Welcome to the last post in our Creating a Lifestyle Brand in Jamaica Series!
As you know, September will be our 10 year Anniversary and we wanted to be intentional in creating value added content that you can use as a reference for Creating your own Lifestyle Brand. As you can tell from the title above, today it’s all about creating systems for efficiency.
Entrepreneurs and business owners face a common problem: Too much to do; too little time.
What are Systems?
A system is a method of solving a repeated business issue in a strategic and effortless way. Systems are the sine qua non of the cliche “work smart, not hard.”
Creating a Lifestyle Brand in Jamaica: Creating Systems
Building a Lifestyle Brand means there are a lot of moving parts — Lifestyle is pretty much like Fashion and Entertainment, it never sleeps and the work is never ending. I am actually writing this article on a Monday night at precisely 8:15 pm. It’s great to have an idea of the Scope of work, and be sure to have an idea of how long tasks will take. Below, I have listed a few ways to create systems to streamline tasks so that things are easier.
- Plan your Process: Systems works because they solve an issue you are currently having. In my case, my issue is “Content Fatigue” as it relates to writing articles. I would like to go back to the old days when Haute People publishes new content daily . Clearly writing these articles on a daily basis takes a lot of time as I have other things to do in my personal and professional life. I have blocked out one specific day I dub “Content Day” where the only take I have on this day is to write articles.
- Identify the Problem: This clearly should have been the first step, but let’s roll with it. Just imagine in a perfect world, this Step 2 was actually Step 1, did you imagine it? Ok, let’s move on. Your Problem could be for example that you have to turn over a high volume of photos + video and you are not equipped to do that. You can create a list of Photographers and Videographers and create a data base that you can easily pull from instead of scouring the. Internet and Instagram for these individuals, then have to vet all the applicants and so on. Initially, this was a major problem as we were invited to cover several events on a weekly basis so what I did was put all the Photographers and Videographers into a comprehensive data base and grouped them by skill level, speciality area, cost, turn around time and rate. You might not have to get as technical as I did, but remember the goal is to make things easier.
- Execute: This is the part where most people have the difficulty with as it takes the most time. The thing about creating systems is that they take time to set up and can leave you quitting in the middle but hang in there. When I just started the Blog and decided to take things professional, I realised there were some things that were considered a given that I did on a consistent basis so I created a system. I use simple platforms like Google and it’s products to create various documents and spreadsheets to make life easier. the good thing is that you can simply click “copy” to create multiples of a document versus creating documents from scratch. I use Google Docs and Sheets for my Content Calendars and Canva for Digital Strategy and I simply create folders for each product and simply “copy” these and switch out the content on a monthly basis.
Conclusion
The types are systems you can create for your Lifestyle Brand are endless! Remember, the end goal is to make things easier to avoid burnout as well as months (or years) of stress and frustration. These systems can be as simple or complicated as possible and can even be outsourced to skilled professionals on sites like Fiverr if you are not able to create them.
Let us know if you have created any system for your Lifestyle Brand or you plan to after reading this article.
#Creating a Lifestyle Brand in Jamaica: Creating Systems
#Creating a Lifestyle Brand in Jamaica: Creating Systems
#Creating a Lifestyle Brand in Jamaica: Creating Systems
#Creating a Lifestyle Brand in Jamaica: Creating Systems
