The Ultimate Workflow Guide For Creative Business Owners
The Ultimate Workflow Guide For Creative Business Owners
Small business owners, let’s take a minute and recognize the amount of stuff we all have to do in one single day! In this fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, we are often juggling multiple tasks, deadlines and long-term goals and really kind of unsure if we’re doing it right. In addition, we’re constantly shifting between platforms, reach and longevity. How long will our content last? How can I reuse it? Repurpose it? That’s the purpose of this post, we’ve created the ultimate workflow guide for creative business owners.
In talking with clients, I find one of the most common gaps in their businesses are understanding what tasks are for what purpose, and how much time should they be dedicating to each one? And how often?
Whether you’re just starting on your entrepreneurial journey or are a seasoned business owner, staying organized and efficient is crucial for literal business survival. Marketing plans, content creation, engagement, growth, connection – how should you prioritize your tasks and time to get it all done? One tool that can make all the difference? A reliable workflow and system guide. Something that you can follow to make sure you’re ticking those to-do lists and creating healthy habits in your business that are profit generating.
Workflows or systems—whether physical or digital—serve as the perfect fit for busy entrepreneurs by helping them prioritize specific tasks, plan larger projects, and track long-term goals. They help us stay on track and focused and provide some much needed compartmentalization (and definition) to each task and it’s purpose! That’s key here folks! If there is one thing I’d like you to take away from this post is that everything you do in your business should have a clear and defined intention.
The Ultimate Creative Business Workflow Guide
That’s a long name for basically a guide that will help prioritize and break down your tasks into WHY and HOW MUCH. We’re going to identify the amount of time spent on each task, it’s intention and then, finally, it’s outcome. When I onboard new clients, the single biggest struggle for any creative is what task or platform they should tackle and how long each one should take. And the way they ask that is, “How am I supposed to make time for all the things that I need to do in my business?”
This post guide is going to help you answer that.
Systems and Workflow
Before we get into the planner though, I want to spend some time on really understanding what systems and workflow mean, particularly for creative entrepreneurs. As the wording suggests, it’s getting very methodical and logical about the way in which you spend time working on your business. If you’re drowning in your work, wondering if you can ever get ahead of it all and be in a creative, less-reactive space, it probably means you need to address your workflow.
Keep reading and I’m going to share a behind the scenes look at my own workflow and talk through the 10 essentials every workflow must include!!
I like to divide all the tasks that it takes to run a creative business into five categories – Craft, Connection, Community, Core and Capital.
Craft
This is the reason why we’re here. It’s the thing that you do – a product, or service. Without it, none of the other things would be necessary. We’re going to look at ways to ensure that you have enough time in your schedule to create freely. For service based providers, this category will probably be greater then product based.
Connection
This is how you’ll promote your offerings, build community, and attract clients or customers. It encompasses your marketing plan, activities, from creating social media content and sending emails to sharing blog posts and developing content. It doesn’t have to be complicated. To begin, I suggest that all entrepreneurs and creatives have both a social media platform they enjoy using and an email list. These systems covers all your marketing efforts and the tools used to execute them. It involves defining your marketing goals, choosing platforms that you enjoy and are home for your target audience – whether that’s TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest, and understanding how each one helps achieve your objectives. We’re going to provide you with a visual marketing ecosystem can help track your strategies across these different channels. This system also includes tools for content scheduling, analytics (like Google Analytics), and other metrics that guide your marketing decisions.
Community
This is where you’re nurturing your community and their unique needs. The people that have already signed up and are following along. Your subscribers are key here, but it also extends to any place where you’ve grown your network. Just remember, the most important system within community is your email marketing platform.
Email marketing refers to corresponding with and building your community via email. This digital marketing strategy involves sending emails, email campaigns or an email newsletter to a targeted group of individuals with the goal of promoting products or services, driving traffic back to your online store, building relationships, or generating brand awareness. It’s power comes from the fact that it’s a direct form of communication between a business and its audience, typically using email platforms or marketing automation tools like flodesk (our fav!), mailchimp, convertkit, etc.
But then how you set up some workflows within your email marketing? We’re talking welcome sequence, automations, analytics, call to actions, promotions, out-reach, collaboration…
Core
This system is where you’re storing all crucial business information, such as passwords, financial records, documents, and key contacts. It’s highly customizable to each business and varies greatly depending on personal preferences, strengths and weaknesses and time management. Having an organized operations system ensures smooth day-to-day operations. It’s not the most glamorous, but it’s where you have the most information about your business and how to move it forward.
