How to use Templates to Create Efficiencies in your Business

I ran my business as a solopreneur for five years. I know how difficult it can be to run a small business. There’s always a million things on your to-do list.  One thing I learned in that time is that templates can change your entire business. 

Templates are an awesome way to gain back time and keep you from re-creating the same things time and time again. They are also the secret weapon to outsourcing quickly and seamlessly, when you’re ready to outsource. 

The trick is to be on the lookout for things that can be templated. If you find yourself doing recurring tasks, template it. Even if you still plan on tweaking it each time you use it, a template gives you a starting point which will save you time and brain power. Templates can be used in EVERY part of your business to save you time and energy.

You can have templates for analytics reporting, templates for emails, templates for lead generation and for engagement. There is really no limit to what you can template. 

Let’s talk about templates you can create for your sales and marketing processes:

• You can have a template for cold pitching that you tweak with custom information about the company you’re contacting. 

• You can have a template for proposals, even if you send custom proposals, there will be plenty of similar elements across all of your proposals.

• You can have templates for follow-up emails so that you’re not re-writing the same message over and over. 

• You can have templates for your helpful answers and resources you’re sharing in Facebook groups. 

• You can and should have a template for your invoices and contracts.

• You can also have a template for the structure of your email newsletter. 

These are just a few templates that are HUGE time savers for your business. But, you can have even more for after you’ve made the sale! 

• If you are a service-based business, I HIGHLY recommend you create templates and checklists for client onboarding, as well as onboarding questionnaires. That way, you are systematizing the process for new clients as much as possible. 

• Purchase confirmation, shipping notifications, and feedback emails are important whether you are a service or product based business. Creating templates for all emails that a customer will receive after they purchase, including an email asking for testimonials or reviews is a quick and easy way to save yourself time. 

• Status and analytics documents are something that a lot of service-based businesses don’t use, which means you’re constantly updating clients verbally or via email. By creating Google docs that track what is happening and the results of your work, your client can check on things whenever they want and you don’t have to spend time answering them. 

Now that we’ve talked about how helpful templates can be and I’ve shared some templates you can create for your business, but you might be asking yourself, where the hell do I keep ALL THESE TEMPLATES?!?

I like to keep everything in Google Drive as google docs, spreadsheets, or presentations. By keeping them in Google Drive, you can edit them whenever you need to, even if it’s from your phone. You can also easily and quickly find these documents whenever you need them. 

When you’re ready to outsource some work to a virtual assistant or online business manager, you’ll already have a TON of amazing resources for them to get up and running quickly and seamlessly.

Plus, by keeping everything in Google Drive you can just copy the link directly to a certain template and bookmark it in your browser or add the link to your task management system *cough* ClickUp *cough*

Using Google Drive to hold all of the templates I’ve created for my business has been a great way to keep everything organized. 

And using templates in my business has saved me HOURS when working on my business. 

How can you start using templates in your business?