Let’s be real: none of us are as efficient as we wish we could be.
Some days, a seemingly simple email can take half an hour to write. Or you spend half the morning customizing a scope of work for a new client prospect. It can get exhausting fast.
Luckily, there are ways to save time in your business that can actually improve your clients’ experience.
1) Identify WHERE You Are Losing Time in Your Consulting Business
We all have different work styles—but many of us face similar challenges in our consulting businesses. Identifying where your business and client work is sucking up unnecessary time in your day is critical.
For example, are any of THESE activities taking up a disproportionate amount of your time?
- Call scheduling and reminders
- Email prep and follow-up for client meetings
- Consulting scopes of work (especially customizing everything)
- Consulting contracts
- Client follow-up emails for standard things (like discovery calls, intake meetings, scope of work submission, etc.)
- Client strategy sessions and follow-up communications
- Client onboarding and offboarding
These are common areas where nonprofit consultants report losing time, but your pain points may be different. For example, one consultant we know was struggling with a particular client around communications and document management. Frustrated, she finally carved out time to fix the situation once—instead of struggling and losing time every week.
2) Target 1-2 Priority Areas to Streamline Your Workflow and Save Time in Your Consulting Business
Streamlining your entire workflow can feel overwhelming and like simply adding more work. Instead, we recommend starting with one small area.
For example, let’s say crafting scopes of work for prospective new clients has become a time-sucking thorn in your side. But instead of starting from zero every time, try creating one or more scope of work templates.
Your templates might include:
- Template scope of work and pricing for each of your top services
- Template contract for each of your top services
- Template email for client follow up to share your scope of work
- Template email for client follow up to send your contract
Yes, the initial template creation will take you time upfront. But there are many benefits to this approach. In addition to saving time:
- You will be clearer about your services and value-add when speaking to clients—increasing your confidence and making it less likely that you’ll pitch overly customized services.
- Customizing and sending scopes of work will take minutes, instead of hours.
- Clients will be impressed with your timeliness and thoroughness.
This is the power of using time-saving templates in your business. You streamline your workflow and improve client relationships at the same time.
3) Explore Other Templates That Could Save You Time in Your Consulting Business
Once you’ve tested out one area and seen the benefits of integrating templates into your business, you can start to address other pain points.
For example, our Lead Consultant Marie Palacios realized she could save herself 3,000 emails per year by optimizing her calendar scheduling apps and creating prep and reminder templates. Marie’s client communications and management went from a hassle to a breeze. The result was a huge savings in time, stress, and mental energy.
