148: How to Build a Business Operations Dashboard

Hi, this is Charles Michael Davis. Toyotathon is on so stop by your local Toyota dealer for incredible year end deals on the cars, trucks and SUVs known for their legendary reliability like the stylish and efficient Camry, the Ready for anything RAV4 or check out a rough and rugged Tacoma or Tundra, all with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers. Visit buyatoyota.com to find out more. Toyota let's go Places.

This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

Welcome back Free Timers. Today I'm going to teach you how to build your very own Business Operations Dashboard. In my humble opinion, if you are somebody that wants to run a lean, mean, agile operating machine with your very own delightfully tiny team, a business Operations Dashboard is a must. It will save you hours every day, every week, every year. So one of the best ways you can free up your time is to make all the information about how to run your business easy. Easy to remember, easy to document, easy to find. This will make every single thing you do easier. Whether it's marketing, creating content, fulfilling your client services, delegating to team members, running your personal life and household. If you've been here for a while, you know that I already built this for you. So if you want to skip this entire episode and just get your done for you dashboard, visit itsfreetime.com dashboard and don't forget to apply promo code podcast for 10% off that's itsfreetime.com dashboard promo code podcast for 10% off now maybe you're not ready to invest in the dashboard itself, although I know for sure that you will get at least 10x if not 100x the ROI on that purchase. Let's say you enjoy building, you love learning new tech, you have the time. Or maybe you don't want to use notion you're using something else. Whatever software that you use, make sure that it has three qualities that it's searchable, customizable and interlinkable. So let me start by saying what is a business Operations dashboard? And then we'll cover the must haves and some nice to have elements of it. The dashboard is the central hub that you use to run your business and to document how your business gets run. In the book Freetime I talk about the Fiji Test. Could you or any member of the team be whisked to Fiji for three weeks with no notice and no devices? And could somebody else, even a stranger to the business, step in and keep things running? You know how crucial the Fiji Test is not just to helping team members document what they're doing so that you don't have brain drain or key person risk if anybody were to leave, but also to get you, the owner, out of the way as the bottleneck in the business, or hoarding information about how to do things such that if you need to step away for a day, a week, a month, everything doesn't just grind to a halt. Your Business Operations Dashboard is not just A list of SOPs or standard operating procedures. That is certainly part of it. I call mine the Manager Manual. But it's not all of it, because just a set of templates about how to run different processes still doesn't give the big picture of the entire business, nor does it make the rest of the information about how to run things easily discoverable. So there are five must have elements of your centralized Business Operations Dashboard. And as you're listening to this, think about you might have one or more of these. You might just have them FrankenStrong together across five different software services One of the reasons that I switched to Notion was that it enabled me to move my business operations off of a hodgepodge of software that I was paying quite a lot for, especially as each one kept escalating or how many team members I had moving to Notion enabled me to largely move off of Google Sheets, Google Docs, Airtable, Asana, Evernote, and even a few others. Now it's all in Notion. And my favorite part about it is that to run my business and for my team members to do the same, we don't have to leave I'm going to link to episode 88 in the show Notes where I cover why I moved from Asana to Notion for Task and project management. Why? One of the key reasons that I moved, and that I'm so happy to have everything consolidated in one place is that it used to bug me to open a task or a project, but then to get the information about how to run that process, I'd have to click a link, open a Google Doc, click on the table of contents, get to the right place. Everything was involving all these windows and tabs because none of the software services were talking to each other. And even if I did make them talk to each other through Zapier and different automations. It was still clunky. In notion, everything's in one place. I can search my entire notion operations in one fell swoop and even run my personal life. So things like tax planning, personal finances, household management, anything I wouldn't want team members to see it goes in my Personal Notion workspace.

