Solopreneurs! Do You Have Your Systems in Place for 2022? Part 1

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, the term “solopreneur” is a noun that describes a person who sets up and runs a business on their own. Even if, like me, you have a virtual assistant and other contractors who work with you as needed, you still run your business on your own.

Because everything in and for your business starts, ends, and is maintained by you, it is very important that you have things set up to make your workday as efficient and profitable as possible. Having specific systems in place will go a long way to helping you manage everything you need to do to keep your business running.

Apps I Use

In this article, I am just going to quickly describe the apps that I use in my work setup, along with how I tie them all together.

This list will be divided into two parts; I will publish Part 2 next week.

As part of my regular newsletter topics, I will write articles on “Apps I Use” that will go into more detail on many of the apps I talk about here.

I Switched from Windows to Mac in 2008 and Never Looked Back

Disclaimer: I am a total Apple Fangirl. I have two Macs, three iPads, and always the latest iPhone. When I write about apps or systems, I am writing from that worldview. Some of the apps I discuss MAY work on Windows and Android, but I cannot speak to that. I only deal with the Mac OS, iOS, and Apple computers and devices. 

One of the primary reasons I digitize everything and keep everything online is so that I can work from anywhere using any of my iDevices and I always have all I need at my fingertips, even when I’m away from my laptop or my home office.

The First Four Apps in my Business System

1. A CRM (Customer Relationship Manager): A CRM system is a tool that helps you with contact management, sales management, project management (as it relates to your contacts), the relationships between all of that data. There are a variety of CRM applications, but as always, I use an app that solopreneurs can use without having to resort to a scaled-down “enterprise” software product. After trying out several CRM apps, I have been using Cloze for the past several years. Cloze keeps track of all of my contacts, saves their emails, lists their social media entries, saves the files I have received via email or entered into Dropbox or Google Drive, keeps track of the meetings, phone calls, and texts related to the contact, analyzes their past and current deals and projects, and assigns specific contacts to specific team members who I want to have interaction with that contact. 

Even if all I have with me is my iPhone, I can open the Cloze app and find out everything I need to know about a contact and update them. Everything is synched in real-time. 

As an example, I recently received a message on LinkedIn from someone whose name sounded familiar. I entered his name in the search in Cloze and yes, all of the interactions I had with that prospect four years ago just popped up! That was very helpful as I answered that LinkedIn message.

1. Calendar/Planner: For the past few years, I have used a digital planner instead of a paper calendar. Again, with a digital planner, I have everything available on all of my devices, and (especially important) I can search words and phrases and everything I’ve put in my planner that matches the search, even items from years ago, shows up. I use my digital planner through GoodNotes 5.

I swear by my Google Calendar (GCal). Just about every app I use integrates with my GCal, and when I look at it everything I need to do that day, that week, etc., is there, even what I’ve scheduled in other apps. I can easily change the dates and information on a particular calendar item and invite others as I wish. On my iPhone and iPads, I access my Google Calendar through an app called Calendars 5 by Readdlebecause it also seamlessly integrates all of the tasks from my Reminders app.

2. Data Repository How in the world can you keep track of all of the bits, bytes, other information, and websites, etc. you receive every day? I used to be totally in the Evernote world: I was literally the 25th person to sign up for Evernote in 2008, and I was an Evernote Certified Consultant for several years, and their web clipper is still the best, in my opinion. But over the years, Evernote became less and less useful for me for many reasons that I will not go into here. 

I now use Apple Notes, Bear, and GoodNotes to keep things I want to remember and use later. (Clients have their own folders in my Google Drive and those files are automatically updated in Cloze as I described above.) Again, those three apps synch seamlessly and in real-time to and from my Macs to my other iDevices and no matter where I am and what I’m using, I can do a search (even search my handwriting) and find what I want at any time.

3. Email/Social Media There is a myriad of options available for managing your email marketing and your social media publishing, and the app you choose depends a lot on what your goals are and on what you are comfortable using. I have used Mailchimp for years and it integrates with Cloze and other apps I use that I’ll talk about later. I use CoSchedule for my editorial calendar and social media marketing. The #1 feature I love about CoSchedule is the “ReQue” function that randomly and repeatedly republishes my social media posts without me having to do it manually.

Stay Tuned!

These are the first four apps that I use on a daily basis. Next week, I’ll write about the second I use. 

These apps help me to keep track and implement everything I need to do every day, and allow me to easily work with my virtual assistant and my other contractors.

I’ve been a solopreneur since 2008, so over the years, I’ve tried just about everything out there. The apps I discuss here are the ones that I’ve found work best for me and my particular multi-faceted business situation.

Let us know in the comments which apps you use that you have found helpful for your solo business.

Information About My Company in 2022

• You can find out more about the TeamOwens313 GCC membership that includes weekly group coaching here.
• You can find out about the 45-day free trial to start your own digital business on Kajabi here.
• You can find out more about the TeamOwens313 GCC quarterly branding and marketing cohorts and courses here. 
• You can find out more about the Pam’s Power Hour one-on-one coaching programs here.
• You can join us in the TeamOwens313 Global Creative Community Facebook Group here.
• You can book a free 30-minute discovery call with me on Calendy here.