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42. Systems and Simplicity with Alejandra Ortega
7 Plays3 months ago
In this week’s episode, Mallory is joined by Alejandra Ortega to talk about why systems are a key piece of any entrepreneur's support strategy and how to utilize them to ensure they are working for you!
For more than a decade, Alejandra has been supporting business owners in setting up automated systems to make their goals happen. Tune in to hear the main way to ensure systems work for you and why simplicity and ease should be your main focus when it comes to reviewing your tech stack.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why systems are a manifestation of your company values and goals.
- The critical way to design systems (hint, it’s not about everyone else)!
- How to get started with systems and automation.
- Why systems aren’t the end all be all and aren’t one and done.
- That you are a walking business and why that means support is critical.
For more inspiration, subscribe to Unbound Turnarounds on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
LINKS:
- Connect with Nicole
- Connect with Mallory
- Connect with Alejandra: https://alejandraortega.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Unbound Turnarounds
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Unbound Turnarounds, a podcast all about the challenges women business owners think about constantly, but rarely voice.
Meet Nicole and Mallory, and Their Mission
00:00:11
Speaker
We're Nicole and Mallory, entrepreneurs, friends, and co-founders of Business Unbound. Our mission is simple, make business feel better.
Focus on Support Systems and Strategies
00:00:19
Speaker
And that starts with honest conversations about the ups, downs, and turnarounds of entrepreneurship.
00:00:26
Speaker
So whether you're just starting out or you've been your own boss for years, tune in for stories, insights, and strategies that actually make work work for life.
00:00:39
Speaker
Welcome back to Unbound Turnarounds, everyone. And as a reminder, we are in the middle of season four, which is all about the types of support and systems entrepreneurs can turn to during their busy business days.
Alejandra Ortega: Expert in Automation
00:00:51
Speaker
I am excited because today's guest is going to get deep into how we use systems to up-level our business operations, which is one of my deep passions as well.
00:01:02
Speaker
So today I have Alejandra Ortega with me. She supports business owners in setting up automated systems to meet their goals and make things happen. She's generally techy, though her tech specialties are entrepreneur and access ally. Alejandra has been setting up and managing entrepreneur accounts since 2013. And she still thinks that automating anything will make life easier for her clients and their teams. And she finds it super fun and satisfying. And we align on that. So this is why I'm really excited about today.
00:01:33
Speaker
Her general approach to systems is to listen to clients' plans, desires, and worries, and look to see how their tech platforms can be used to create solutions that are just right for them. Her innate listening, research, and critical thinking skills make her a great fit for this kind of work.
00:01:48
Speaker
So Alejandra and I have discussed this before and she was kind of involved in some of the brainstorming and one-on-one interviews early on in Business Unbound. So I appreciate kind of her insight then and I appreciate you joining today as well. I can't wait to get into this with you. So welcome to the show.
00:02:07
Speaker
Thank you for having me. It's so great to be here. Yeah. Okay. So we both agree, we're going to get right into it. We both agree that systems can be game changing. And when it comes to stream, I mean, really it comes down to streamlining business operations, but overall let's get us kind of all on the same page.
The Power of Simple, People-First Systems
00:02:25
Speaker
What's the main purpose in your mind of systems?
00:02:29
Speaker
For me, systems should be about making things easier on people or improving the functioning of a process. So I always think of it when clients come to me, I start with the questions of what are you already doing and where are you struggling with these processes and then take it from there.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, because a lot of times they can kind of be overwhelming, right? It's like, I don't know. I mean, they maybe don't even know where to start, right? Or they hear of things. They hear of things like other systems. Should I be doing this? Or how do I make that happen? That's exactly, yeah. I think that's, especially people who are starting out in business, that's one place where I feel that they get really caught up. They start asking the question of what should I be doing? Or they hear,
00:03:22
Speaker
just people out there talking about, oh, I had my onboarding process and my social media systems. And they think that they need to have these things to have a business or to have a successful business. And that's sort of going about it in reverse, in my opinion. I think that first we should define what is it that we
00:03:48
Speaker
are doing or need to be doing and then figure out how that process would work best for the business in question and then look into systematizing and potentially automating, whichever one of those makes the most sense for them.
