#31 - 3 easy ways to uplevel your business this year

This is the Doing It Online podcast with your host, serial entrepreneur, 6 and 7 figure funnel strategist and super nerd Kate McKibben. Where every week we're here talking nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online. But better, easier and with a ton more profit too. Are you ready? Let's do it.

Hey. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Doing It Online podcast. I am Kate McGibbon, your host here from hellofunnels Co and today I am talking about three easy ways that you can up level your business this year. Because it's the time of year for it, isn't it? It's, you know, it's January. Everyone is, you know, if you haven't already made and broken all of your resolutions, this is a time of year usually where people are feeling a bit of a fresh start, a bit, bit of a boost of motivation and you know, you've really coming into it usually. I'm using big air quotes here with the mindset of wanting to do more, do better, be bigger, be, you know, improve things, shake things up. So I wanted to share today three of my favorite and what I think are probably the simplest and often most overlooked ways that you can uplevel and improve your business this year. And by up level, you know, I mean like make just generally making all of the things better, like making your business more professional, making it run smoother, making it make you more money, making it less stressful, just all of the things, sorry, that's not more specific, but that's kind of what up level means to me. So what are these three things that you can go away and do, you know, literally this week that are going to really help you to, to uplevel over the coming months and year? Well, first of all is one, and this is probably one of the simplest, although possibly the scariest ones for a lot of people is go and have a look and see if there is somewhere that you can either upgrade or simplify your tech. There will be, there always is. Because what normally happens with most people's tech stacks is, and your tech stack is basically your unique combination of software and tools that you're using in your own unique way. What usually happens when people are creating these is that you know, you start with and like everyone starts at one point and they'll get a couple of pieces and then going forward everything that you add it kind of has to work with those existing pieces and they're not necessarily the best ones to work together or even the best ones to Create the outcome that you want. Quite often you go in looking at whichever one is going to be the easiest get started with or the cheapest, or maybe it's one that your coach has recommended or a friend has recommended or you've seen someone you admire use, so you just use that. And quite often, particularly if you've been in business for a period of time, what you end up with is this kind of overly complicated mess of sticky, taped together technology. And this is where often you then start having these regular frustrations of things not working, not talking to each other properly, you know, having a lot of customer service issues, things taking longer than they should, processes being overly complicated because you have to make A and B equal Z. So now is a time to sit back and have a look at your existing tech stack and have a bit of, you know, cast a really critical eye over it. Now I wanted to put in a caveat here of I don't ever recommend changing tech for the sake of changing tech. Because anytime, you know, there are no perfect platforms, every platform has its pluses and minuses, often not visible until you're actually in there using it. And there may be some things that you don't realize that you love about the platform that you're using and just assume all platforms will have and then you'll find that they don't. So there's also a learning curve with new tech and things like that. So I do understand why, you know, people do sort of put up with tech that, that, you know, that hasn't been working for a long time. And I do also know that there's some people on the other side of the spectrum who are like always looking for the next best, better thing and using it as like a procrastination device. And they're constantly changing tech and platforms and all that's really doing is, is taking up time and taking them away from the work they should be doing. So, you know, if that's you, then this, this tip probably doesn't apply to you because you've probably changed your systems a thousand times already. The person I'm speaking to here is the person who, you know, you started your website five years ago and you did a DIY theme and things keep breaking and you've got your course hosted in something that breaks a lot or you're having to do a lot of things manually and there's probably, you know, if you just invested a little bit more, you know, a system or a software that actually would allow everything to be done in one place and a bit simpler and do a lot of things for you. So if that is you, this, then this tip is for you because again, it's a lot of thing. I know people and usually the people who are in this place are the ones who push the hardest against the change. But when they do go through the effort of going, okay, I'm sick of having my theme and my website crash all the time. It's not a good experience for me. I'm spending all this time trying to get it fixed, all the time. I spend all this money hiring people a fiverr to try and solve problems or, you know, and it's annoying my clients because they can't log in. Half the time is time for you to go, all right, I'm going to go and get a better system. And usually that system is, you know, one that's possibly a little bit of higher investment than what you're paying right now, but it's going to save you so much time and stress and create a better experience for your clients. So that extra 20 or 30 or even $50 a month that it is is so, so worth it. So that's tip number one, is to have a look. Is there anywhere where you can either upgrade or simplify your tech, one or the other? Because again, if you also, if you're on the other side of it where you've got 25 different pieces of software and they're all kind of band aided together and trying to talk to each other and stuff, maybe it's time to sit back and go, okay, well, what is actually the outcome I'm trying to do? What is the, you know, what are the features and functions I actually need? And is there some way that maybe I can get something that does a few more of the bits altogether rather than trying to make this really complicated thing? Usually from what I, from my experience, when people have this big crazy, complicated setup, the reason behind it is usually that they've tried to save money. So it's a whole lot