Systems for Creatives with Amy Gould

EP 6: How to Protect Your Energy as an Entrepreneur by Using a Client Scheduler

• Amy Gould

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Ever wondered how to preserve your energy while managing a bustling business? If you're working one-on-one with clients, you could save time and energy, by using a client scheduler.

Discover the secret of crafting an ideal calendar that not only boosts your productivity but also sets you free from the draining effects of constant task-switching. We unravel the strategy behind designating specific days for client interactions and others for focused work, inspired by insights from the Systemize Your Biz program and the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast. These game-changing ideas have transformed my approach to managing time and energy, offering a blueprint for entrepreneurs eager to thrive without burning out.

But that's not all—we delve into the world of electronic schedulers, not just as a client scheduler, but as a powerful ally in maintaining professional boundaries. Through confirmations, automated reminders, and flexible rescheduling options, learn how to streamline your appointment management, reduce no-shows, and enhance client experiences. Whether you're hesitant about going digital or ready to fully embrace it, this episode offers actionable tips to optimize your client scheduler processes and reclaim your time. Join me for a conversation that promises to protect your energy and elevate your business to new heights.

Mentioned in this Episode
Systemize Your Biz
Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast

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Book a Free 15 Minute Discovery Call to Learn How I Can Help You Work Less, Make More & WOW Clients: www.amysgould.com/book-a-call

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Speaker 1:

Hey there, in today's episode we're diving into something I know we all struggle with protecting your energy as entrepreneurs. Our energy is one of our greatest assets and if we don't set clear boundaries, we'll find ourselves drained and unable to deliver our best work. Believe me, I've been there. Today we'll be talking about three powerful ways you can safeguard your energy by setting smart boundaries around your time. So let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

The very first thing I like to think about when I'm thinking about strategies to help me protect my boundaries and my energy and just basically get more out of my time is an ideal calendar. And this ideal calendar is kind of different than just willy nilly putting appointments into your week or your day. It's basically you sit down and decide what you want to accomplish each day of the week, and this can look different for different businesses and different people. I've heard people have, you know, a content creation week and a week for clients or certain parts of the day. They'll do different tasks and I've changed mine several times over the years, but basically you decide which days are client facing days, where you're going to have appointments, and which days are the days you need to keep back for doing client work. Because if you're just trying to sandwich that stuff in between and by stuff I mean client work in between random appointments throughout your day it just feels really haphazard, you tend to lose focus and it just it robs your energy because you're jumping from one task to another task and changing focus all the time. So what has helped me with creating this ideal calendar is kind of sitting down and going okay, what are the things I need to do quarterly or annually in my business? What are the things that I need to do every month in my business? What has to happen weekly? And then what has to happen every day? If there's a thing that happens every single day and I've kind of played around with those in my project management tool and it's not quite finished yet, but it's definitely getting close there where I've got a certain set of tasks that happen every time I sit down to work and it's been a game changer for me in my business. And so if you're interested in learning about the system, that's the Systemize your Biz program with Chelsea Jo, the Ideal Calendar. Actually, I originally heard Rachel talk about that on Promote Yourself to CEO.

Speaker 1:

So a couple of my favorite podcasts over there. I'm just going to give them a quick shout out. I love both of those ladies. They've got some amazing concepts. Both of those ladies, they've got some amazing concepts. But basically, when you create this ideal calendar, one thing that often gets left in the dust is recruiting the people or your schedulers to help you reinforce those boundaries. So like adding it to your SOPs when you're going to book appointments, or adding the timelines to your scheduler and your availability on your scheduler so that your scheduler doesn't book you on days you don't want to see clients, basically and we're going to talk about that in a second.

Speaker 1:

But an ideal calendar also lets you put some intention behind what you're doing. When I mean personally, I know I am no good on sales calls or anything like a workflow strategy session on a Friday afternoon. It is not a good time for me to sit down and talk to people and do anything that's really high energy or requires a lot of brainpower and thinking. It's just not good. So I know personally that it's better to do some things that are pretty mindless on a Friday afternoon, or maybe I'm just going to cut out of work early on Friday afternoons and recharge a little bit sooner. It really depends, but that's definitely something that helps me avoid providing a less than ideal client experience, and it also helps me make sure that I put enough rest and recharge time and self-care time into my calendar. And I'll be the first to admit to you, I have struggled with this so hard since being an entrepreneur. It is so tempting to open up my Gmail and check it or just see if anyone's responded to a message that I sent earlier that day or anything like that. So I'm still working on this. I'm nowhere near perfect, but knowing that I've got time blocks dedicated to work and blocks where I'm going to talk to clients and have sales calls and those kinds of things has really helped me protect my energy. And the second thing that helps protect your boundaries is kind of I've already hinted at it.

Speaker 1:

Well, I really just said it is using an electronic scheduler and I hear it all the time. I don't want to sound impersonal by sending someone a scheduler link and telling them to book a call with me, and I get it. It sometimes can feel like you're just kind of blowing someone off and being like, oh, I don't want to talk to you. Here's my scheduler link, you know, go book a call and get lost. Basically, and honestly, I really think it's all in the delivery of how you say this message to someone you obviously don't want to just be like here's my scheduler link go, book a call. That's not a very warm and friendly way to do it. However, I will tell you, I will be the first to tell you every time I go to book an appointment with someone whether that's the nail salon or the hair, my hairstylist, a doctor's appointment, anything like that if I have to actually pick up the phone and call them to make an appointment, it's not my favorite thing in the world.