00:04:08
Speaker
Kind of going back to it's super complicated, it can be overwhelming, but I think you kind of have like a general philosophy on systems. And I'm going to let you speak to that a little bit, but you're basically, your whole thing is that simple systems are better,
Balancing Automation with Human Oversight
00:04:23
Speaker
right? Than complicated systems. Do you want to speak on that a little bit more about this general philosophy of systems as a whole? Yes, absolutely. I do believe that simple systems are better. And I also believe that I believe in approaching systems from a people first.
00:04:38
Speaker
standpoint. So I don't believe in building systems for system's sake or trying to build an idealized system. You know, somebody thinking like, well, it should work this way. Again, getting to the shoulds that people fall under. I've mentioned before, my first and first just always to say, what are we already doing and where are we struggling? And I like to think of both
00:05:02
Speaker
the person who's going to be using the system from an admin perspective and also the audience that's going to be using a system from a public facing perspective if it's a system that's going to have a public facing element to it. And so the questions are not only what do we need the system to do, but also who is going to be using the system? What is their level of comfort with the tools that we're using?
00:05:28
Speaker
I use Ontraport a lot, and there are systems that I can build at Ontraport that I can build them for somebody who can log into the Ontraport account to do some things, or I can build them in a way that somebody doesn't need to log into the account. I can just build a page so they can go to that page and do the thing, or I can send them a task into their email, and the task comes with an interface that loads in the browser where they can just
00:05:55
Speaker
complete the task and maybe put in specific information that is needed or make a selection from a drop-down and then submit that. So depending on who's going to be using the system, if they're not somebody that the client or the account owner wants in the entrepreneur account because they're not comfortable with their tech level or that person gets easily overwhelmed, then I wouldn't build it so that they have to log in to do this. I would build it so that they can do it without going into the tech platform that they're not comfortable with.
00:06:25
Speaker
And beyond that part of then I build it for the person who's going to be using it. I also try to think about what is the system
00:06:36
Speaker
I always try to ask what is the ultimate goal of the system so that every decision that we make as we're building it is serving that ultimate goal because it's so easy. Like you said, systems can be complicated and they can be overwhelming and you can get bogged down in the details or bogged down in the capabilities of a tool. You might think, well, the tool can do.
00:06:58
Speaker
because I work in Ontraport most of the time, but I'm familiar with a lot of systems and I've worked in a lot of systems over the years. Tech tools can do some really cool things. Sometimes people get excited and they want to use those, or they feel like they're paying for a system and they should be using it as much as possible to make that worth it. I can sympathize with that feeling, but I still think that
00:07:23
Speaker
If you always keep the big picture in mind and the people who are going to have to use the system and who the system is ultimately meant to serve, then you can make better decisions about how to use the platforms, how to use your tools, how to use the features to make the system work. Because ultimately, the issue that you want to avoid as well is building a system that is so complicated or so involved
00:07:51
Speaker
or has so many potential points of failure that people don't use it or don't understand it. Because again, I can build some really cool systems, but if the people who have to use them don't understand them or are intimidated by them, or there are so many points of failure that then when something goes wrong, nobody else can figure out why or where the issue is, the systems get abandoned.
00:08:19
Speaker
That's just not the point of having the systems. It's a waste of money. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of brain space. It's all the things, yeah. Totally get that. I had a recent client actually come to me and abandon the CRM they were using because it was so complicated that they never utilized it. They're like, I know that so many people in this industry use it and some people love it. But for me, I've never even, like, it's set up and I just don't even utilize it. And it's just not serving you.
00:08:49
Speaker
And that's exactly, yeah.
Effective Systems for Business Efficiency
00:08:51
Speaker
That's one of the things I was saying, right? I mean, I don't know what this person's story is, but it makes me wonder, did they adopt this tool because it's what everybody else was doing? Or because they heard that this was the tool to take your business to the next level? Marketing is marketing and people say a lot of things on the internet these days. And there's a lot of nuance to systems. There's a lot of nuance to tech.
00:09:18
Speaker
And so that's one of those places where I think it's important to choose the tools that really serve you, choose the tools that are going to work for you and your team and not fall into these, like, well, for if my business isn't successful, if I'm not using one of these big, complicated tools, you know?