This is important for managing the big and small pieces of your business and tasks. Think of it as your task manager. What’s an effective system though? In a few words, one that you will use, so make sure you consider that when picking a software or building a system. Platforms like Trello, Asana, Monday or ClickUp are great tools.
These workflows can also include your client or customer process, or in other words, the flow through which you generate new clients and then;
- Marketing workflow – a client’s/customer’s initial exposure to brand/creating brand awareness
- Client onboarding workflow – the booking or sale process and how to integrate your branding into this process
- Project workflows – the actual process of working with my clients one-on-one (various workflows for various types of projects)
- Client off-boarding workflow – moving my client from active status to former or returning client
Capital
Maybe not the most exciting of the four, but probably the most important. I know, sorry! I honestly kind of suck at finances, never been good at it. But, I realized that the thing I needed to take my craft from a hobby to a business was really handling the finances in a serious way. Tracking and managing finances is critical for any entrepreneur. This system allows you to monitor income, set financial goals, create projections, and handle taxes. Tools like QuickBooks, Honeybook, Stripe and Zoho help manage financial transactions and records. Some business management platforms also offer integrated financial management features.
***Care:
Adding this one in here, because it’s about you after all. We can’t forget that we need someone (that someone is you!) who’s in charge or and running all the other systems, and to do that, our own systems need to be nurtured. As an entrepreneur or creative, it’s way too easy to overlook self-care. A care system helps you manage personal well-being, such as meal planning, home care, and daily routines like exercise and taking breaks. These systems are deeply personal and obviously vary but they can also include things like help with daily tasks – laundry service, cleaning services, etc.
The point is, don’t overlook the things that you need to keep running. Burnout happens fast, probably reading this post created some stress for you (which we hope to change with the guide!) so make sure you schedule in your self-care if you have to. It’s vital!!
Business Growth And Managing Different Tasks.
And we know, there are so many!!
Small businesses often involve a wide range of activities, from managing customer service to marketing plans, content planning and then of course creating the great things that make all of that necessary. Without proper organization, it’s easy to lose track of your daily activities and overlook essential tasks.
1. Compartmentalization of Tasks: Knowing what category the tasks falls into makes it easier to divide those tasks into daily, weekly and monthly goals. You’ll be able to break down each task into its respective category and dedicate a set amount of time to each. You’ll know when you’re out of balance and when you need to push and pull a little.
2. Organizing Daily Tasks: Having a dedicated daily planner ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. Assigning specific tasks to specific days helps you manage your time more efficiently.
3. Goal Setting and Long-Term Planning: Planners allow you to break down big dreams into actionable steps, such as setting quarterly goals or tracking your progress toward achieving a lean startup format.
4. Improved Focus and Productivity: A productivity planner helps you stay on top of both personal and professional goals, ensuring that you move forward in the right direction, even when life gets busy.
5. Project Management: Whether you’re managing new products, marketing strategies, or content creation, having a comprehensive planner can help keep larger projects on track by splitting them into smaller, manageable tasks.
Craft, Connecting, Community, Core and Capital – How Do You Divide Your Time?
To divide your time effectively across your five core workflows—Craft, Connection, Community, Core, and Capital—depends on your current business stage and goals and how much time you have per week to dedicate. Some of us have 5 hours while others have 50… Here’s a guide on how to allocate your time based on different stages of your business:
* Keep in mind these are suggestions and while I can’t give you exact figures, this is what I would suggest based on my own experience, my clients and mentors and what I do in my own business – scroll here for my EXACT Business Workflow.
1. Starting Out
If you’re here, you’re likely laying the foundation for your business. You’re likely focusing on defining your craft and refining your product or service. The goal here is to build something that represents your vision. It’s a time to establish brand identity, set up basic systems, and start building an audience. Most of your time will be spent on perfecting what you offer while setting up foundational marketing and operational systems.
- Craft (45%): Focus on refining your product or service. Lots of learning, perfecting, trying… This is the foundation, so most of your time should be spent creating or improving what you offer.
- Connection (20%): Begin building awareness by establishing a social media presence and starting an email list.
- Community (20%): Nurture your early audience, but it’s still small, so less time is needed here. Small but it matters!
- Core (10%): Set up your operations, like organizing files, documents, and systems. Lay the groundwork for growth while it’s still manageable.
- Capital (5%): Get a basic handle on your finances and set up a system for tracking income and expenses.
