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What if we told you that there is a way to save you time, money & to keep your brain from going to mush every time you add a new “to do” item to it?
If you’ve been following us for a while, then you’ll know that we have a love for all things that help us simplify, streamline and systematize in our business. We take this to an extreme because a. we need to be organized to manage our busy lives, and b. because we KNOW there is almost always a better way to do things and we are in constant pursuit of efficiency.
We like to keep our systems & technology simple, so that we don’t overcomplicate our workflows and we keep our expenses to a minimum. Over the last few years, we’ve tried several systems to help us stay on top of our work, and organize our data, and we finally landed on one thanks to some awesome recommendations on Instagram. ClickUp. We have completely fallen in love with this system, and while it isn’t perfect, it is an amazing tool that we use more than any other system in our business.
We’ve seen first hand how a streamlined system can literally transform your business and help you run it efficiently. We’ve done this in our own business, and we’ve utilized this system with our clients as well. At the same time, we know adopting a new system can be overwhelming, so we’re going to break it down a bit to help you get a better idea of how ClickUp can serve you and your business and ultimately help you take your business to the next level. Whether you’re an solopreneur ready to grow, or a scaling business in need of a better way of doing things, ClickUp just might be the tool you’ve been looking for.
Let’s start by talking about what ClickUp is.
“ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries. Features include communication and collaboration tools, task assignments and statuses, alerts and a task toolbar." Softwareadvice.com
“ClickUp lets you create rich-text Docs for your marketing plans, reports, strategies, and other files. You can store them all in one place within ClickUp and even attach them to tasks. You can also edit and collaborate with your team members in real-time, Google Docs style." - Clickup.com
ClickUp allows you to view information in many different ways, from task lists to workflows, to docs, and more. It’s extremely useful to track deliverables and strategically partner with your team on work.
Now that you know what ClickUp is, you might be asking “is this something I actually need in my business?”
Maybe you already have a similar tool like Trello, maybe you aren’t sure if another cost is really worth it. Those are all valid questions you should always consider before adding in a new technology or expense, but here’s why we think you might want to consider utilizing ClickUp in your business.
You’re trying to manage the workload of your team. Shared excel files, email lists of “to dos”, daily calls/texts/Voxer messages just aren’t cutting it. You need a common space that your team can share, collaborate and update.
You have a list of projects and to dos that is a mile long. You need to stay organized in a tool that has due dates, assignments, notes. Everyone has their own tasks they need to track, but you also want to be able to view the work holistically.
Organization is either something you struggle with, or something you love. Either way, ClickUp can help keep you organized and accountable and most importantly, moving forward.
Maybe you struggle with ADHD, or you just need some accountability. By getting your work planned out and organized, you can utilize your own team to help you stay accountable.
Now before we start diving into all the things we LOVE about ClickUp (and there are a lot), let’s talk about 2 of our problems with ClickUp, because while we clearly love it, it’s also not perfect (& what is!)
When you first lay your eyes on ClickUp, it can be confusing. The layers of various views and ways to organize your information, can be difficult to navigate when you first get started. And while this is something that is quickly learned, it can be overwhelming to new users which may hurt integration of ClickUp into your team. Luckily, spending a little time training on the system up front can greatly help reduce that overwhelm and confusion and once your team dives in, they’ll likely be just as sold as we were.
Our first few months using ClickUp, we kept it super basic. We tracked our to dos and stored some client information, but that was about it. We were probably feeling overwhelmed by the options, but once we dove into some training and started utilizing more tools, we found that we were able to truly use the entire system for what it’s intended. So this leads to our second area of concern, underutilization of the system. You never want to be in a position in your business where you are spending money on something that isn’t adding value somehow. The key is to take the time to learn how you can use ClickUp with your own business.
If used correctly, ClickUp can help you run a smoother, forward moving, technology driven business.
There are way too many areas of ClickUp to focus on in just one blog, but here are a few of the key benefits we've been able to get out of it:
Automation - You can automate within ClickUp or use it in conjunction with Zapier to connect and automate to your other systems such as Dubsado, Gmail, G-Suite and more.
Organization - Get all your plans written down, tracked, and monitored…all in one place. This helps you stay on top of what you need to get done both at a company level, and each individual teammate.
Systematize- Not only can you physically create/design workflows using ClickUp’s whiteboard view, you can then implement those workflows into your spaces and folders.
Collaborate - Our whole team uses ClickUp, plus some of our client’s. You can customize your permissions, monitor your team’s work, and collaborate on projects with individuals outside your organization.
Save you time - At the end of the day, keeping so many pieces of data and information in ONE place, where you can keep it organized, streamlined, systematized all in one place will save you an enormous amount of time, reduce errors, reduce waste and keep you moving forward.
Clearly ClickUp is a tool that offers you and your business a lot. But as we mentioned earlier, it can be a bit overwhelming to go in the first time. So let’s break down just a few of the key terms and ways ClickUp is organized.
At the main level, ClickUp is organized into spaces. You can think of these as your high-level areas of
business such as Financial, Marketing, HR, Operations, etc. although there are many ways you can use these.
Then each space allows you to have folders and within folders you can have lists and various views. The folders are a way to break down your workspace into categories, and then the lists and views are your detailed data, calendar, workload, etc. The views are where you can get deep customization by creating workflows, adding docs, Kanban boards, calendars, databases, Mind Maps and more. This ability to completely customize your information is one of the greatest assets in our opinions within ClickUp.
We’ll look at creating a tutorial all about getting organized in ClickUp soon, but we suggest getting in there and playing around a bit to get used to it. It’s the most heavily used technology in our business, and here are a few examples of how we use ClickUp:
Workload management. Assign to team & ourselves
Strategy planning
Designing workflows
Organization of information
Project Management
Communication
Dashboards to oversee work
Hub of info: links to Google, status, detailed info, archival
Team management (onboarding & training)
Client onboarding coupled with Dubsado
Want to see an in depth tutorial on navigating ClickUp? Let us know below!
P.S. If you need a little extra help and are interested in doing a deep dive on setting up a system that will keep you organized, streamlined and technology driven? We have something coming your way soon! Get on the waitlist to find out more at cabotandmain.com
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