00:09:36
Speaker
Your system can be very successful and be running off of very simple systems. Yeah. And we set him up in something that was cheaper, much easier, really hit his goals because it targeted deliverables and lead management instead of just focusing on just the lead piece. And so it's working a lot better. So I love that you're giving people permission and reminding people of this. Now, I know we're saying that
00:09:59
Speaker
There's no general, like everybody should do this. This is like what we've been talking about so far. But in a sense, are there certain types of systems that you see a lot of business owners using that if people are thinking, I think there's room in my tech stack, which just means which systems and technology and platforms they use. I'm just saying that for our listeners who are on the same page. So if there's room in their tech stack and they think they can gain efficiencies, what types of systems might they consider looking into?
00:10:29
Speaker
I think this goes back to one of the initial points I was making, which is the thing to look at is what are we already doing? And what are we doing? What things are we doing repeatedly? What things are we doing that would be easier to that would be easier to repeat if we had them systematized? That's a good place to start. But if you're if you're looking for like, what are the things that people do? I think there's the the most common ones, depending on what kind of business you're running.
00:10:58
Speaker
If you onboard clients, then onboarding processes and systems are a good place to go. If you offboard clients, that's another good place. If you write proposals, then do you have a way to systematize both the intake of information that you need for your proposals and then the creation of the proposal?
00:11:18
Speaker
whatever kind of billing you do in your business, having a system for that. We keep talking about processes and systems, and they're obviously not the same thing. A process is what you do and a system
00:11:33
Speaker
I suppose is how you do it. What you do it in, what you do it in. Right. So yeah, depending on how you do your billing, I know billing is one thing that or invoicing is one thing that people really struggle with. And that has, that has a bunch of other things behind it, right? Money is difficult for a lot of people for a variety of reasons. And so there's maybe other things there that can be addressed. But I always in, in situations like that, I always think, well, how can you make this the easiest as possible?
00:12:03
Speaker
for you. And there are platforms out there that you track your time and then they automatically send the invoices for you. If actually sitting down and creating your invoices and hitting send on them is a difficult thing. I've met people in the online business who will say, I'm three months behind on invoicing. And I need to get to this because now I need the money.
00:12:31
Speaker
That's a big deal. That's an issue. That's a clear issue for them. And so again, looking at, I kind of went around the question again, but looking at the things that you're doing and where you're struggling and seeing if there's places there where you can put systems, but yeah, onboarding, offboarding, proposal creation, billing. And the thing is also that so many of these things are so specific to every business. Some of my clients have common systems maybe in things like onboarding or
00:13:02
Speaker
or subscription billing, but I have never productized my services because I believe so much in building the system specifically for each business. Even if I say, I have multiple clients who take applications for console calls that then follow a process and if they get approved, then they get invited to join a program. Even if I say there's a commonality in that, the way that I build them,
00:13:32
Speaker
is specific to each of them because the number of steps involved are different, and the questions they're asking are different, and the potential outcomes of a consult call are different. You think there aren't, you think it's either yes or no. But once you get to the details of how you need the system to work for everybody, it is very personalized, so to speak. It's not a person, it's a business, but it's very customized. Yeah, and I agree.
00:14:00
Speaker
One of the things I've been focused on this year is helping clients create workflows, which then have automation. So workflows is really just like the steps and they're sequential, like this action happens and I'm just clarifying for listeners, right? So this step happens and this step happens and this step happens. And automation is when you can automate certain pieces of those steps.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yes, I agree. I think there's certain things you can have a base for. Especially working with somebody like you, you might have some best practices. When you onboard a client, it's really great to do this. Or when you offboard a client, don't forget to do this. But then there's these, like you said, nuanced steps that everybody likes to do.
00:14:44
Speaker
And so I think what I'm hearing you say that's really another good place to start is even just writing down the steps when they get to these things that they do over and over again, is just jotting down the steps or even doing like a loom video of everything they're doing so that they can then turn that into a repeatable system and process, right, that creates efficiencies in the long run. Now, when I have started working with people doing workflows and automations,
00:15:10
Speaker
Some people are starting to get kind of, there's like a little bit of nervousness around the word automation. And I think like, you know, I have some thoughts on why that is, but what are your thoughts on automations when you put automations into some of your systems or workflows for clients? Right. I, for me, it goes back to the same thing that I keep saying is what, where would,
00:15:36
Speaker
Where will it add something to the process? Where will it make it easier or better for somebody or for the organization in some way? I think automating, for the sake of automating, is not usually the answer. Similar to what you were saying about you write the steps, when a client tells me, we want to automate this process, I basically sit down with them and have them talk me through.