Speaker 1:

If I can just click onto their website, book an appointment and move on with my to-do list, that's what I want to do and that's really, honestly, what a lot of people that are looking to work with you want to do too. They don't want to play the email game back and forth. I like to call it email ping pong or scheduling ping pong. They don't want to do the hey, I'd like to book a call with you, when are you available? And then you send back a couple dates and times that you're available and they come back with no. Neither one of those works. What about this? And it goes on and on and on. It's a huge time suck, it's a pain in the butt and nobody wants to do it.

Speaker 1:

So the best thing you can do for people is give them that electronic scheduler link and the message I usually send is something like great, I would absolutely love to chat with you. Here's a link to take a look at my scheduler, or actually, here's a link to look at my schedule. Find a time that works for you and book some time and let's get together and chat. I can't wait to meet with you. It sounds warm and friendly. It's really letting them know that they can just click in there and see when you're available and book an appointment. Most people are going to love that you have that and they can quickly and easily make an appointment.

Speaker 1:

I don't think anyone reaches out to ask to meet with you, expecting that you're going to be able to meet with them right away and drop everything that you're doing and go talk to them. Most people don't expect that anymore, and so you're doing a disservice to yourself by not giving people the opportunity to book an appointment. You're also doing a disservice to them, because now they've got to wait for you to respond to the email and get back to you. Also, by giving them that electronic scheduler link you're giving them, hopefully, you're setting up your scheduler with a confirmation and reminder emails so they will get a confirmation with an appointment that they can immediately add to their calendar in a couple of clicks, that they can immediately add to their calendar in a couple of clicks, and then they will get reminders in case they forgot about it. So I usually recommend 24 hours before and one hour before, but you can choose to do reminders however you'd like. I definitely recommend adding those reminders, though, because that's going to help you prevent the no-shows and the I forgot that we had an appointment emails.

Speaker 1:

So the reason I recommend using an electronic scheduler is twofold. I mean, we've talked about the ability for someone to book their own appointment, but there's also the fact that you can put in your available times, and this helps you reinforce your boundaries as far as what you set up in your ideal schedule, as far as when you're seeing people and when you're doing client work. So most scheduler tools, like Calendly, like Dubsado Scheduler, like HoneyBook, all have the ability to put in. I'm available on this day, on Mondays from 10 to 2, and Wednesdays from 2 to 5, for instance, and that allows you to protect your boundaries without being the bad guy. People go click on your scheduler link and they see, oh, she's got some time on her calendar on Mondays from 10 to 2, and there's time on her calendar on Wednesdays, so I can pick one of those. And here's the thing If somebody goes there and those appointments don't work for them, they're probably going to send you an email and say, hey, those appointments don't work for me, is there another time that we could get together?

Speaker 1:

Then you can be a little flexible if you choose to and say actually, you know what, there's some time on Friday from this time to this time. Does that work for you? Or something like that, and you can kind of work it out. But that gives you the option of making that decision when you're not face to face with somebody. They're sending you an email, probably, and asking for a different time.

Speaker 1:

I love that both Dubsado and HoneyBook have schedulers within the platform. These schedulers are great for booking appointments and also the really nice thing is then, when someone books an appointment, you can automate what happens around that appointment being booked or actually the appointment being completed. So that helps you automate even more of your client experience. And if you'd like to save on your Dubsado or HoneyBook subscription, check out the show notes. I've got a code that will give you a discount on your first month or year with either platform.

Speaker 1:

So the third thing thing that will help you protect your energy is not waiting around for no-shows on appointments. It's so frustrating when you're sitting there on a call or a Zoom call or in person even worse, I think honestly and the person doesn't show up. You wonder what happened. Where are they? Did they decide they didn't want to work with me? And, worse yet, you're wasting time that you could be spending doing client work and getting things done in your business so you can book more clients and make more money in your business, and instead you're sitting in a restaurant or on a call twiddling your thumbs.

Speaker 1:

So one of the great things about schedulers is they give you that ability to add a confirmation so that client gets the confirmation and they can add that appointment directly to their calendar, so hopefully they won't forget about it. But you can also add automated reminders through your scheduling and I think also HoneyBook allows you to charge for missed appointments now, which is pretty cool. I also love to put buttons in the bottom of my reminder emails that allow someone to cancel at least a day ahead of time or reschedule, and that's another way to help prevent those no-shows. I actually have very few no-shows for appointments anymore. With the confirmation and reminders that I have, most people show up for those appointments or maybe they're a couple minutes late, but they're still there and ready to get on a call with me.

Speaker 1:

And all of these things help you take care of and protect your own time so you can deliver high quality service to the clients who valued your expertise.

Speaker 1:

So we've talked about how an ideal calendar can keep you on track in your business and protect your time so you have the time you need to do client-facing work and meet with clients and potential clients. We've talked about how schedulers can do the heavy lifting of protecting your boundaries that you set with your ideal calendar and keep you from having to be the bad guy when it comes to protecting your boundaries. And we've also talked about how you can avoid time wasters like no-shows, so that you can protect your energy and time. If you're ready to protect your boundaries and your energy, I'd love to help you. You can book a 15-minute free discovery call to chat about how I can support your business and create workflows that allow you to use your time better, or check out my services at wwwamyschoolcom. Be sure to join my newsletter for more tips and insights. And don't forget if you're considering using Dubsado or HoneyBook to streamline your bookings and manage your time, use the link in the show notes for 20% off your first month or year.