I don't know about YOU, but I would rather spend my evenings and weekends garden 🪴 cuddled up with my pup Nala crocheting 🧶, or watching a Disney movie with my wife 🌈 than stuck behind my desk or glued to my phone. You started your business for MORE freedom, but when it is your passion and soul's calling sometimes it takes more time than it gives. I am here to change that!
As a slow living solopreneur, I have found a few hacks to streamline your business and simplify your social media so you can use that freed up time for hobbies, self care, family, or whatever matters MOST to you! Because when you are nourished physically, mentally, emotionally, & spiritually, you business will flourish financially. So let's dive into the 12 ways to speed up your business so you can slow down in life!
*this blog may contain affiliate links that results in me receiving a small commission if you purchase a product at no additional cost to you. This allows me to keep this blog ad free. Thank you for supporting my small business in this small way!
1. The 80% rule. If you are a perfectionist like me, you made have heard of this before. If not, no worries, it is simple to implement! Whatever you are working on, if it is 80% done and good enough, you can stop working on it and check it off the to-do list.✔️
"But Tara, what about showing up as my next level self and giving my community/business my all?". Most likely if you run a business especially on your own, you are incredibly driven and detail oriented. Your 80% is most people's 110%. I am all for over delivering and creating beautiful work, but I also tend to nitpick and waste hours each week obsessing over details no one would ever notice. If you are low on time and energy for the day or need to move on to the next thing, this is your permission slip to give yourself some grace and call it good enough! PLUS any imperfections just show your community and clients that being 100% perfect, polished, and professional isn't required to be successful!
2. Repost & Repurpose EVERYTHING📱This hack is going to save you SOOO much time and frustration when it comes to social media. I know how disheartening it can be to put so much effort & energy into a post only for the algorithm can be only show it to a small percentage of your audience. But it is also a blessing in disguise because you can REPOST it over and over again! Either by resharing an older post on the same app (which btw Instagram makes this sooo easy now with the "remix" option on reels. Watch the YouTube Video above for a tutorial) or by posting the same content across different social media apps. Almost every single one of my Instagram reels becomes a YouTube Short and most of posts end up on Pinterest. You create AMAZING content so make sure the people who need it, see it!
Want another time saving social media hack? Repurpose all your content too! If you wrote a weekly newsletter to your community (like I do with Magical Mail), you can turn bits of that into captions or threads. If you create YouTube videos, you can take clips and make them into reels. If you filmed a cute behind the scenes of you working at your desk or making a cup of coffee for your stories, you can save that video to add text to and make a reel or TikTok later on. Remember, anything and EVERYTHING can be content. And just like recycling, reuse and repurpose it!
3. Film B-Roll or Behind the Scenes Clips DAILY
As I said in the last tip, EVERYTHING is content - sitting at your desk, putting on makeup, walking the dog, setting up your lighting, making coffee, walking through your office door, time-lapse of your creative process, journaling - literally anything you do with good lighting can be turned into a story, reel, tiktok, or short. And right now B-roll is trending in the algorithm!
So instead of making fancy videos, just film yourself doing every day things, save it in a photo folder, and the next time you need to create some content scroll through the dozens of already filmed videos to add some text to & post. This saves me at least 30 minutes every day since I don't need to get dressed, do my hair & makeup, or set up my tripods/lighting to film a 10 second clip because it already exists whenever inspiration strikes!
🎀 BONUS hack: speaking of hair and makeup...if you haven't tried heatless curls yet they are a GAME CHANGER! Instead of 30 minutes every day curling my hair, it now takes 5 minutes at night to wrap it around a silk rod and 2 minutes in the morning to remove & shake it out. Plus no heat damage! I shared the process and more about it in the YouTube Video above for you!
4. Automate that sh*t aka emails & DM 💌 I know you love connecting with your community and that’s why you’re on social media, but you don’t need to be the one responding to every freebie request or sending the same email 10x. Automate it or at least save the text so you copy & paste it next time.
BUT at the same time don't become a robot. Technology is a beautiful tool that allows us to create relationships with humans across the globe and save time in our business, but there is a thing as too much of a good thing. Find the balance for you so you can save some time, but still foster connections in community. For me that looks like scheduling emails in advance, having sales funnels through my freebies, and DM automation for those requesting freebies, but all other emails, messages, and comments are responded to by me :)
5. Create Courses, Ebooks, Digital/Physical Products, or other Passive Income Options
If you are a coach or creative, you mostly sell your time for money either with hourly sessions or creating art that only you can physically do. But there are other ways to diversify your income such as courses, masterclasses, ebooks, journals, digital templates, physical products, affiliate sales, and so much more.
This year I really focused my efforts on creating journals & masterclasses so I can create it once and sell it forever with just a few copy & pasted posts and emails. It definitely takes time and effort the set up at first, but it saves you it in the long run. Need some inspiration for your own passive offers? Check out mine below:
6. Turn off notifications on ALL apps📱 This felt like breaking a rule when I first did it, but it has been SO GOOD for my mental health not constantly seeing every comment, DM, and email I needed to answer. My Home Screen is now BLANK. There’s never a banner showing everything I am missing when I am taking my lunch break, relaxing in the evenings, or the day off from social media. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE connecting with my community, but the second you open social media it is so easy to get sucked into scrolling. Which other than wasting time also tends to lead to imposter syndrome. Happen to you too? I made this EFT Tap-A-Long to help!