So if you're going to build your own centralized business operations dashboard, the first must have is a task tracker. This is a central place or database where you and your team members will track every single task and project that is happening in the business. No task should live in any person's mind, including your own. So in my task manager I have a column in a Kanban style board, I have a column for every business area and I also have a column for general recurring tasks and JB Personal or JB Admin because let's face it, I'm often delegating personal or admin related tasks, even things like vet appointments and taking Ryder to the groomers. I want every single task to have a home, especially those frequent recurring ones. I even have a task called To Buy that goes in my JB Admin column so that I can keep a little shopping or wish list or gift idea list that I'm not going to purchase right away, but it just sits there in my tasks database. You must have a task tracker because it will drive you crazy if you don't have visibility into what your team is working on. For example, let's say you hire a contractor. I do not recommend letting them track the tasks that they're doing for your business in their task tracking software where it's not visible to you, you're not commenting in the same place, and you're not building intelligence for your business. About the last time you did this type of task or project, any notes you had along the way, any the history of it. What you want is that for every single task, large and small, there's a record of it in your business operations dashboard. So no task should live outside of your centralized hub. Even if you're working with contractors, there may be a little bit of a learning curve if you're asking them to learn new software like Notion. But in my experience, every time I've asked someone to learn it in order to work with me, they end up loving it so much that they move over themselves. It's also important to have this tasks database be shared so that you can comment back and forth to each other, assign tasks back and forth to each other. Now Remember, the owner is not the owner. This is a crucial part of the free time book. The owner is not the owner no matter who you're delegating to make sure that people don't just ping pong questions to you as the owner, assign things to you and then wait for the reply if they're waiting on you for input. First of all, I like to coach people to say suggest the actions you'll take by when if you don't hear back from me so that I am never the bottleneck. But also if you're going to assign something to me, stay assigned and stay on the case. Set a reminder for yourself to ask me if you're not getting an answer you need by the time that you need it.

The second absolute must have is a manager manual. Now again, I mentioned this earlier. You could also call it SOPs standard operating procedures. I like calling it a manager manual because it is the guide that any person at a manager level would need to run the business. Or if someone's managing a certain business area like a private community, mine's called bff. Then there's a manual on how to run everything related to that area. How to onboard new members, how to off board members who are canceling, how to run the monthly Q and A call, how to perform various functions encircle our private community software. So you would want every aspect of not just how to run the private community, but also the principles behind it. Why does it exist? What function does it serve in the business? What are our principles for how we like to work with our community members? In my business the manager manual is set up again in a Kanban style board but under a few main headings. We have operations and that includes things like email, monthly metrics, tools. We have content and publishing clients and customers and then JV only now we're back to admin. Within let's say content and publishing we have brand guidelines, books, big launches, podcasting, social media guidelines. If you are on social media in clients and customers we have the different areas of the business. So when you click on an entry in our manager manual, some of the metadata at the top is what business area does this relate to? What category? As I mentioned, who's the process owner within the company? If you have more than one person and it's not just you. And then we also have last edited by which is automatic the person and the date and the status. So our different statuses are current needs updates and not started if it's something new. We also have a notes and related field and that's where we could link to relevant pages. So for example, I have an entry that I'm looking at right in front of me called freetime Operations Dashboard and within the Manager manual I'm then going to link in notes and related to the dashboard people tracker, anybody who becomes a dashboarder with us. And that way I can track which level of onboarding they need, which tier they've purchased, if it comes with six months of access to our private community, when that begins and when it ends. And then I'm also tracking any related tasks right there right at the top of the Manager manual entry in the metadata down below. And I have this all for you in a free template. In the Free Time Toolkit there is a Manager manual entry template that you can access for free. I'll put that in the show notes but the main sections are Purpose, Higher level goals and desired outcomes for this area of the business Philosophy and principles. How do we uniquely think about this area and make decisions? What trade offs are we willing to make? Which of our broader operating principles does this area tie into? Then we have strategy. How will we approach operationalizing this area? Is there a recurring cadence we need to keep in mind? Like monthly, quarterly, weekly, later? We have step by step process and guidelines. So if there was a step by step process for how to onboard a new dashboarder that would go right in that section. I even added things like keepers or pricing tiers or additional resources. Anything that is something a team member would need to know to help manage this area effectively.

We'll be right back just after this.

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast Smart move Being financially savvy Smart move. Another smart move Having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

This holiday season, there's no better place to get cozy holiday gifts for all your people than Aerie. From soft sweaters to everyday intimates and activewear, Aerie has the comfiest pieces made for the real you. And don't forget to treat yourself too.

While you're at it.

You've earned it. Find your nearest Aerie store or shop online@aerie.com Give Love Real.

