As January comes to an end, I wanted to share a design workshop I led for Happiness Society with you.
I am encouraging you to think of your business as an object that abides by the same design principles as any object one would craft. However, your business is not a physical thing. It is intangible. It is an experience. It is an entity that your clients interact with.
In this workshop I proposed some discussion questions to think about how you would improve the design of your User Experience (UX) to:
Make your clients’ experience seamless to interact with you
Make your systems on the back-end as effortless as possible.
Step 1 - Reflect
Start by reflecting on 2021.. looking at reviews, testimonials, feedback from clients — what worked well? What didn’t work well? What do you need to improve on?
Maybe they had trouble signing up to your workshop.
Maybe they never received the link in their inbox.
Maybe they never received the invoice for their monthly payment to your membership program.
These are all UX issues that can be solved with better tools.
What type of content do you enjoy creating?
Like, really enjoy.
Do you feel energized by filming videos? Do you spend hours in Canva making info graphics? Do you love having audio conversations & listening to podcasts?
Follow the joy.
That’s exactly the type of content you SHOULD be creating.
No other marketing strategy is going to work for you unless you follow what brings YOU and only YOU joy.
Because when you create from joy, others can sense it and they are magnetized to it.
Step 3 - Dream
Who will you serve in 2022? What will this person need from you? What tools will you need to make this offering possible?
Will my website need..
New functionalities?
New pages?
New branding?
A new LMS (learning management system)
A payment processing platform?
Will I need to develop a presence on …
TikTok?
Instagram?
Pinterest?
A newsletter?
A podcast?
At this point, don’t limit yourself by the “possible”, “what you can afford”, “what you deserve”. Remove all of these stories and narratives to get to what you really want.
One way I like to do this is by imagining someone gave me 1M$…
If money was no object … What tools would you invest in to make your biz run smoothly?
Would you have a transactional website? 💻
A seamless booking tool? 🗓
An online yoga studio with video on demand? 🧘🏼♀️
Maybe it’s a new computer 🖥
A ring light 💡
A microphone 🎙
Take this list and make it your Business Expenses Wish List for the year
Write it down in a notebook.
Add it to your Notion file.
Put it on your Google Drive.
And any time you want to celebrate or move forward when you make a win, knock one of these tools off the list.
I just bought myself a ring light to celebrate signing on a new client - it was 40$ well spent because now I can film more Céline Dion lipsyncs :) And that brings me joy.
Step 3 - Plan
Here’s what I propose for mapping out the year.
Think of the year broken up into 4 seasons.
winter
The winter allows you to look inward & evaluate.
What 1 new tool from your dream wishlist can you implement to make your client's experience better as you prepare for the Spring?
spring
The spring is lively & exciting.
How can you get as much feedback as possible from your clients to prepare a plan for the summer? What 1 new tool can you implement that will make sure you get consistent feedback?
summer
The lethargic months of “catching up”.
Save the hardest one for the Summer. Business slows down, you have more time to ease in to new tools and integrate them slowly.
What 1 tool from your dream wishlist that SEEMS hard, tedious and long will you be able to implement with all of your free time? What investment will make launch season the Fall even more spectacular?
fall
Action-packed. Back to school energy.
What 1 tool from your dream wishlist will make your backend processes smoother to save you time?
Was this helpful for you? Let me know ❤️