HoneyBook Pro Stacey Hooker is an expert at helping Independents simplify and streamline their businesses. Just in time for summer, she’s sharing four tips on how you can take the time off you deserve- without worrying about running your business!
With summertime coming up, we’re all focused on family plans, vacations, summer camps, and much more. On the business side, you might be preparing by batch creating creation and scheduling all your social posts and emails, but is the backend of your business ready for you to enjoy some time off this summer?
Will new leads generated throughout the summerr leave you feeling frazzled and not able to take time off and actually relax?
OR
Will they be easily managed with the systems you have in place while you’re sipping a fruity cocktail on the beach?
A few minor tweaks to your calendar, contact form, and initial inquiry response email, and you’ll be ready to enjoy some fun in the sun while your systems and automations take care of the rest HANDS-FREE!
Here are four quick ways you can get your business ready for summer:
1. Turn on your out of office response and update your HoneyBook Scheduler accordingly
Setting your summer schedule and blocking off your calendar now will help you avoid those stressful moments when a client books on a day you have plans with your family.
Your availability on each HoneyBook scheduling session can be customized, so take some time to consider which sessions you want to be available for and which you want to limit.
Sample Summer Schedule:
- Monday & Wednesday: Available 9-5
- Tuesday & Thursday: Available 9-12 noon
- Friday: OFF!
Once you know what you want your summer schedule to look like and what sessions you want to prioritize, open up your HoneyBook Scheduler and make the changes! It really is that easy!
For the days and times you’re out, be sure to update your out of office responder so leads and clients know when you’ll be back and who to go to for immediate support (your website or an employee, for example).
2. Update your HoneyBook contact form by removing services you do not want to offer during the summer
There are a few ways you can incorporate your summer plans on your contact form so you don’t lose momentum in your business!
- Start a waitlist for any service(s) you don’t plan to offer during the summer months. Doing this will allow you to have leads waiting for you when you’re ready to start those services back up!
- Incorporate “starting at” pricing on your contact form to further qualify your leads. Doing this will allow your clients to decide if your services are within their budget and ensure both parties are using their time most effectively during the summer months. (Let’s be honest, there’s nothing more uncomfortable for both parties than the moment of silence or deer in the headlights look when the investment is more than initially anticipated.)
- Include “next steps” at the end of your contact form to let clients know what they can expect to happen next. Should they watch for an email in the next 24-48 hours? Will they be redirected to your online scheduler? Maybe both? Sharing the next steps clears up any confusion for your clients and frees you up from answering emails asking, “What’s next?”
Pro Tip: Save even more time by having your discovery call scheduler session linked to your contact form by clicking on SETTINGS > AFTER FORM COMPLETION REDIRECT TO > and paste your scheduler link!
3. Update your inquiry response email to include your summer schedule
If your hours or services will be changing over the summer months, be sure to communicate this up front to new inquiries. Let them know that you’re traveling (or whatever the case may be), but will be checking and responding to emails once or twice a day/week so your leads are aware of your response time.
I recommend communicating these things in an Initial Inquiry Response Email Template. You can add it as a p.s. to your current email template, or create a new one and then add it as the first step of your automation in HoneyBook.
4. Update your HoneyBook Automations with any emails, brochures, and/or questionnaires you’ve added
If you’ve edited an email template that’s already a part of an automation, it will automatically update within the automation. You only have to add any additional files you’ve created!
If you’re not currently using HoneyBook Automations in your business, you can easily incorporate what I call a Simple Start Automation by adding the following steps:
- EMAIL – Inquiry Response Email – Send Automatically – 0 Days after automation activated
- EMAIL – Follow-up Email Reminder – Approve before sending – 2 days after previous step
- TASK – Send Proposal, Invoice & Contract – 5 days after automation activated (or whatever time frame works best for you and your business)
- EMAIL – Thanks for your payment & Next Steps – Send Automatically – 20 minutes after Contract Signed or First Payment Received
With this Simple Start Automation in place, you can relax knowing the leads you’re generating all summer will be nurtured and managed from their first point of contact until they’re ready to sign and pay without having to drop everything to respond. (You can pause and do a happy dance each time an inquiry comes through, though!)
Depending on how available you’ll be over the summer, you can even move forward with clients using a seamless onboarding automation that gets sent out right after the proposal is signed and paid.
Making these quick adjustments and incorporating automations into your process will help reduce stress this summer and allow you to actually enjoy your time off, instead of feeling like you’re tied to your phone or computer 24/7!
Get the business help you need to ensure a relaxing summer
If this sounds completely overwhelming for you, the HoneyBook Pros are here to help! From mapping out your processes to optimizing and implementing them, the Pros will make life so much easier for you and your clients.
As indepdenent business owners themselves, they understand your pain points and the down time you desire (especially during the summer). They’ll help you implement the changes you need within your business and ensure your HoneyBook account is continually working to grow your business even when you’re taking a break.