00:16:04
Speaker
And I say, OK, so then you want to automate this process. It sounds to me like it starts with somebody filling out this form. And then what happens? They fill out the form, and then it goes into this inbox. And somebody has to check them and say, OK, and then what happens? Well, they review it. And if they think it's a good fit, then they maybe send this other email to them asking them to do this thing. And I say, OK, and then what happens? And the question is, and then what happens? And then what happens? And then at every step,
00:16:34
Speaker
ask me, okay, and then what happens? Is that what you want to be happening? Or would you like it to be differently? Or that's what's happening now, given the capabilities of the system, we could instead have this other thing happen. So you can skip this step or so you can get more granular at this one point. And
00:16:57
Speaker
So it's figuring out what are all the different steps? What is working? What isn't working? Where can we improve it? And then figuring out which of those pieces doesn't make the most sense to automate.
Evolving Systems with Business Changes
00:17:11
Speaker
And often it's a hybrid. Often it's, okay, so they fill out the form and we automate up to this point. And then at this point, we need a human to step in.
00:17:20
Speaker
and evaluate something and make a decision. But then they can take this one action and then it automates for a whole other portion. Then we get to this point and then somebody has to do something again. Sometimes it's my client and sometimes it's their client. In a system where client is joining a program and they need to sign a document, well, then the automation goes to a certain point, the document gets sent out, and they have to sign before the automation will proceed.
00:17:50
Speaker
And I have a client right now where they had replaced the signature point with some check boxes on a form and that's more automated because it's all part of the same intake form. They check the boxes, they pay, it's approved and they move forward, right? But now we're actually going back to de-automate some of that and we're putting back in the signature process and some other steps because of a couple of reasons.
00:18:19
Speaker
is that for tool reasons, we needed to do that to get back some capability in the system that otherwise we would have to be paying a lot more money a month to get enough space for all the things that we needed to have in there. But the other part is that for legal reasons, it is actually better for my client to have the signature in the PDF that gets saved for every year rather than a little checkbox in the system that doesn't record information
00:18:49
Speaker
in the same way that the PDF does. So that's an example of a place where there's a way to automate it, but automating it wasn't necessarily the best way to do it for this specific client, for this specific use case. And so there are places where I do think the check boxes would be better. This one is not one of them. So that is part of the answer, I think, is being
00:19:17
Speaker
conscious that automating isn't always the answer and having the guiding framework for do we automate or do we not automate to be, does it work better as a system? Does it work better for the client? Does it work better for the people? We're going to be using it. Does it make it more efficient? Is it easier to use those kinds of things? And then being okay with the answer being, no, this doesn't make sense to automate.
00:19:44
Speaker
And there's other ways we can make this a better process without putting automation into it. Right. So I like that two things I want to come back to that you said. So I like that you mentioned it's hybrid because I think that's pretty standard. Nobody's going to have fully automated. And ideally, you're not fully manually doing everything because then you're not
00:20:05
Speaker
Gaining efficiencies right so a lot of our clients to on my side there's there's actual action items as part of the workflow that they're physically doing like you mentioned and then there's other things were certain emails go out.
00:20:20
Speaker
There's also some steps that I even call just the step is hybrid, where it's prepping an email. So it saves you from having to go find the draft email somewhere in Google Drive or in your folders, put it in, paste in the Google Drive link, whatever you have to manually do.
00:20:37
Speaker
The system in a workflow can prep it, but pause it. So you just only have to insert the link and then approve it and it sends, right? So it's half automated, but it still requires your approval. So that's where I think it helps people get over the nervousness of it, even if they're totally nervous about full automation.
00:20:56
Speaker
you can put some things in place to automate up to, you know, even in a task, nothing has to be manual. You could approve everything. And then that once you see how much efficiencies you're gaining and you see that it's working, you'll get some confidence to be like, okay, this task can be fully automated. This one makes sense to do that. And then the other thing that you said that I liked this example you shared is that you can change it.
