I’m chatting today with Kate Rosenow from Work Well with Kate. Kate helps business owners streamline their work to be more profitable & less busy. I have to tell you, I am obsessed with this interview you’re about to hear! Kate and I are like 2 peas in a pod, as we both are pretty “systems-obsessed” people. She is walking you through 4 ways to simplify and streamline your business. As the CEO, you need to focus on the work that only you can do. I always love the phrase “what got you here won’t get you there”, and that’s so true when it comes to scaling a business. You can’t do everything yourself forever.
Kate also shares some strategies for how she’s able to work just 4 hour days AND have a 6-figure/year business. You’ll love her thoughts on this. I hope this conversation inspires you and motivates you to create meaningful systems in your business!
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4 Tips To Simplify And Streamline Your Business
Kate is sharing the exact steps she takes all of her clients and students through to simplify and streamline their businesses.
In this episode, you’ll hear Kate share her journey of growing her first business, Mavenly & Co., to a very successful business. All the while, she was working 12+ hour days, neglecting her health and relationships. Ultimately she ended up in the hospital from burnout and stress. She learned so much from that experience and took that knowledge into her next business and learned how to run a business that didn’t burn her out.
We talk a lot about time management, and I ask Kate to tell me what’s on her calendar today and for the week! Hearing her talk about planning her time, setting boundaries, and the obstacles that come up was so interesting. I loved hearing her perspective on time-blocking. Make sure you listen to the full episode. Let’s dive into the tips!
Step 0: Dump
This is not truly a step but it is the way to begin the process, so it is worth noting. The first thing you want to do is your “CEO purse dump” of all of your tasks, responsibilities, and duties as a business owner onto a piece of paper.
Kate says to start with everything you can think of in your head and they go back through your calendar for the past month and track everything you have done. You might even find things you didn’t realize you were doing.
This usually takes a while but it’s great to actually get a comprehensive view of EVERYTHING that you actually do in your business.
Step 1: Ditch
After you have everything written out on a piece of paper, you look over the list and everything that is not essential or revenue-generating is gone. BYE-BYE. No time or energy to waste on those tasks.
Kate says to streamline your business it is really important to look at each of these things on your list. Ask yourself, “Why it is on my plate as a business owner?” “What is the opportunity cost that I’m wasting by focusing time on these things when they are not generating revenue or essential for my business to exist?”
There are plenty of things that might be revenue-generating for other businesses and not for you. If that is the case, take it off of your list so you can focus your attention on the things that are actually bringing in money.
Step 2: Automate
Kate says that after you have eliminated the non-essential tasks, it is time to look over the list for everything that a robot could do for you. Most software systems can automate more than one thing. That is the reason we do it this way instead of randomly selecting software when a problem arises.
Kate says that the best option to simplify and streamline your business is to find software solutions that can automate multiple tasks. This way, you have fewer logins to remember and get more bang for our buck.
I’m sure there are things in your business that you might be thinking can’t be automated, BUT they actually can! Tune in to the full episode to hear some ideas of things you might be missing and some great tools to help automate them.
Step 3: Outsource
Let’s talk about outsourcing. Everyone has tasks that they dread that keep ending up at the bottom of your todo list. So Kate says to look over the list for anything you hate doing, can’t do because you don’t have the skillset, or shouldn’t do because it’s not the best use of your time.
Just by identifying these items on your list, you have quickly created a job description for the person you need to hire or delegate to.
Listen to the full episode to hear Kate and I talk through some great examples of tasks we and our clients often outsource.
Step 4: Batch
By this point, you should really only have about 4-5 primary tasks left on your list. Kate is a firm believer in batching as a way to streamline your business. Batching is dedicating certain times or days of the week to certain types of tasks. She says that this allows her to hyper-focus, maximize her working hours, and not lose any time to task switching.
So many people feel like batching doesn’t work for them. If that is you, Kate encourages us to look at the reasons why we feel like this won’t work. More often than not, this has to do with making yourself too available to the point where you don’t feel in control of your own time. Setting healthy boundaries can help you change that!
Listen to Kate talk about how she is able to only work 4 hours a day and make run a 6 figure business using the principles from Parkinson’s Law.
She says that her best tips are to set time blocks for work and STICK TO THEM. Set expectations with your team, clients, and yourself based on how you want to work. Do not confuse urgent tasks with important tasks - the biggest revenue drivers often aren’t in your inbox or on your Instagram discovery page.
I hope you have enjoyed this episode with Kate and can start to implement these tips to simplify and streamline your business and get hours back in your day!
Meet Kate
Kate Rosenow is a business systems strategist and the owner of Work Well with Kate. She works with women business owners to simplify and streamline their businesses so they can be more profitable and less busy. In 2014, Kate started her first business Mavenly & Co. She realized there that the key to designing a sustainable, profitable business was well-built systems that gave you freedom and flexibility in your work so you could stay in your zone of genius and focus on impact.
Kate has now worked with thousands of women business owners across the country through group workshops, online trainings, and private coaching to equip them with the resources and mindset they need to build businesses that work for them rather than the other way around. She was the host of the award-winning weekly Women, Work, and Worth podcast on iTunes, and her insight and advice has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Real Simple, and Business Insider.
October 20, 2020
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