The third area that I believe is a must have of a centralized business operations dashboard is a content calendar. Now you may think you're not in the business of being a thought leader or producing regular content, but almost every business does need to manage content in some way. Whether it's planning your launches for a big flagship product or service. Are you going to launch once a year? Once a quarter? What does that look like? And then what are your communications around that? Do you have a newsletter? If so, what frequency? What's the cadence? You need somewhere to capture ideas and promotions or plugs, things you might want to include in the next newsletter and draft those. And then are you going to be in any other places? Are you writing guest articles for other publications? Are you on social media? I highly recommend having a centralized content calendar for the entire year that is divided or tagged by format. So whether that's a live workshop, a newsletter, social media, something like a podcast, guest articles, you want to know what you're creating and when. Even if you don't plan the entire year in advance, because surely that's difficult, you could then create a plan quarter by quarter. And each piece of content you're going to create gets a card. And then that card can move throughout a Kanban style status view. You can assign things back and forth, you can make notes to yourself in advance about what key messages you need to include. And most importantly, set reminders so you can set a publish date and then in notion in mind. For example, I have a formula that calculates two weeks prior to the publish date and sends me a reminder on that day. My content calendar also helps me manage content that I'm creating for the private BFF community. So for example, I do a monthly bonus podcast episode that gets released just to our private feed. I do workshops, I might want to remind myself messages that I want to tell the group in our monthly mailer. I might ask for a team member to help me draft a newsletter or draft the BFF monthly mailer. So so in having a content calendar like this, we're able to get that content out of our head, plan ahead, and not just be scrambling close to the deadline or past a due date to get something published.

The fourth must have aspect of a centralized business operations dashboard that I recommend is something called Business Areas. I like to view mine in a simple list, but this is a view that shows overall what is every aspect of running the business. So here at jbe, our business areas include books, coaching, community, corporate and licensing courses and products, newsletters and affiliates, podcasts General, which includes admin, operations and media, social, PR and marketing. For any one of those business areas, if you click into them. Let's for example, if I open up community, then we have a relationship in notion. There are things called relations where you can make two databases connect to each other. So I can see the entry to how to run this community, the entry in the manager manual. We also have an email guide. I'll tell you about that in a little bit. Area lead what job roles in my company this relates to if we have any key goals or metrics that we're tracking, related tasks that relate to an issue or something we need to fix. And then related pages down below in the actual content of the page we have all the pages, calendars, anything that relates to running this area of the business. As I'm describing it to you, it might sound like the manager manual, but they're two slightly different things. So for example, if I click on podcasts, I want to be able to see the podcast production boards, the links related to each show, any general tips and tools, things I'm collecting, coaching I'm doing. Not all of that is about how to run the business area that is podcasts. So the how to, the process, the high level principles and procedures that's in the manager manual, but then the business area includes all the related pages and elements of how we run it. You don't have to keep these two things separate. What I like about keeping them separate is that the manager manual is just process. It's just the how to. Because I want that to be really clean, that a team member can go there. And I think of the manager manual almost like a help center for every area of the business. It just says here's exactly what to do when this type of thing happens. Or here's exactly how we think about this area. Here are the next steps. The business areas is a little more broad. It's meant to include everything, every page, everything we create related to that business area.

The fifth and final must have of your centralized business operations dashboard is a database for meeting notes. I find this essential. I ask team members to set up a meeting notes shell. We have a template for this in notion and this is also in the free time toolkit. So I'll put the link to that in the show notes. I like for team members to set up our meeting notes in advance of our meeting and.