2. Growth Mode
When you’re in growth mode, the focus shifts toward expansion. You’ve already established your product or service and now need to scale your audience, reach more potential customers, and convert them. This stage is marketing-heavy, involving more outreach, content creation, and network-building. You’ll also work on streamlining systems and operations to handle the increase in demand. Community-building becomes critical, as retaining existing customers is as important as attracting new ones.
- Craft (30%): Keep improving your product/service, but you’ll spend less time here since the basics are in place and other elements are slowly growing.
- Connection (30%): Focus heavily on marketing, social media, and outreach to grow your audience and attract new clients/customers.
- Community (20%): As your audience grows, nurture relationships via email marketing, social media engagement, and community-building strategies.
- Core (10%): Maintain your operations system and adapt to new challenges as the business scales.
- Capital (10%): Track and plan for increased revenue and expenses as you grow, possibly hiring help if needed.
3. Established/Stable Mode
In this stage, your business is more stable, with a solid customer base and systems in place. The focus is less on building and more on maintaining what’s been established. You might spend more time on refining the customer experience, nurturing your existing community, and ensuring the business runs efficiently. Growth may still happen, but it’s more incremental and strategic. Financial planning and operational efficiency become more important.
- Craft (20%): By this stage, your offerings are well-developed, so time spent here is more about refinement or expanding your product/service line.
- Connection (20%): Marketing continues but becomes more streamlined with established workflows and systems in place.
- Community (30%): Building deeper relationships with your existing audience becomes a priority—focus on retention and increasing lifetime customer value.
- Core (20%): You may now be managing teams, delegating tasks, or refining your operations for efficiency.
- Capital (10%): Financial planning, investing profits into new ventures or growth strategies, and managing cash flow are key.
4. Focusing on Building Your Network
If your goal is to build your network, you’re looking to expand your reach through networking, partnerships, and increasing visibility. You might be focusing on attending industry events, forming collaborations, or reaching out to new markets. It’s about creating connections that could lead to future opportunities, whether through referrals, partnerships, or brand exposure. You’ll spend significant time on outreach and community-building activities.
- Craft (20%): Maintain product/service quality, but spend more time on outreach.
- Connection (40%): This will be your priority—spend time growing your online presence, networking, and advertising.
- Community (20%): Nurture new relationships from networking efforts. Engage with them consistently through emails, social media, and other platforms.
- Core (10%): Ensure your systems are in place to handle the influx of new connections.
- Capital (10%): Allocate resources for network-building activities like attending events, advertising, future plans and outreach efforts.
5. Converting Leads or Advertising
When your goal is to convert leads or invest in advertising, you’re at a stage where you have a lot of interest but need to close sales or deals. Often, we get stuck here. And we ask, “I have the followers/audience, but no one is buying” Here, marketing and lead nurturing take priority. You’ll focus on analyzing your customer, guiding people through your sales funnel, improving your client onboarding process, and optimizing your advertising strategy – does it go to where your customer is? It’s also about finding ways to convert warm leads into paying customers or clients.
- Craft (20%): Continue refining your product, but the emphasis shifts more toward sales.
- Connection (30%): Focus on marketing and advertising to bring in more leads.
- Community (20%): Use your email list and social media to build trust and nurture those leads into customers.
- Core (10%): Ensure your systems can handle new customers and support lead conversion.
- Capital (20%): Invest in advertising, tracking your return on investment, and managing budgets for lead generation campaigns.
Different Stages Of Business And Shifts In Workflows
You’ll probably notice a few things:
1. As a busy entrepreneur, the time you allocate to your craft decreases as your business grows. This happens for a few reasons. One, you’re BUSY AS HECK! Two, Your admin responsibilities increase, meaning you don’t have as much time to spend on creating. This is natural and expected. Three, your business expands and branches out to other avenues – teaching others for example, leaving you with additional tasks that are revenue generating but in different ways.
2. Your time spend on Core stays pretty stable. That’s because it’s something you’ll want to establish and maintain consistently throughout all stages of your business. If you take the time at the beginning to establish them, you’ll get in the habit of doing this naturally, gifting you with some stability in that regard.
3. Connection and Community are always around 40-60% of your time. This is because it’s the most important part of your business. This includes how to connect with others, how you build your network and community and how often you communicate with them. It should NEVER be ignored, even when you’re well into stable or established mode.