00:21:22
Speaker
It is not set in stone. It doesn't mean that it went out to 10 people this way and it forever lives, right? It probably should be changed. As you change your processes, as your services change, as your comfort levels change, and you see it working, there's always ways to tweak and adjust your processes and your systems.
The Role of Personal and Business Support Systems
00:21:43
Speaker
And I would encourage people to do that. I don't know if there's a key to how often or if you have any thoughts on that. Yeah, I think that's a great point.
00:21:52
Speaker
And I will sometimes employ that in talking to a client if they're a little bit nervous, if they're uncertain, if they're resistant to something. And I don't tend to push clients to do things that they don't want to do because at the end of the day, again, it's their business. And if they as people are not important with it, then it's not a good idea. But occasionally there are places where you can see that there is potential where I really believe that it will make a difference. And if I see that they're a little bit nervous about it,
00:22:22
Speaker
then I will employ that idea of saying, okay, I'll tell you what, why don't we put this in place and give it X amount of time? And the amount of time will depend on what the system is, right? Because it could be something that we can see within a week if it's a good idea and it could be something that needs a couple of months. But I say, I will set myself a reminder and I will check in with you at this point in time.
00:22:48
Speaker
And if at that point we decide it is not a good fit, then this is what we're going to do instead. Maybe we don't know at that moment what it is, but it, but usually if there's a level of resistance, it's because they think there's another way or they just want to keep doing it the way that they were doing it. And so you, you know, if you say, I'll tell you what only for this amount of time, and then we can change it at that point. If it's not working, I think that is helpful for
00:23:15
Speaker
people who are feeling a little bit nervous about it or who are a little bit scared of what it's going to do, that's a good way to approach it. Telling them upfront, you don't have to stick with it if it doesn't work for you. And as far as intervals of how often to check on things, it does depend on the system because, again, depending on what the system is, it could be that you can tell within a few days, within a few weeks, within a few months. I will be honest, now that I'm thinking about it, most of the time, the only
00:23:45
Speaker
The thing that takes me to do something like that is when a client pops back in with a question or they want to add something and then I look at it and they say, oh, how is this working? I would say most of my clients are really good though about reaching out if they want a change or if something isn't working. It's been a long time since I've had an experience where time has passed and then a question comes up and I ask about
00:24:14
Speaker
some follow-up questions and it turns out they're not using or something really isn't working and nobody told me. But yeah, to be completely honest, it probably is more prompted by the client reaching out than me remembering.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah, but I think that's okay. And ideally, there's the small tweaks that maybe every time you work with a client you want to adjust, they can do some of those smaller things potentially on their own if they're not fully revamping. At least I don't know what exactly you could talk about what Entreport does. But in the systems, I used Upsetto a lot to set up workflows. And so as part of
00:24:49
Speaker
when working with entrepreneurs, there's a whole training component. And so they can tweak and adjust things. They don't know the whole system. They don't know how to build workflows, but they can make small changes on their own. And I think that really empowers them to make those tiny adjustments as they go.
Tools for Personalized Client Solutions
00:25:02
Speaker
Every time they work with a client, maybe there's a little thing that they want to tweak. Love what you're hearing? Go from big idea to business owner in five days with our free Be Your Own Boss Bootcamp email course.
00:25:16
Speaker
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00:25:45
Speaker
Let's actually talk about Entreport and Access Ally was the other one. So what are those two systems that you work in and what do they do? Entreport is a lot of things. I suppose it inhabits the space of email marketing. Historically, the most comparable tool out there to it is Infusionsoft, which I think is better known. Oh, actually, Infusionsoft might be called KeepNow.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, Entrepreneur also used to have a different name. These things happen. But Entrepreneur does email marketing and it has all the functionality of landing pages and building automations and it takes payments and it has affiliate marketing. They're investing a lot now in what they call dynamic content management systems, which is basically landing pages that you can personalize as people land on them.