Related tasks and issues that they want to talk about. So they're putting thought into the agenda beforehand. They're linking, not just writing down the name of a task, but they're actually linking to that task or linking to that business area. So what's cool about Notion or any software that is interlinkable that you're using is that instead of talking about something and then having to go find it, it's almost as if our agenda is just a set of links that enables us to talk about it. But then we can click over and make any relevant notes or updates or next steps in the task where it belongs, rather than having it live in our meeting notes where it can be kind of confusing. Did we do that yet? Did we tackle that? Meeting notes are not a great place for tasks to live once the meeting is over, but by having a template for this and preparing heading into a meeting, we can both get really clear on what would be most beneficial for us to talk about. And then we also have a record of what was covered. As we're talking, we can both have the page open and be keeping notes and action items and we can even assign the meeting notes back to each other after the fact if there are any lingering items to take care of in Notion. And I'm sure other software has this too. You can also highlight text down the page and reply to the other person, so this has been helpful. Sometimes it eliminates half of what's on our meeting agenda because I see what a team member added in advance and I'm able to highlight add a comment in line and let them know what the next steps could be before us even having to meet at all. There you have it. Those are the five must have items a task tracker, manager manual, content calendar, business area list or database and meeting notes tracker. Some of the nice to have elements that I won't go into quite as much detail on but that I find incredibly helpful on a day to day basis are having some kind of CRM and you've heard me talk about these in the past. I'll link to the episode with Alex Sherwood which was fantastic on how to build your own CRM somewhere to track people Client Trackers if you're a service based business that can be really helpful for corporate clients. I have a pipeline tracker where I'm tracking potential interested companies in something like licensing and then on the pivot coaching side we have a active client tracker of who are all of our active clients and I can even tag which coach they're working with at what level of investment, notes about if they need to pause, et cetera. I in recent years created an email guide because I found that the manager manual was still too dense and email was still too confusing. So now we have a specific guide just on how to answer email and that's Organizable, searchable, interlinkable, all those good things. We have a gift Tracker. This is a template that you get with the dashboard that will help you track what John Ruling calls strategic gifting in his fantastic book Giftology. We have high level operating principles, a metric scorecard that to be honest, I don't use nearly as much as I should. A Collection bucket. This is mandatory. I just had a blast recording an episode with Cal Newport teaching him how I use my collection bucket and maybe he'll end up doing the same. And I'll link to a loom that I created. Just a quick overview on collection Bucket, how to set that up. And then I also asked my team members to do weekly updates so on Friday to send a recap of biggest accomplishments, anything. They're waiting for my input on their game plan for the week ahead and if they're billing hourly, how many hours they've spent or if we're on a retainer, how many hours we have left in the month so that there are no surprises.

I hope you found all this helpful. If it's overwhelming, that's never my goal. Of course you're welcome to take your own crack at building all this out, but if you just want it done for you, you want to save the two years that I spent building this, customizing it, learning the hard way, you're welcome to head over to itsfreetime.com dashboard. You'll get the entire set of templates, everything I just described already built for you as a personal perfect way to free your mind, your time and your team Moving forward. That's itsfreetime.com dashboard. Don't forget promo code podcast for 10% off. When you do enroll, you'll get two one on one onboarding sessions with our Notion Pro Alex. Again, I'll link to the episode he was on in the show notes. He is a genius. So for your most complicated questions about dashboards and trackers and automation and formulas, whatever it is in your business that you are worried is too complex for you to handle, Alex is here to save the day. I learn so much from him. He is absolutely phenomenal. So you will have two one on ones to be able to get you the help you need to customize your dashboard, make it work for you and hit the ground running with it. So you hereby have permission not to build your dashboard yourself. It is already done for you. You can check that off your list and start now, freeing your mind, time and team to do more of your best work to breathe easier because you know where everything lives to get yourself out of the way as the bottleneck in your business and reclaim your time. I promise you, all the feedback so far from the dashboarders who have been engaging with us has been so people are just feeling so much more confident about their business, so much more free, and in some cases even streamlining, realizing that they don't need quite as many team members as they thought, myself included, because everything is so organized and easy to find, easy to implement. Last but not least, don't miss the show notes for this episode because I'm also going to put a ton of free tools templates loom walkthroughs in the Resources section. A lot of what I've described here is in the FreeTime book. Be sure to get your copy if you don't already have it, and go to itsfreetime.com toolkit to access all the dozens of free templates that I've already created for you around all of this. That's itsfreetime.com toolkit. Thank you so much for listening everybody. Have a beautiful rest of your day.

If you've listened this far, you get a gold star. Thank you. Word of mouth is the most joyful way we can grow this show and it helps us land interviews with the luminaries and insightful guests that you would most love to hear from. Please send this episode to a friend who might find it helpful and for show notes and related links from this episode, visit itsfreetime.com while you're there, make sure you're subscribed to the Time well Spent newsletter. You'll get instant access to my Tech Toolkit, a container continually updated list of all the software I use along with the total monthly spend to run my business where no one works full time Even me. Visit itsfreetime.com join Remember, you are running the show. It's time for radical reimagining and everything is up for grabs. Let it be easy, let it be fun and build with love.

Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service. Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price. So that means a half day. Yeah, give it a try@mintmobile.com switch switch.

Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow hacker 35 gigabytes of network busy taxes and fees extra cmnobile.com.