Building Business Systems That Work: Insights from a Systems Expert

Most Valuable Lesson or Insight

The most valuable lesson from this conversation is that systems are the backbone of a sustainable and efficient business. Tara emphasizes that setting up the right systems—like email marketing, landing pages, and automation—frees up time, reduces stress, and allows business owners to focus on growth and life outside of work. She also highlights the importance of tailoring systems to fit the unique needs of each business rather than adopting unnecessary tools or platforms.

Top 5 Between-the-Lines Lessons

1. Simplicity is Key: Overcomplicating systems with too many tools or platforms can lead to inefficiency and unnecessary expenses. Focus on what your business truly needs.

2. Email is the Foundation: Email marketing is a non-negotiable system for any business. It serves as the foundation for communication, automation, and customer engagement.

3. Audit Before You Build: Before implementing systems, conduct an audit to understand your business’s unique needs and gaps. This ensures you’re building systems that actually solve problems.

4. Automation Saves Time and Money: Automating repetitive tasks like invoicing, onboarding, and email sequences can save significant time and reduce operational costs.

5. Community and Support Matter: Learning systems doesn’t have to be a solo journey. Courses, group calls, and support networks can provide guidance and accountability.

5 Actionable Steps

1. Start with Email Marketing: Set up an email marketing platform like ConvertKit or MailerLite. Use it to build your email list, send automated sequences, and nurture your audience.

2. Create a Landing Page: Build a simple landing page to capture leads and direct traffic. Tools like Shoppages or Canva can help you create one quickly and affordably.

3. Audit Your Tools and Subscriptions: Review the platforms and tools you’re currently using. Eliminate redundancies and consolidate where possible to save money and streamline operations.

4. Implement a Project Management System: Use a tool like Asana to organize tasks, track progress, and manage workflows. Keep it simple to avoid overwhelm.

5. Learn Automation Basics: Explore automation tools like Zapier or ManyChat to connect your platforms and automate repetitive tasks, such as onboarding or follow-ups.

Transcript:

Welcome to one more business chats and today we're going to be talking with Tara. Tara is a systems expert and this should be a really fun conversation because there's so much that I need to know about systems in your business. I do have some systems set up myself and how to go about it.

[Speaker 1]

I think I just accepted your request to join. Let's see. Yay!

[Speaker 2]

Hello. Hi, how are you?

[Speaker 1]

I'm good.

[Speaker 2]

How are you? I'm great. I'm so excited to have you.

Yes, I'm excited to do this because we do like some similar things. And I didn't really notice until Jackie actually pointed it out. She was like, you guys actually do a lot of sort of the same things and then sort of go away in different stages.

And I was like, oh, that's true. So can you tell everyone who you are and what exactly do you do?

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, so I'm Tara. I'm a systems expert. So I set up systems for your business so that you can live life in your business and still make sales.

That's like my whole thing. It's really like letting the systems down so that you don't have to be working all of the time. You can really enjoy your life outside of the business that you built.

So yeah, that's what I do.

[Speaker 2]

I can just breathe. You talk about it because really systems are such a game changer. When I started doing my own automations, my own email setup, and just proposals, invoices, all of that, just automated, my life changed.

I was like, what am I doing with all this time? Like, how? What do I do now?

Should I just take a walk?

[Speaker 1]

Right? Because you have all this free time now that you can actually do other things or take extra clients to make more money. There's so many options, but it's just like sucks.

[Speaker 2]

So I'm a little bit curious about you and your business side. How do you actually end up being a systems expert? Because that's not something that you could just go to school for.

[Speaker 1]

Yes, I know. It's kind of weird as my traditional education has really nothing to do with that. So I actually went to school.

Initially, I have two degrees. I have a psychology degree and then I went to school for nursing. And then I decided to open a fitness business.

So I've been an entrepreneur for a while now. This is my fourth year of entrepreneurship. But through that, I really came to love the business side of things.

And I noticed that there was a huge gap that people didn't have a system set up to run businesses properly. For whatever reason, I just think my brain works this way. I connect the different platforms, knowing how to set up these systems, really being intuitive that way.

It's weird. I can just look at the business and I can see this is what you're missing on the back end. This is how it would work easier and how you could be spending less time or opening up more space here, how things work smoother for you.

It's strange how it came about, but I absolutely loved it. And now I've learned so much about different platforms and how to set up different systems. So yeah, that's what I do now.

[Speaker 2]

It sort of ties up even if it's not easy to see with the diagnosis side of things. Because in every single one of the careers that you mentioned, you have to go through that diagnosis phase to be able to see what the next step is. And same is with businesses.