00:26:33
Speaker
based on the information that you already have about them in your system. I use that quite a bit right now, but I don't actually use it that much for the marketing portion of the businesses of my clients. I'm using it more for the people who are already their clients, being able to provide more personalized experiences. And also it gets very techie and very complicated, but doing things like reservation systems for events,
00:27:00
Speaker
Or I have a client who sells language programs to schools, and multiple people are involved in managing a subscription. And so it's school-based rather than person-based, and that can create a lot of issues. So we are using that kind of tech to build an experience where they don't have to self-identify when they come to manage the subscription. We already know who they are based on the email we sent them. And so it prevents them having to read ad information that we already have, which then causes issues. So anyway.
00:27:29
Speaker
Entrepreneur can get very techie in that way. But in a broad sense, it's an email marketing platform. And it's, I guess what you would consider an all in one, it does a lot of things. And I always say the biggest pro can be the biggest con with a system with entrepreneur, it's very customizable, you can get it to do a lot of things. That means that not a ton of it comes out of the box. And there are always
00:27:57
Speaker
you know, five different ways you can make something happen because of how customizable it is. And so I like that I can make it do a lot of things and I can really customize systems for my clients. But that also means that it can be very challenging for somebody who's never used it before to come in and try to build something. Even though the campaign builder is very visual, and it's fairly easy to understand on a base level, there are
00:28:23
Speaker
nuances to every element that you can put in there that can really make or break your automation. And that's, I think, where it makes a difference to have somebody like me who really knows the tool and is in there all the time and has been using it for a decade now. But yeah, that's what entrepreneur does. Email marketing, automation, landing pages, affiliate tracking, all that kind of thing. FSLI is a WordPress plugin that allows you to convert your WordPress website into a membership site. And
00:28:51
Speaker
So it's it's basically the tech that makes it so if you put a lot of content on your website on different posts or pages, you can say this content is only available to people if they bought this course or that course or if they're part of this membership. And you can sell a variety of products from one website. And when people log in, they only get access to the things that they have purchased or not. And it integrates really well with Ontraport, which is why I started using it. It also integrates with a variety of other
00:29:19
Speaker
email marketing systems, so it's not exclusive to Entreport. Yeah, it's a fun little tech tool to use because you can, again, you can do a lot of things. There's a lot, it has a lot of gamification features. It's similar to Entreport in that you can make it do a lot of things.
Comparing Project Management Tools
00:29:36
Speaker
It has a lot of features and you can use them in a variety of different ways. So for me, it's always fun with my clients to say, we have this idea, could it happen? And then I get to say,
00:29:48
Speaker
Here are all the little pieces I have, and if I put them together in this particular way, then yes, we can make it do that. Yeah, that's fun. As you were talking, I was thinking about...
00:29:58
Speaker
project management systems, I feel are very similar. There's some base level ones. There's some list version ones like Trello. Then there's like base level, which what I would count as like Asana, which a lot of people know or have heard of. And then there's like really advanced like ClickUp and there's so much capability. But with that comes a higher learning curve.
00:30:19
Speaker
and it's a little more complicated to use and it takes a little bit longer of a runway to get a whole support team of people in and using it and familiar with it. I love that we're saying it goes back to the need. What level of system do you need? You don't have to go to the higher one just because you've heard other people use it.
00:30:43
Speaker
As much as I would love to come on here and say, systems are the end all be all, implement them and you will no longer have any issues with your business operations. It's just not the truth, is it? So how do we set ourselves up? We've talked about this a little bit, but are there any additional thoughts on how we set ourselves up for success after we've implemented tools? Like we have tools in place, we've set up systems and processes, but like how, is that it? Are we good? No more issues ever again?
00:31:14
Speaker
No, absolutely. There will be issues and a lot of it and some of it will not necessarily be. It's not that it's a problem is that the business is evolving and its changes are evolving or the team is changing. The organization of the team is changing.
