I don’t know a single business owner who would not love to be booked out with their dream clients. It is something we all strive for! But before you continue to race towards the booked-out finish line, let’s do a quick check-in to make sure you and your business are ready and primed for working with a full roster of clients! 

As VAs and OBMs, you probably have at least heard of systems before, if not have your own implemented in your offers and projects. But what about on the back end of your business? While it is totally possible to become booked out without many business systems in place, if having a smooth-working business that is easily scalable is your goal, systems are going to be your new best friend. 

But in case you’re not exactly sure what I mean by a “system” (no worries!), it simply means having a designated way you perform a certain task (or business processes), every time you do it. I especially love when my systems can be automated, or when they can run on their own! My favorite tool for setting up systems in my online business (both automated and not) is Dubsado. The majority of my systems are set up within this program, which saves me so much time, effort, and many tech-related headaches!

Thankfully, Dubsado has an amazing trial period that lasts for your first three projects! So there’s no rush to integrate everything in just one or two weeks, you have plenty of time to get in there and play around with it before you commit to paying for it! But, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here! Let’s chat about some of the systems you can set up, to make sure that your business is running as smoothly as possible before you get that full roster of clients!

Onboarding

Having a system laid out to onboard new clients will be absolutely essential for making sure your business is flowing smoothly behind the scenes. 

In an onboarding system, you will lay out the process your new client will go through to become integrated within your business. I would argue that this is one of the most important systems you will have in your business, because it gives your new client the first impression of what it will be like to work with you! 

A great onboarding process will usually include things like automated but personalized emails, branded forms, a welcome packet, and more!

In fact, it is so important that I even created an entire course called Onboard + Destress. This program is not for the passive learner, you will be having actionable steps in each and every module. If your onboarding process leaves a little to be desired or it isn’t as automated as you’d like, this may be your new best friend!

Invoicing

Whether you automate your invoices (recommended!) or choose to send them out manually, having a system in place for it will help make sure you aren’t making little mistakes or forgetting a crucial part of your process. 

Within Dubsado, you can schedule invoices to be sent out automatically, depending on the payment schedule you have laid out. If your clients are on retainer, you can schedule to have your invoices sent out on the same day each month for the entirety of the retainer. 

Another bonus to using Dubsado for invoicing is that it will do all the heavy lifting when it comes to sending reminders for late payments, too! Having this automated will help alleviate the time and burden of having to continue to check in to see if payments are being made. Obviously, this information is good to know, but you don’t have to worry about continuing to follow up as you can set it to do it for you!

If you price your work hourly, Dubsado also offers a Time Tracker that you can connect to the exact project you’re working on. That way, when you’re creating your invoice, you don’t need to hunt down how long you worked on the project or try to guess, you will have all of that information right at your fingertips, saving you so much valuable time (and helping you to avoid costly mistakes!). 

Contracts

First and foremost, I hope that every business owner reading this has a contract that they send to new clients! I won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but contracts are so important for a variety of reasons. It not only outlines what each party should expect from the other, but it also protects you and your business as well. Even for your smallest package or service, always, always have a contract!

Having a system that automatically fills in the blanks and allows automatic e-signatures on your contracts will save you so much time, and keep you from all that back-and-forth emailing with clients. Dubsado will automatically fill in your and your client’s information, and allow them to easily e-sign right on the spot, without having to download any software.

Once you both sign it, it is saved for both parties to view within Dubsado, you don’t need to re-send the duly signed contract back to them again!

Within Dubsado, you can effortlessly link a proposal, a contract, and an invoice all together for making your client’s transition into your business absolutely seamless! Having this set up not only keeps me and my business safe, but it also sets the tone for working together. My clients know exactly what they can expect from me, and there is no guessing as to what exactly will be included. Having this process automated means that my client can take their time to review the contract, and then have all of their next steps immediately available to them. No waiting for me to email them back, making it much more convenient for everyone involved! 

Scheduling 

When you don’t have a system for scheduling, that’s when things can start to get a little messy. Between your work calendar, personal calendar, and your day-to-day tasks, if there isn’t a clear system for how things are scheduled, you may end up double-booking yourself or creating other schedule conflicts! 

Within Dubsado, you can connect your calendars, set specific availability times and dates for different types of meetings, and it will automatically update those availabilities based on the calendars you have linked to it. 

No matter which platform or software you use for scheduling, I recommend coming up with a system that works for you to keep all of your calendars synced. Some fun things to think about could be designating specific days for certain tasks, like having all of your client calls on Mondays, or something like that! 

Lead Funnels

Basically, a funnel is the process a lead goes through that brings them to the ultimate goal of working with you. So when a lead finds you from Reels, follows you, and fills out the contact form to inquire about working with you, that is the funnel that leads them to you!

Another example of this could be someone signing up for your newsletter or for a freebie. With this kind of funnel, you have a little more control over the funnel itself, because you choose the exact information you’ll be sending them in the emails and newsletters that follow. 

Having lead funnels set up before you’re booked out can help to make sure that you are nurturing your leads without having to personally engage with every single one all the time. Get your funnels in place ahead of time so that it will do that work for you!

Dubsado offers a great contact form, but this is where it will also come in handy to have an email marketing software of some kind! I am currently using AWS by Amazon. 

Leads Tracking

Having a system for tracking leads will help to make sure that none of them slip through the cracks! 

There are many different ways of doing this, which will just mean that it is important to find a system of doing it that works well for you and your business! Some people use an excel document, which is great if you are looking for something simple that you can easily implement right away.

Depending on your goals and where you like to bring clients in from the most, this process can look a little different. For example, if you tend to get most of your leads from Instagram, then setting up an excel sheet that tracks engagement and conversations with potential clients will be super helpful. But, if most of your clients come from your freebies or your email lists, then using your email marketing software to track leads will be a great place to put your attention. 

Booking out your services is something we all strive for, and is something to be extremely proud of when you do accomplish it! Making sure that your business is prepared and built on solid ground before that point will make sure that you are able to easily continue to grow and scale. Systems are here to work for you so that you don’t have to wear quite as many hats every day. 

Is the back-end of your business ready for book-out?! Let me know in the DMs over on Instagram!