There’s no time like a new financial year to get you motivated and setting new goals in your online business. And with that said, meet your new fortnightly roundup email from yours truly that will be hitting your inbox every second Wednesday moving forward.
One of my goals for the new FY as an email marketer is to actually block out the time to email my list! So clients past and present and all my great email subscribers - here it is!
The clients I work with on an ongoing basis know that I’m always testing new tech tools, researching trends, and learning new software. This email is my way of telling you about the things I’m doing and currently loving in the eCommerce world, all in one place!
This fortnightly roundup is all about preparing for a great Financial Year because let’s face it - who wants to spend another FY unorganised, stressed, and procrastinating your to-do list watching back to back episodes on Netflix (although that does sound tempting).
TIP #1: CLOCKIFY
Time track everything in your business. One way to maximise profit in your business is to work on efficiencies. For the last year or so I’ve been time tracking every single daily task in Clockify. A subscription costs me $98 USD a year and it’s been one of the best investments in my company to date. All the tasks I used to predict that would take me 20 or 30 minutes to complete would more than often double when analysing my reports in Clockify so in essence time tracking is one of the greatest investments I do in my business. My new member of staff [Braedi] does this also and it helps us keep a good hold on where our time every day is spent and how we can improve on it.
TIP #2: NOTION
Spend 15 minutes checking out Notion. I am someone that has spent DAYS down a rabbit hole looking through and researching project management tools and I’ve never found one that covered every facet of my company or had features for what I really needed. I stumbled across Notion last year and built a whole custom company database that covered my entire company moving forward. I’ve spent a lot of time building my company database in Notion but in the long run, it will save me hundreds of thousands of dollars in software and time efficiencies over the duration of my business.
TIP #3: TRACK YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS
Spend 15 minutes reviewing all of your online subscriptions. In January, I built a subscription tracker in my company Notion database to review all of my subscriptions in my workplace and was surprised by the mix of USD & AUD payments I have (and also which ones aren’t covered under GST). With the current exchange rate, it’s surprising how much a simple USD subscription every month can cost over a yearly period. When I did this exercise I went from a total of 19k in subscription expenses annually to 12k. In a few hours of work, I saved myself 5k for the year. [Also look at paying any subscriptions you will use ongoing as a yearly invoice instead of monthly to get further discounts!]
TIP #4: FOLLOW JASON ANDREW
Follow Jason Andrew on LinkedIn. I’ve never met Jason in person but honestly, his LinkedIn content and posts are 10/10. Jason is the author of Stark Naked Numbers, CoFounder of SBO. Financial and a Chartered Accountant from Brisbane, Australia. His company SBO. Financial specialises in operational finance for agencies, eCommerce based businesses and tech startups and the free advice he gives via his LinkedIn posts are OUTSTANDING. Do yourself a favour and follow him!
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THIS FORTNIGHTS OFFER
After six months of looking for the right candidate, I hired my first employee Braedi on July 1st! [Woohoo!]
For the first five months, I could not find the right candidate until I met Tanya from Black Wolf Consulting (a recruitment agency based on the Gold Coast that services recruitment worldwide.)
Within two weeks of engaging BWC, I had three amazing candidates presented to me for interviews and had hired Braedi. Reluctant to use a recruitment agency in the beginning, I quickly realised that by doing so, I had made one of the best investments in my company to date.
So for any of you stuck with hiring at the moment, I highly encourage you to get in contact with Tanya. Tanya has kindly offered 15% off your first recruitment placement with BWC (Terms & Conditions do apply).
To take up this great offer, simply email at tanya@blackwolfconsulting.com.au and mention 'Brynley King'. Please note this offer will only be valid until the 31st of August 2020, so get in on this offer while you can!
WHY THE FORTNIGHTLY OFFERS BRYN?
I’ve added this little snippet here to my audience as I regularly have companies offering me great deals and offers for my clients so I thought why not share them with you all.
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THINGS I'M LOVING AT THE MOMENT
The Headway App: Every morning before I start work, I average reading two books before I get to the office with the Headway App. Basically, the app condenses books into 15-20 minute bite-sized snippets that allow you to take in the overall content quicker. If you're wanting to read more, check out the app.
Email on Acid: Don't let the name fool you! This tool has become an everyday go-to in our office for ensuring each email we send out has 100% deliverability scores and make's it to the inbox. It's a program that's more on the expensive side of things but if you're like me and are passionate about getting your emails to the inbox - it's worth every cent.
Klaviyo SMS: If you have a U.S. based store and Klaviyo account then you need to implement Klaviyo SMS stat. You'll also be one of the first people to know that next week Klaviyo is significantly reducing their SMS cost down to $.01 for SMS and $.03 cents for MMS.
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THINGS BRAEDI IS LOVING AT THE MOMENT
Commerce Inspector Chrome Extension: The bee's knees for deciphering what apps are used on Shopify based websites.
Notion: I previously used Monday for project management software however much prefer how functional Notion is in terms of adding in documents, images, and creating different templates for specific tasks.
ROAS vs ROMI by Drew Sanocki: A must-read, eye-opening article on the real costs of marketing.
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INTERESTING PROJECTS WE'RE WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT
Milton & King are a leading manufacturer of wallpaper in Australia and service customers globally through their Australian, USA, UK and European websites. Four websites mean four Klaviyo accounts and with B2C & B2B consumers thrown into the mix, Milton & King's job has been one of the most extensive jobs we've done to date.
Their current automated email count currently sits at 116 emails per account (464 across all Klaviyo accounts) and so far they've seen a great response to their email marketing across B2C & B2B sectors. If you're looking for epic wallpaper - check them out! They truly are the best in the biz and best of all made in Australia! #supportlocal