Efficiency vs. Fundamental Business Issues
00:31:28
Speaker
As the business grows, you add more people. So maybe one person used to do five things and now those five things are split among three different people because you're getting more granular and their responsibilities. So those sorts of things will require changes and that doesn't mean
00:31:42
Speaker
that the systems were wrong to begin with, or that you did not build the right systems for you, it just means that things have changed. And so now it's time to make some changes. But I think, and I realize that I'm basically repeating the same things over and over, but I think one of the things that sets you up for success with the systems is the whole building your systems, designing your systems, choosing your systems,
00:32:11
Speaker
based on what you need, what your business need, what your team needs, what's going to work for you and for your clients. I think if you start from that point rather than from the this is the tool that my friend uses so I want to use it or this is the tool that this online person recommends and so this is the one I'm going to use or
00:32:30
Speaker
business, big businesses have to use big business tools. And so this is what I'm using. If you start from those places, you're more likely to have more issues because again, you're not really using what works for you. You're using what you think you should be using. So that's a big part of it for me. And then another thing is, I think ongoing
00:32:50
Speaker
ongoing check-ins. And again, it sort of depends on what size of business and what kind of business we're talking about. But if you have a team that is using your systems, if you're the decision maker, as far as what tools are we using and who are we hiring, but then the people actually using the systems are on your team, then having regular check-ins with them, or maybe just having
00:33:13
Speaker
building the kind of company culture that allows for open communication so that if a system is not working for the team, if the team is struggling, or if the system is breaking down, that they feel comfortable raising their hand and saying, this isn't working, rather than trying to just make it work because that's what they think you want them to do.
00:33:36
Speaker
The other thing that is important, and this one for sure is more challenging, and sometimes it's outside of our control and sometimes your moment comes and you have to use it, but having a business that is, and it's maybe a bit of a, depending on where you are, a virtuous or a vicious circle, but if you have a business
00:33:59
Speaker
where nobody can ever slow down enough to raise their hand and say something is working or to notice that something isn't working and do something about it, then the system's just never get fixed, right? I think in the situations where a system isn't working and nobody's doing anything about it, it's often because they're too busy and too overwhelmed trying to keep up. They don't have time to say, we really need to do something about this. And I realize that none of these things I'm saying are really about
00:34:29
Speaker
the tools or about the processes. A lot of it is about company culture. A lot of it is about the way that you approach your business. But I think that's the thing about what you were saying about systems aren't magic. The systems aren't going to magically fix most things for you. The systems are a manifestation of your company, your business, your goals, and the culture that you are making in your business.
Personal Support Systems for Entrepreneurs
00:34:58
Speaker
A lot of that is what sets you up for success with the systems that you use. That's so true. I love that. It's not just going to make any issues go away. I mean, it'll create efficiencies, but if there's other underlying issues like overworking and a false sense of urgency all the time and you're not creating time and space to think and strategize, then it will never happen.
00:35:24
Speaker
So that's a great, a great point. Great call out. Okay. So of course we've talked about you and I are both advocates of systems and tools, but what else do you find is essential to establish when it comes to making sure you're feeling supported as an entrepreneur outside of the systems and tools? I think this is a great question because, because the point of the systems we've established is to support, support the business and support the people. Right. So.
00:35:53
Speaker
So it's like you're saying the same thing, but outside of the tool and the admin systems, there are also all the other support systems that an entrepreneur needs. And there is so much. And once again, it comes back to what I keep saying is finding the things that work for you. And depending on how you operate and what kind of business you have, that might look different. But to me, I'm a solo business owner.
00:36:22
Speaker
I'm a service provider and I haven't built a team to help me because I like to work the way that I do. I'd like to be the one who's touching all the systems. I'd like to be the one who's doing the work. So it's just me out here in my home office doing the work. And I have many clients and I talk to them and their teams, but being a solo service provider can feel kind of lonely.
00:36:49
Speaker
Your clients have certain kinds of businesses, but they're not necessarily service providers like you are, or they're operating at a different level. So I have found it important to make business friends, to have people that are running similar businesses as I am, that I can talk to, that I can meet up with periodically, that I can go to when I have something happening and I need another pair of eyes, or I need somebody else's perspective, really.
00:37:16
Speaker
that I find that to be very helpful. So that's important to me. You might need, and that's having like business friends, people who are kind of on your level, but you might also need coaching. I've definitely gone through periods of my business where I've had business coaching and I've gone through periods where I don't. And it's not necessarily, I mean, some people would maybe have a different opinion on this than I do. I don't necessarily know that you need to always have a business coach, but I do think that if you need that kind of support, it's good to have it.