7. Set App & Phone Time Limits ⏰ This is the BEST feature Meta & Apple has made. Being able to create reminders when you've been on a certain app for more than 10 minutes is so helpful in being mindful with how you are spending your time. And the nightly downtime feature so the apps you choose aren't as easily opened is just enough of a barrier to snap you out of the habit of scrolling before bed so you can use that time for reading, crafting, self care, or whatever else you desire.
To enable social media app reminders: go to settings in the social media app > time spent > break reminders or daily limit
To enable downtime setting: go to settings on your phone > screen time > downtime > then customize it based off your schedule
(ps. I show you how to do BOTH in the YouTube video above!)
8. Consult your intuition ✨ this might be a bit woo-woo for some so take it if you love it, leave it if you don't, but I ask my intuition for what to write, film, launch, and post. She knows her sh*t and what my community actually needs to hear from me 👯
So once a week or daily, get quiet, & ask her that whatever needs to be shared pop in your head or flows through your pen. Instead of trying to force the creativity for hours or scroll online for inspiration, ask your intuition for it!
Need help hearing the whisper of your soul and trusting it's guidance for your life & business? This blog has MORE tips to tune in & ways to utilize it in your business!
9. Create Structure For Your Creativity to Grow On 🌱 How much time a week do you waste trying to decide what project to do next? As a gemini and manifesting generator I have at least a dozen new, exciting ideas in my head on any given day and trying to choose which to act on use to suck up a lot of my time. So I created a weekly schedule to help organize and make space for different types of ideas to grow each day. For example, Monday is content creation for social media so I take all the inspiration I've saved in collections on IG or wrote down in a note and create them the same day. Tuesdays I write my weekly email and blog that I am working on that month. Thursday I film the following week's YouTube Video and Friday is for editing and tying up loose ends. (plus some client calls sprinkled throughout the week!)
You can also do this with your social media accounts if you struggle with content creation by making pillars and patterns. Your pillars will be the 3-5 things your business is about. Mine are spirituality, simplifying business, and slow living with a sprinkle of Taylor Swift, Disney, and gayness. Each pillar is shared at least once a week in a pattern on my Instagram. For example one post is a reel and the next is a static text, graphic, or meme and repeat! That way I always know what comes next in terms of what I am posting and how I am formatting it.
Check out my Instagram @magically_tarasimone for an example & more business tips that I share!
10. Delegate or hire 💖 Now this hack I have not implemented myself yet because I refuse to hire until I can pay a full time, reliable living wage. But if you are at that point in your business or even able to bring on a social media manager, virtual assistant, or other help part time it is well worth the money to have a few hours of your time back.
Or you could utilize services like instacart or a house cleaner to save you time elsewhere so you can spend those hours doing whatever fills your cup!
11. Utilize Manifestation
I could write an entire blog on using Law of Attraction to speed up your day to day business activities and also long term goals (& maybe I will one day!), but taking the 3 minutes in the morning to future script or visualize your day going quickly & smoothly can help eliminate any kinks before you are faced with them. It also gets you into the vibration of future you that already mastered her schedule, streamlined her business, and found more success so she can live a slower life!
Plus it is such a peaceful way to start your day and isn't that the whole reason you are reading this blog? Because you desire more slow, calm moments like journaling or meditating with your cup of coffee in the morning! If you don't take anything else from your blog, start implementing this last hack of getting quiet and visualizing you crushing the to-do list, everything going better than imagined, and finishing your work day early. I promise, it'll make all the difference in your mood, perspective, energy, and might just manifest too!
If you'd like to dive MORE into Law of Attraction, check out this blog and Manifested It! The Journal for a simple 4 step customizable ritual you can do in less than 10 minutes a day!
12. Learn SEO (or use AI for help) 🤖 Again, I am NOT trying to turn you into a robot and would NOT recommend using Chat GPT or whatever other AI program is out there to write all your captions, emails, or offers. BUT I find incredibly helpful is writing SEO rich Meta Descriptions for my blogs, Pinterest blurbs for my pins, and creating titles for my YouTube videos. I simply copy and paste the entire blog or write my own brief description into Chat GPT with the prompt "rewrite this using SEO rich words so it ranks high in Google/YouTube/Pinterest/etc"
Now you may be wondering what is SEO? Search Engine Optimization aka the internet's algorithm. It's what decides which web pages appear on the first page of Google or what YouTube Videos or Pin pop up on the app first. Even Instagram now apparently cares more about the words in your caption than hashtags. Learning SEO can help people find YOU versus you finding them saving you time scrolling, engaging, and building community online. You can use sites like Semrush to find keywords to use for your content or some websites like Wix aka that I use has a SEO checklist built in. Or like I said above as AI to write your descriptions or titles!
Did you find this blog helpful? If so "like" 💖 it or comment below which time saving hack you are going to implement in your business and what you are going to do with those freed up hours!
And remember you started your business for MORE freedom, not to be glued to your phone. Once you implement these hacks, don’t use that saved time work more. Go spend time with friends, find a new hobby, practice self care, literally just BE 🥰 you deserve it!
Say it with me: "When I am nourished physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, my business with flourish financially!"
Need more help simplifying your business and customized advice streamlining it so you can live a slower life? I’m the coach for you 💁🏼♀️ in just 60 minutes a MONTH we will find easy shifts to make so your business works better for you and you get more time for whatever has fallen to the back burner!
Thank you again for reading & choosing me as your spiritual business mentor! I you have any questions, drop them in the comment below or email me at magicallytarasimone@gmail.com.
Now go implement some of these hacks so you can speed up your business and relax more in your life! As for me, I am going to hit up TjMaxx for some more Disney fall decor and spend the afternoon reorganizing my office.
See you in the next blog and YouTube video!
magically,
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