Automate Your Client Management w/ Jennifer Bourn – ABR049

Jennifer Bourn is an award-winning website designer. She also runs her own small business.

At the beginning of 2011, her web design business ate up all of her time. 100+ hour work weeks were the norm. Travel (her passion) was impossible. Stress was high. Important tasks were falling through the cracks.

Then, during her annual business retreat, she created a simple system to help onboard her new customers. Instead of repeating herself, she sent a series of automated emails that:

set expectations
outlined the project
requested specific information
sent useful tips

and pretty much delighted all of her customers. Her automated email onboarding system worked so well, she added it to other parts of her business.

In 1 year Jennifer was able to year cut her 100+ hour work week, filled with admin and email, to a 30-hour work week where she can focus on the thing she does best... design beautiful websites.

I love this story so much. Listen in to find out exactly how Jennifer managed to:

save time
increase profits
provide a better service

by creating simple client management systems for her web design company. These automations worked when she played, didn't need to be managed and never let any step slip through the cracks.

Enjoy!
In this episode we cover:

Specific automation tools.
How to scale without hiring.
What you need to do before creating your first system.
Why systems can give you the confidence to raise your rates.
Where to find time to create your systems.

Quotables:

"I was surprised by the amount of information I had to repeat to my clients."
"You can't delegate crap unless you have a system for people to follow. Otherwise, you are just setting everyone up for failure."
"Systems will boost profitability in your business."
"The larger clients you get, the less automation the appreciate [but we still use the same systems, just took out the automation]."
"You have to work on your business, not in your business."
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -  Maya Angelou

Links and resources mention:

Zapier - Connect apps and automate workflows. It's like the duct tape of the internet.
MailChimp - Email marketing automation.
AgileCRM - Contact management and sales automation.
Ryan Clover - Zack's amazing web developer.
TextExpander – Expand custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures.

TextExpander podcast #010

Emyth - famous book on small business systems

Emyth podcast #012
Work The System

MemberPress - membership plugin for WordPress
AffiliateWP - affiliate program plugin for WordPress
Chris Lema - smart WordPress developer
Profitable Project Plan (aff link) - Jennifer's full system and training in a 12-week starting January 23, 2018
Client Captivation Webinar - Thursday, January 18, 2018, at 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Relationship Engine – A private Facebook community to help service-based entrepreneurs get more clients. – zacharysexton.com/relationship

Connect with Zack and Jennifer:

Jennifer's Twitter: @jenniferbourn
Jennifer LinkedIn: /in/jenniferbourn
Jennifer Website: jenniferbourn.com
Zack's Twitter: @zwsexton
Zack's LinkedIn: /in/zacharysexton
Leave iTunes Review: zacharysexton.com/review

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, PocketCast or your favorite podcast player. It’s easy, you’ll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show gain exposure.

The shownotes can be found at zacharysexton.com/49

Jennifer Bourn is an award-winning website designer. She also runs her own small business.

At the beginning of 2011, her web design business ate up all of her time. 100+ hour work weeks were the norm. Travel (her passion) was impossible. Stress was high. Important tasks were falling through the cracks.

Then, during her annual business retreat, she created a simple system to help onboard her new customers. Instead of repeating herself, she sent a series of automated emails that:

set expectations
outlined the project
requested specific information
sent useful tips

and pretty much delighted all of her customers. Her automated email onboarding system worked so well, she added it to other parts of her business.

In 1 year Jennifer was able to year cut her 100+ hour work week, filled with admin and email, to a 30-hour work week where she can focus on the thing she does best… design beautiful websites.

I love this story so much. Listen in to find out exactly how Jennifer managed to:

save time
increase profits
provide a better service

by creating simple client management systems for her web design company. These automations worked when she played, didn’t need to be managed and never let any step slip through the cracks.

Enjoy!

Specific automation tools.
How to scale without hiring.
What you need to do before creating your first system.
Why systems can give you the confidence to raise your rates.
Where to find time to create your systems.

Quotables:

“I was surprised by the amount of information I had to repeat to my clients.”
“You can’t delegate crap unless you have a system for people to follow. Otherwise, you are just setting everyone up for failure.”
“Systems will boost profitability in your business.”
“The larger clients you get, the less automation the appreciate [but we still use the same systems, just took out the automation].”
“You have to work on your business, not in your business.”
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” –  Maya Angelou

Links and resources mention:

Zapier – Connect apps and automate workflows. It’s like the duct tape of the internet.
MailChimp – Email marketing automation.
AgileCRM – Contact management and sales automation.
Ryan Clover – Zack’s amazing web developer.
TextExpander – Expand custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures.

TextExpander podcast #010

Emyth – famous book on small business systems

Emyth podcast #012
Work The System

MemberPress – membership plugin for WordPress
AffiliateWP – affiliate program plugin for WordPress
Chris Lema – smart WordPress developer
Profitable Project Plan (aff link) – Jennifer’s full system and training in a 12-week starting January 23, 2018
Client Captivation Webinar – Thursday, January 18, 2018, at 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Relationship Engine – A private Facebook community to help service-based entrepreneurs get more clients. – zacharysexton.com/relationship

Connect with Zack and Jennifer:

Jennifer’s Twitter: @jenniferbourn
Jennifer LinkedIn: /in/jenniferbourn
Jennifer Website: jenniferbourn.com
Zack’s Twitter: @zwsexton
Zack’s LinkedIn: /in/zacharysexton
Leave iTunes Review: zacharysexton.com/review

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, PocketCast or your favorite podcast player. It’s easy, you’ll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show gain exposure.

The shownotes can be found at zacharysexton.com/49