And I have sort of the same thing with my business where I just absolutely love when someone comes to me and they're like, I want, I don't know, a logo like this with these colors and a website that has this and that. And then I'm like, okay, but wait, what are the symptoms? What is it that is happening in your business?

Why do you need this change? Who's your audience? What exactly do you want to do?

What's your goal? Let's see the whole thing. And oftentimes we have to go in a different direction.

They're like, okay, so actually this makes a lot of sense now. It's not what I like, it's what the business needs.

[Speaker 1]

That's a huge part of it. And it's really looking at the whole overview of the business. And it's it's funny you mentioned that because it is something that I do with system audits as well, because so many people I find, you probably see this too with a lot of clients that come to you, that they will get just a ton of different platforms thinking that they need everything that's out there and all of the new things and this, that, and the next thing.

But you really don't look at what you need for your business. It doesn't matter what this person has or what that person has. It only matters what you need for your business and what makes sense to make things run for your business.

It's just, it's so interesting to put it together and actually make it work. It's like a nice little package.

[Speaker 2]

I know, it's fascinating and it's so much fun. I really love learning about new tools and what's out there, what's happening, what's new, what's not, what's old, like what actually is available to solve all of these problems. The other day I was talking to a friend, she is also an entrepreneur.

She has a marketing agency and she was telling me how she hired someone to automate her invoicing process, proposal invoicing contract, that onboarding stage of the clients. And I'm like, oh, that's fantastic. So what tools are you using?

And she named like five. And I was like, no. And it's like a subscription for each.

And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, I do all of that with just one. Exactly.

Just one. You don't need the whole thing. And she was like, no, but you need.

I was like, no, you don't. And you can even log that into the email marketing tool and just have the whole thing in just one place, just one logging. So you don't have to worry about that.

One subscription. Now in the subscription world, we just would need to cut up some extras. Why would you do that?

She was like, really? Yeah. I mean, of course, he doesn't know she's in diving into a whole new world with marketing and that type and UGC content.

And she's an expert at that. And it's amazing. But it's crazy how much knowledge you sort of absorb just by talking to people and seeing what they're doing.

And then you're like, no, I have the solution.

[Speaker 1]

I know. And it's mind blowing. Actually, when some people come to me and how much money they're actually spending every month, I'm like, we can save you a hundred dollars, like literally cutting this down.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, I've heard people that have caught up subscriptions over a thousand dollars in subscriptions, just automating a few things. And like, well, yeah, I mean, I know that you don't know, but you need to just call the person that knows that we can guide you through it. It pains me that they're entrepreneurs and they have their business in the first years and they're spending all of this money trying to free up some time.

It's crazy.

[Speaker 1]

It is. It's yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Do you work with any specific industries?

[Speaker 1]

It's basically all online entrepreneurs. So like my clients are all over the place. There's fitness coaches.

I have authors. I have an agency. There's people do more like life coaching things.

I have business mentors like it's over the place. So that's awesome. That makes life more interesting.

Mmm. Yeah, that's so much fun. And that's why also like the platforms that I know how to work on are all over the place.

Like it's everything.

[Speaker 2]

There's so many.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

You have to adapt to what they want and they're used to and also improve on that.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Are there any platforms that you love working with?

[Speaker 1]

So my favorite, my absolute favorite for websites is probably Shoppages. It's an all-in-one platform that gives you everything like email, sales pages, funding pages, booking, your payment links. You can have a tab there.

So it's everything. It's actually affordable. I really like that.

For email, if you just want to do not ready for a full website, I really like ConvertKit. It's very affordable. Super powerful.

It'll give you the sequences, automations, like everything that you need for email. It integrates with any other platform. And then I would say, or like sales pages and checkouts.

And you can even do, realistically, you can even do sales pages on Canva. Yeah. You can definitely do it.

So I would say those ones.

[Speaker 2]

You just have to be careful with the responsiveness because Canva is not very good with responsiveness. Just design it in just one column and you'll be fine.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. And for business organization, hands down Asana. I love Asana.

Yeah. By far, instead of like ClickUp or Sato or Trello or those, I love Asana because it's super simple. And if there's any options, like changing the background, anything like that, I just know.

Because then I dive into many things. It needs to be simple.

[Speaker 2]

Yes.

[Speaker 1]

So you can get done what you need to get done because that's the point.

[Speaker 2]

I hear you. Then I'm super distracted. Like I have to do this.

I have to do that. And then I don't do anything that I need to be doing. Of course, I totally get it.

I'm so in love with Moxie for CRM and just business management. Have you tried it? I haven't.

Yeah. That's when I'll have to.

[Speaker 1]

Oh my God, I have to send you a link.

