Ways of Working: What even is it? Love it or Hate it?
Recently I was chatting to a friend, who is also a solo female founder. And I was explaining that one of the things I help people with is “ways of working”.
She made a sick face🤮 . “I hate that term.. ‘ways of working’, it’s just. so… corporate!”, she said 😂. And this really surprised me because I really LOVE the term! And think it encapsulates so much.
AND - I love working on ways of working!
So it got me thinking about writing this blog... all about what ways of working are, and what they mean to you?
So I think ways of working are all about how you go about your business. So that could be from daily routines and schedules through to the systems and processes in your business, through to how you make a decision in your business; Do you do things the same way every time or not? Etc.
I've thought of a few different categories that I would say that it encompasses. I was hoping it might get you thinking about your ways of working and whether tweaking any of them could bring benefits to your business. Because usually, this is where we can make big gains and have full control.
Firstly, let's talk about your daily schedule. Maybe you have a really structured schedule where you get up the same time every day, do the same activities every Monday or perhaps your schedule is more flexible. Neither are wrong. It's just good to know which you do and make sure that works for you. Another aspect of routine is what what do you do in the morning. Do you do something like a walk journal, coffee with no screens. Anything to set you up positively for the day.
And similarly, when you're sat at your desk at the end of the day do you do an end of day wrap up? There's real value to having an end of day routine to review your accomplishments plan for the next day and make sure you smoothly transition from work to personal time.
Number two is all about systems and processes. If you can use some kind of tech to streamline your operations. It can really reduce the chaos and make you more efficient. Loads of tools and software like Trello, clickup, dubsado, Moxie, all help solo business owners. This is all part of your ways of working.
I would put automation in this category too. Client Onboarding, email marketing. What do you automate? And what don't you? Is it a conscious choice or you just haven't got around to it?
Number three is an interesting one, around decision making, I feel that this is a way of working too. So for me, I encourage my clients, and I do this myself, to to make sure that each week you prioritise three things to work on - this is my decision making process for “what I work on”. You can use various frameworks such as pros and cons lists or the Eisenhower matrix to help you make those decisions.
Another way of working is to make sure you're using data and analytics to make more informed decisions about for example, what kind of marketing you might do more of. You always need to balance this with our intuition and gut feeling too.
Number four is about how to get down to workin- so time management techniques. Do we use time blocking? How do we prioritise and make sure we don't try to multitask all ways of working.
Number five is a big one. How do you communicate with your clients or people in your business world? Is it across multiple channels? WhatsApp, Instagram, email? Do you have a way that you communicate with different people depending on what the purpose of the conversation is? That's a way of working.
How do you communicate with clients? Same thing.
Number six, I would say is one of the really key ones for me and that's around goal setting and planning. How do you set goals? How often do you set them? How do you review them? How do you make sure they're still relevant? How do you map and visualise your goals? Always have working?
I have one client who didn't have a way to manage her goals. And she's really visual. So we created a simple Trello board and mapped out her goals and steps. She also really likes to know why she's doing things because that motivates her to do them. So I made sure that they were visible on the board. too. This has now become a set way of working for her every quarter.
Another client would share meeting meetings with her clients by sending an email to arrange a time then send them a separate email with a zoom link in Nowhere does she send a calendar- this was confusing for everybody. We worked together to help her install Calendly and link her zoom into it. So now the calendar link goes over with the Zoom link when the client books in on Calendly - saves time, better client experience.
So, to conclude, there is absolutely no right or wrong way of working for any solo business owner. But I would say it's really important to understand the way you work and make sure that they are conscious decisions and not just because you've fallen into them or because you don't know what you don't know how to think about what's working for you and what isn't and how you might make changes to work even better for you and your business.
If you would like to book a discovery call to find out how I can help you and support you to do this. so you can get sorted and feel supported. You can do so here. Book discovery Call