of free or very cheap things that kind of sort of half do what they want and none of them really do, you know, the whole thing and all the things that they want. So again, if that's you and you know, you're kind of going, oh, but I don't want to spend the $40 to have this thing that's going to save me hours and hours and create a better experience for me and my clients. Just have a little sense check on that one. So that's, number one, simplify and, or upgrade your tech. Number two, and this is an exercise I like to do with regularly throughout the year. But this is time of year especially is to sit down, list out all of the, you know, the tasks, the things that you do regularly and try to find at least five hours of worth of tasks that you can outsource and then outsource them and they don't even all need to be to the same person. Maybe it's going to be, you know, you're going to find a regular person on Fiverr who can do your, you know, uploading stuff to social media. You're going to find someone else to do this, but just sitting down, figuring out what they are. Cause it's a bit, it's, it's a bit again, it's a bit of one of these things, a bit of a process. But once you've done it, you are so, so glad you have. And like I said, I would recommend you probably do this regularly because this is how you start freeing up your time to actually be working on the bigger, more important stuff. Right? So it's super simple exercise. Sit down, you know, write down all the tasks that you're doing or even throughout the week, just make a note of them as you go through and then start highlighting the stuff that is not your zone of genius. You do not love. And if you are currently, you know, budget is something that's a bit tight and something you're not want to go going out and spying some high level, highly trained person, then you would start with probably the more, the smaller, more repetitive tasks that you're going to be able to get someone who's a lower price point. So you know, quite often there's tasks that you're doing, you're spending hours and hours doing that maybe 20, 30, $40 a week, you could get all of those done by someone else. And the other thing, when it's five hours of your time, when you outsource these to people who it's their zone of genius, it's usually not five hours of their time. So don't think you're trying to find five hours of their time. You're just trying to take five hours off your plate so that then you can use those five hours for better, more productive things. So that's tip number two. Tip number three again is one that I think is important to sit down and try and do regularly. Possibly not as regularly as number as number two, but something that you do at least once a year is to sit down, take your program or programs and look at the flow of how people are going through them. Look at the questions you're getting asked again and again and sit down and think, how can I make this more simple, more straightforward and more supportive? What can I do? What needs to be removed? What needs to be explained better? What are people, you know, saying, oh, hey, there's videos of this, but I'd really love to see a physical checklist. What do people, you know, one thing that I do quite regularly is to go through. We keep a list of all the questions that our clients are asking about a program. And then I sit down a couple of times a year and I record little frequently asked questions, videos specific to each one, and then we put those in the relevant places for the program. So that means that, you know, people aren't having to go hunting for answers. They're not having to go, oh, I can't figure this out. They don't have that stuck moment. The answers are just there. And you know, again, when, you know, we're not perfect, our programs are perfect. I'm, I am constantly updating and overhauling them myself, but every time I do, every time I sit down and I look at and say these three things, how can we make it more simple? How can we make it more straightforward? And by straightforward, I mean just easier to understand. So, so there's less roadblocks, less places where people get stuck. And how can we make it more supportive? Like, what else can we add in? What, you know, that's going to, you know, help to motivate people, help to give them accountability, help to, you know, make sure their questions are always answered, make sure that they're feeling celebrated and seen. Like, what else can we add in? So those three questions, if you sit down, do that regularly. And like I said, these three things, you could sit down couple of an hour or two this afternoon and figure out, you know, what's a piece of tech for you to update. Go get someone fiverr to do it for you. Find, you know, find those tasks and start looking for people to take them over and then do an audit of your program as well and find where that can be slowly improved. Because your online courses and your programs, it is our job. And again, I think this is something that does get forgotten. While I don't want anyone being a perfectionist, but it is our job to be constantly looking for ways that we can improve and master it and make the experience better so that more people are coming into it and loving it and completing it and getting better experiences. Because that's not just, doesn't just make you a good person to do that, to care about your clients and care that they're actually getting good result. It's also good for your business because the more happy clients you have who are out there in the world talking about how great you are, the more new clients you're going to have as well. So it's a win win for everyone, guys. So that's it. These are my three easy ways to uplevel your business this year.

None of them particularly expensive, none of them take a whole lot of time. But when you sit down and make a point of doing them, they make a massive, massive impact even if you just pick one. And I'd love to know if one of these is really standing out for you as something that you haven't done in a while or you really think could make a really big impact on you. Hit me up on Instagram at hellofunnels. Let us know. I'd love to hear what your biggest takeaway has been from this episode. What? That's it guys. That is it for this week's episode. Hope you loved it if you did. Don't forget to leave a review, subscribe all of those great things. I'll be back same time next week with another dose of nerdy goodness for you to help you do your online business even better. And until then, guys, have an excellent week. Keep doing what you do and I'll see you all soon. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Doing it online podcast if you love this episode. So don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today@Stealmyfunnel.com.