place now so that you never have to endure some of the pain that most of us have endured for years until we figured out how to streamline our businesses. So I can't wait to see your systems and processes and more freedom to build a business you absolutely love.
So thanks for joining me here today. I hope you found some value in this episode. Whether you join me in Systems That Scale or not, I hope you walk away with some things that you want to implement in your business right away. So I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.