[Speaker 2]

Honestly, to me, Game Changer, I just love it so much. I'm so in love with it. And then there's the platform that I actually have been meaning to try lately.

Someone sent me a link on the other day on Facebook. I'm going to send you the link when I find it because I cannot remember the name. But it's a platform to create a website, like super simple, drag and drop.

And then the hosting actually includes landing pages. So you can connect, I think, like up to five domains besides your own domain for the landing page. I was like, that's genius.

So we don't have to pay for extra hosting for just one freaking page. We can just connect the domain within your plan. Makes total sense.

And they also, I think, add the email automation thing. I need to really look it up because it really sounds super interesting. I do know they are very new.

I think they've been in business for like a year, but it sounds like a Game Changer. Just having the landing pages connected there, it's perfect.

[Speaker 1]

I know, because the other thing you really have to watch for is how many options each of these platforms give you. You have to really look at each tier and what it actually gives you because for some of them, when you sign up, they say they have options available, such as landing pages, sales pages, checkout, things like that, but at an additional cost. Always have to be super careful and really look at the fine terms of what you're actually getting.

For sure.

[Speaker 2]

Especially as a new business owner, be super mindful of that. Do you have any basics that you cover with your clients? If they have no idea what it is that they need, besides doing the audit, of course, and understanding how their business works and their process, are there common basics that you see across industries that everyone needs to set up?

Yes.

[Speaker 1]

The very first thing that I say everyone needs to set up is email, by far, because it's a foundational system for everything else. That is your foundation. In your email provider, usually you can set up landing pages for people who opt in for things free.

You can't send them out without having email. You can't send out automated onboarding without having email. There's just so many things you need it for.

I would definitely say email, then landing pages and sales pages. Those are the three that I would definitely start with and then add on a website.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. I totally agree. To me, 100% a landing page when you get started.

Just have that set up. Start collecting emails. Then when you grow a little bit more and you actually have the need to have a whole website with more pages and explaining all of your processes and the customer journey and all of that, go for that.

In the beginning, first two or three years in business, it's fine. Landing page is fine. I'm scared when people stay on social media and they don't do anything else on their own domain.

I've seen so many people got their accounts blocked or a stupid thing and they had to start from scratch. They didn't have an email list set up or anything. It's like, oh my God, you just lost the years of work just for not having your own domain with a landing page.

Who cares? Just have something.

[Speaker 1]

I know. DMing, just email links is no longer, that's not a thing. It shouldn't be a thing because people are still doing it, but you really need more than that.

You have to have landing page, sales, email, basic.

[Speaker 2]

For sure. I couldn't agree more. I know you teach this.

You created your systems school. Is that right? I want to see anything about it.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I created systems school, which I absolutely love. This walks you through setting up all of the systems for your business.

It goes from email. It goes through landing pages, sales pages. There's also funnels.

There is an organization for your business. We go through Asana, launching systems, which is huge. When you have repeatable launch systems, you're able to just do that throughout the year, set up your launches.

It makes it so much easier for you. Then automation, like Zapier, ManyChat, things like that, but just integrate everything and bring it all together. It's a course.

Then there's also support with it that you really have everything you need to get this set up. Wow.

[Speaker 2]

That's a lot of information. How long did it take you to set that up? Oh my God.

[Speaker 1]

It didn't take too long. Honestly, videos aren't that terribly long because I wanted to be digestible. I didn't want them to be super long where people would be falling off being like, oh my God, I don't have time for this.

It's literally just what you need to get it set up and then awesome. Steps afterwards, this is what you need to do, set it up and come back and watch the next one. It's very light, just short and sweet.

That's perfect.

[Speaker 2]

Where can people find it? Is it already live?

[Speaker 1]

Yes, there's a link on my page where you can go. You can find out details. You can buy it.

Come opt in. It was live officially February 5th, but you can come join us and opt in for that when we go live. Then we have calls.

There's going to be now two calls every month. We're on a group call and we have support calls. There's a second call still coming up this month.

If you do opt in before February, you get a bonus call. That's cool.

[Speaker 2]

That sounds amazing. I love that. I absolutely love that.

Thank you so much for sharing all of that valuable information with everyone. I have to check on that course because it sounds like I might join as if I don't have enough things on my plate. I might join.

It sounds so cool. I think it's going to be awesome.

[Speaker 1]

I'm so excited for it and it's just going to be great.

[Speaker 2]

I'm sure it will. I'm so sure it will. We have to do this again.

We should actually work on some collab package because our services correlate a lot. We should do that and help our clients even more. For sure.

[Speaker 1]

We definitely need to.

[Speaker 2]

Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.

[Speaker 1]

You too.

[Speaker 2]

This is awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

Bye.