The Ultimate Workflow Guide For Creative Business Owners
Steal My EXACT Business Workflow
I promised to share my own workflow and talk through the 10 essentials every workflow must include. Here is how I organize my time, at this moment in my business, which is somewhere between growth mode and established/stable. Think of this as my own weekly planner… I am currently working full-time in my business, working approximately somewhere between 10-30 hours per week. Here is what my week and tasks look like:
Monday: Core, Capital and Craft and Connection
Monday AM: Core and Capital.
I get invoices, order forms, proposals and task overview out of the way. This can take anywhere between 2-4 hours. I also check last week’s google analytics, review ad revenue and site performance. Sometimes this needs some tweaks which I set aside for the next morning.
I use Asana, my notebook and WooCommerce to manage all of this.
Monday PM: Craft, Connection and Community.
I divide my afternoon into working on client work – web design, content, newsletter creation, branding, etc. In fact, because I am a service based provider doing most of the work myself, most of my time is spent on this category, so I need to be very careful not to neglect the others.
Once I’ve completed that, I spend the remaining 30% of time on my community and connections. Sometimes this involves sending out marketing emails, reaching out, coordinating future partnerships and so on.
Tuesday: Craft, Core
Tuesday AM: Craft / Core, if needed.
Tuesday PM: Craft
Wednesday: Connection, Community and Core
Wednesday AM: Connection and Community – social media creation – reels, post scheduling, creating Pinterest Pins and scheduling Pins for the last blog post / content.
Wednesday PM: Craft – also includes painting and creative exploration.
Thursday: Craft
Thursday AM: Craft – also includes painting and creative exploration.
Thursday PM: Flex – usually by this point in the week something has come up, writing proposals, responding to client inquiries or some tech issues that need addressing, so I leave this time open for any surprises!
Friday: Craft, Community
Friday AM: Craft / Core – connecting with clients, sending out updates, revisions, etc.
Friday PM: Community – writing and scheduling out Monday’s newsletter, blog post creation. I schedule out my email newsletter using Flodesk’s scheudling for Monday morning, and then, my blog post for either Tuesday or Thursday the following week.
For me, my current workflow looks a bit like this:
- Craft (40%): Heavily client driven, but this also includes time I have to paint and be creative.
- Connection (10%): Marketing, Social Media, Pinterest, Website Updates
- Community (20%): Building deep relationships with my community via my newsletter and email, as well as writing blog posts.
- Core (20%): Sometimes this means delegating tasks to others, on boarding and off boarding clients, admin tasks.
- Capital (10%): Financial projections, making sure I’ve tracked everything, as well as looking at what my ad revenue is and how much I can return back into advertising. I’m working towards setting a goal towards spending whatever money I generate from on-site ads and use only that towards my marketing plan.
Here are 10 essentials every creative entrepreneur workflow should include:
- Clear Goals and Objectives: Every workflow should start with a defined goal, whether it’s creating a product, completing a project, or reaching a marketing target. This helps guide decision-making and prioritize tasks.
- Time Management: Incorporate time-blocking or scheduling tools (like Google Calendar or a time tracker) to ensure projects stay on track and deadlines are met without burnout.
- Task Prioritization: Break tasks into actionable steps and prioritize based on urgency and importance. Tools like Asana, or Trello can help streamline this process.
- Idea Generation and Capturing: Create a system for capturing ideas (like a digital notebook or voice memo app) to help you store, organize, and revisit creative concepts when needed.
- Project Management: A strong project management system ensures every step of your creative process is documented, assigned, and tracked. Tools like ClickUp or Monday help keep larger projects and collaborations on track.
- Collaboration and Communication: If working with a team, ensure there’s a workflow for consistent communication and file sharing (using Slack, Dropbox, or Google Drive). Even as a solo creative, communication with clients should be seamless and clear.
- Feedback and Review Process: Building in time for feedback, whether from clients, collaborators, or self-review, ensures the final product is high-quality and aligns with the brief or vision.
- Resource and Asset Management: Have a central location to store and organize key resources like design files, templates, contracts, or inspiration boards. This helps save time and keep everything organized.
- Automation: Use tools to automate repetitive tasks, such as social media scheduling, integrated out third party, email marketing (Flodesk, for example) or even invoicing and payment systems (QuickBooks, Honeybook).
- Performance Analytics: Regularly track the performance of your work, whether it’s sales, engagement, or creative output. Review analytics, reflect on what worked and what didn’t, and make improvements for future projects.
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The Ultimate Workflow Guide For Creative Business Owners
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The Ultimate Workflow Guide For Creative Business Owners