Double your Swag Business

1) Introduction

The day to day grind of managing orders can drive you nuts… well, if you’re like me and you’re managing your sales, marketing, invoicing, and everything else that’s involved in running your business.

As tough and important as it is to manage your production report, it can be really challenging to manage orders while still doing the tasks that will bring you more business. One of the hardest parts about managing orders is that oftentimes you are reacting as opposed to acting. Your supplier sends you a proof, so you need to get the proof to your client right away. Then before you know it an email comes in stating that you have to provide payment for a different project just so it can ship out on time. Before you get a chance to work on money making tasks another email arrives letting you know that the stock is out on a third project.

These interruptions happen throughout our day on a daily basis. But, I have good news! Implementing a proactive approach by working with VA’s (Virtual Assistants) that know the in’s and out’s of commonksu (and your business) - you can, and will, be able to get ahead of these interruptions so that everyone in your organization and your supplier partners can work more efficient.

The key is to having documented processes so your team knows what to do and when to do it.

You’ll need:

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)

• commonsku order management

• One virtual assistant (project manager)

• Key Contacts List (vendors etc)

• Email Templates (Proofs, Tracking, etc)

In this guide, we’ll cover the basics on how to work with your first VA to get your time back and bring in more business so that you can scale this system… which means more time you can spend away from the office with your friends and family (every business owners dream - a well oiled machine that can run itself without having you in the day to day grind).

2) The Ingredients

SOP’s
What are SOP's? Standard Operating Procedures are documents specific to one portion of a task or project that list out the instructions step by step and usually involve image demonstrations.

From the very beginning, our focus is aimed towards being mindful where we spend our time while we document the tasks that are consuming most of are time to create the SOP’s necessary.

SOP’s are crucial because it makes it so that our actions can be the same no matter who is performing the task. Whether you choose to work with VA’s or your employees that are in the office with you, it doesn’t make a difference because your plan is to grow your business and while doing so you’ll need to grow your team. SOP’s are the easiest and most efficient way to train your staff to perform the tasks the way they need to be done that works for your business to thrive.

commonsku

I’ve been using commonsku since 2014 and my sales have gone from $300,000 annually to nearly $1,000,000 annually in this time frame. I look at commonsku as the reason why I have been able to grow my business. It is the easiest order management and CRM solution specific to the Swag Industry. The platform is as intuitive as it is sleek in design.

For the purposes of talking about production reports, our focus will be on two main areas within commonsku:

1. Next Action Dates

2. Daily Production Reports & Calendaring

Next Action Dates: This is a feature within the production report that allows you to sort your PO’s based off the next time you need to, well, take action on any given PO. Think of it this way, anytime you update a PO (confirmed ship date, approve a proof, etc) go in to your production report and select the next “action date” that you need to work on the PO.

Daily Production Reports & Calendaring I’m a huge believer in calendaring! If you follow my podcasts, my regular blogs, or have read my book on working with VA’s then you probably already know this.

The point is, “if it’s not on my calendar, then it doesn’t exist”, I pretty much live by this quote. I would recommend you train your VA this way as well and choose a date and time for specific tasks that works well for them to update production reports.

As a bonus tip, you can be more efficient if you batch and theme your tasks. So, rather than just simply running a production report and attacking that as a whole. (Which could require you to send proofs, maybe call a factory about something other than a proof, update tracking, etc.) Focus on one specific task. So the theme here would be to put on your calendar “Confirm Ship Dates” on Monday at 10am from 10:30 or something similar.

You’ll be running a report that shows you the projected ship dates just for this task and you can focus on the same side of your brain to be more efficient.

One Virtual Assistant
When people first look to hire a virtual assistant they usually are doing so for specific tasks. For example, they would hire a graphic designer or someone to manage their AdWords. I like my first VA hire to be a project manager. The reason you probably need a VA in the first place is because you are wearing multiple hats and feel like you need some organization in your business (and life). So, the best first step is to work with a VA that understands the various roles you play and can help to get you more organized. From there work with them to create a game plan of tasks you will assign them. As they grow with you, they will learn your working style and they will eventually be managing future VA’s. No matter the skill set of the future VA’s, if you start with a project manager they will be able to train and manage your team as you grow.

Key Contacts List
One of the nice things about commonsku is that it is not just an order management tool, it’s also a CRM. That means you can tag your top suppliers by EQP, product category, state they ship out of, or however you choose. All of their contact information will be within your profile as well. This will come in handy when your VA is working on the PO’s and needs to stay in touch with the factories during the process.

Email Templates
Whether it’s an email to send your clients a proof, tracking, or anything else it’ll be helpful to your team to have pre-determined messaging to make you look more professional to your clients!

Besides just using this for production, you can use it for every phase of your business from prospecting emails, to presentation emails, sales order approvals, invoices, and all the way to sending a link for feedback on the project. The options are endless!

Well, we’re in luck because commonsku has a whole section on the back-end to update your specific canned responses. Using email templates will make it beyond easy for your VA to distinguish what to actually email your client when it comes time to get in touch with them.

In our next series on how to double your business using commonsku, we’ll dive into just how to use the commonsku production reports!

If you’re ready to get started and would like to learn how to recruit, hire, train, and manage one (or even a team) of Virtual Assistants, then please send me an email and we can schedule a time to talk. You can reach me at Sam@valuebp.com

Swag On,
SwagSam