00:37:47
Speaker
The other thing about being a business owner, especially in the experience that I can speak to the most is being a service provider and being a solo service provider like I am. But when you are working that way, I often say that I'm basically a walking business because I am the business. My brain and my capacity to do the work is the business. And so anything that supports me as a person also supports the business.
00:38:12
Speaker
You know, we talked about coaching, that can be important, but there's also therapy. If you need the therapy to help you on a personal level, being better on a personal level is going to help you approach your business in a better way. And that's not just like, I can do better work for my clients, but realistically speaking, if you're a business and if you're a service provider, then your ability to make a living
00:38:39
Speaker
can be highly affected by the things that you have going on in your personal life. Being okay with seeking things like therapy, if you are somebody who sits at your desk all the hours of the day because that's the way that your business needs you to be, do you need to get regular massages or do you need to join a workout class? Are you somebody who is going to be okay doing some sort of workout at home and you just need to build it into your schedule?
00:39:06
Speaker
That's a good thing. Or are you somebody who needs to go to the gym or who needs to show up in person to a class to make that work? Deciding what it is that you need and then building the systems to support you and actually getting those things done are important. I'm somebody who will only show up to work out, who will only do a workout if I have to show up because it's a scheduled class. But I also don't like to go out to the gym. So I work out over Zoom with a group Pilates class. I've been doing this for many years.
00:39:35
Speaker
It was not on Zoom prior to the pandemic, but now it's been on Zoom for a few years. And it works for me because it gives me enough accountability that I do have to do it because the teacher is expecting it to show up, but also not so much that I don't have to leave my house to make it happen, right? House cleaning, if you need house support, if you need house cleaning, or if you need somebody to cook your meals. And obviously, affording a lot of these things is the level of privilege that not everybody has.
00:40:04
Speaker
you're maybe not going to be able to do as much of this in the beginning if you're starting a business as you will later on if you start to do better. But the important thing is to figure out what are the things that would support you? What is the combination and the fit of these things? And then building in the systems that you need to make sure that you get these things. Is it a standing appointment or is it a buddy that will do it with you or whatever that looks like for you? I think
00:40:34
Speaker
All of those kinds of things are important support for entrepreneurs. And there are ways to, in a sense, systematize them for ourselves to make sure that we're getting them.
Unlimited Business Funds: Alejandra's Vision
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. It's like a whole support system. It's still a system. We always come back to systems. All right. As a fun wrap up, closer question. If you had, if somebody said you have unlimited funds, Alejandra, what are you going to use them for in your business? What would you say?
00:41:05
Speaker
Oh, that's such a good question. And I'm not sure I have an answer to it. I'm at a point in my business, I've been doing this long enough that I've accumulated, I've set up my office in the way that I needed to be. So I don't, you know, I don't, I have the desk I want, I have the chair I want, I have the, I run a very low overhead business. I don't have, I don't really do a lot of marketing or anything like that. So I don't have specific tools that my business needs.
00:41:34
Speaker
So I don't know, maybe I would use the funds to travel more to meet up with business friends. I go to a mastermind retreat once a year, which is fun. But I don't know, if I had unlimited funds, maybe I would spend more time traveling to other places and maybe working from other places, but using the time after work to hang out with my friends and visit more people that I would like to spend time with.
00:42:04
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's a good one. I know because that's pricey. It's pricey nowadays to do that. I know. Yes. And then it's one of those things, right? We have location independence and we have schedule freedom.
00:42:17
Speaker
But yeah, traveling is still expensive.
Final Thoughts on Embracing Systems
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's totally true. Oh, good one. OK. Well, hopefully we've encouraged people to not be nervous about systems, to really embrace them, and given them some of those questions and frameworks to think about to get started or to make changes to their systems and processes. So thanks for all those beautiful insights or reminders, depending how far along people are. And thank you again for being here today.
00:42:43
Speaker
Thank you for having me. It was so great chatting with you. You too. Okay, everybody, that wraps us up for this week. We will see you next time. Take care. Thanks for listening. Visit UnboundBoss.com to download free resources, browse our courses, or leave us a voice memo for the podcast. And if you like the show, please subscribe, leave us an Apple review, and share your favorite episodes with other women entrepreneurs. Talk to you soon.