During a recession, you can’t afford to waste time on activities that don’t advance your handmade business. You need to focus on putting cash in the bank, serving your customers, and creating a more streamlined business. In part four of my series on how to recession-proof your crochet business, I’ll share a simple two-step process to prioritize tasks so you can focus on activities that move your business forward and make you money!
How Handmade Sellers Can Stop Wasting Time
[00:00:00] It’s time for Monday morning Crochet Business Chat. Welcome to all of you Crochetpreneurs. We’re here to crush it this week, and move the needle forward, and to protect our businesses from recession. That’s why we’re here. This is part four of our series, Recession and Handmade Business, where we’re going to talk about how to optimize your task list in order to focus on the things that really need to get done, things that move the needle forward and not waste time doing things that don’t matter.
Transcript – Recession and Handmade Business #4: Managing Your To-do List
[00:00:34] So welcome for this beautiful Monday morning. I appreciate you being here. If this is your first time, my name is Pam Grice. I’m the Crochetpreneur and I’m on a mission to help 100,000 women find financial freedom through crochet. So happy to have you here, even if you’re not a crocheter. If you’re a handmade business owner, if you’re a knitter, we’re happy to have you.
Get Your Task List Analysis Worksheet
[00:00:57] And I’m excited to share this strategy with you. The strategy is actually pretty simple. And I have a download for you that is in the description of this video that you can download the Task List Analysis Worksheet. It’s a free download when you subscribe to my list and that’s available for you.
Prioritizing Your Handmade Business Task List
[00:01:21] Let’s just get started. This is probably going to be a pretty quick video since there’s only two steps to this process. Yay. Christina, Marge, Jackie. Hi. Hello, hello. Okay. Let me get this on screen here. There you go. Recession and Handmade Business Part Four, Optimize Your Task List. So this is part of protecting your business from recession is not wasting your valuable time and your finances on things that don’t work, things that don’t move the needle forward, things that aren’t important. We’re going to use this task list to prioritize those things.
Having the Right People in the Right Seats
[00:02:08] The first step of prioritizing your task list is having the right people in the right seats. So this is particularly important for those people who have a team. So this would entail analyzing the skills and talents of your various team members. So analyzing their skills and their traits and then assigning tasks and roles based on what they’re good at. So if someone is not good with tech, you’re not going to give them tech-heavy tasks. If someone is really great with copy, you’re going to give them the tasks that involve writing great copy.
[00:02:53] So it seems intuitive. But so often, as we’re managing our teams and managing ourselves, we need something done and we need it done quickly. So we just give it to someone and that person might not be the best person for the task. And sometimes, if you’re running your own business and you’re taking on tasks that are not within your skill set, you’re wasting time and money trying to figure that out yourself rather than hiring someone to do that for you.
[00:03:23] So this is about being wise about who is doing the tasks. So again, it’s analyzing the skills, analyzing the traits. Are you just going to procrastinate this? If you’re just going to procrastinate it, give it to someone else to do. And so that is the first step, being sure you have the right people in the right seats, the right people doing the right tasks. And that includes you. All right, so that’s number one.
Having the Right Tasks and Having Them Prioritized
[00:03:53] Number two is having the right tasks and having them prioritized. This is where I have that worksheet for you to download. And actually, while we’re talking, I am going to see if I can upload that task sheet so I can show you what it looks like. It’ll take me just a moment. So I’m just going to sit here and chat and say, basically what I want you to do with this task analysis is brain dump all of the tasks that you need to do. And then we’re going to take a look at those and we’re going to prioritize. And we’re going to put a check mark next to which ones are vital to accomplishing your pivotal goals for the quarter or for the year.
How to Use the Task Analysis Worksheet
[00:04:57] So first you’re going to put a check mark. Is this vital to the goals that I have set for my business. So I’m going to pop this up in just a moment. It is loading. Okay. This is what the spreadsheet looks like. So you can see here, Task List Analysis. We have the task itself. This is where you brain dump all of the tasks you want to do.
[00:05:29] And then here it says pivotal goal. If it is part of your pivotal goal, for instance, “I want to grow my e-mail list,” part of those tasks will be creating an opt-in, creating a tripwire, figuring out where you’re going to place this this form for people to subscribe, how you’re going to market that. So all of that will be in part of that pivotal goal of growing your e-mail list. So you’ll put a check mark here next to create an opt-in, create a welcome series. All of those would be in that pivotal goal.
Which Types of Tasks Should You Prioritize?
[00:06:03] So even if it doesn’t meet your pivotal goal, we’re still going to go on to these next three items, which are, does it serve your customers? Will it create a sale with your current customers in the near future? If yes, put a check mark. Will it make you quick money? Is it one of those things like a sale, or a discount, or a new product, or something like that that’s going to make you some quick money. I often say it’s your job to make money out of thin air. This is where that happens. This is the quick money. Does your task create quick money? Put a check here? Or does it set up a critical system or process within your business that you’ll be using over and over? Is this going to be a process for you? If yes, click here.
Prioritizing Your Handmade Business Tasks
[00:06:57] And what you’re going do between these four columns, you’re going to first prioritize the things that are pivotal goals. After that, you’re going to look and see which of my tasks have three check marks? You’re going to make that the next highest priority. Which have two check marks? And then which have one check mark? You’re going to prioritize that. You’re going to put priority numbers over here in this column.
[00:07:27] And within those priorities, you’re going to prioritize serving and making sales to your current customers above quick money and quick money above systems. So if you have tasks that only have one check mark, serves and sells to customers is first. Quick money is second. System and processes is third. So you have your pivotal goals, serves customers, quick money, systems and processes. Write out your priority number here.
Who Will Do What in Your Crochet Business?
[00:07:59] And then put here, as we talked about, putting the right people in the right seats. You’re going to put down who is going to get that done. Who’s going to do it? In many cases it will be you. And so you have “me, me, me” all the way down. Or if you have a team, you can assign this to certain people on your team. So that’s what that looks like. And again, you can go ahead and get this Task List Analysis form using the link in the description of this video.
[00:08:3] So to go over it again quickly, we have brain dump your tasks. Identify if it is a necessary task to reach your pivotal goals. Identify if it’s going to enable a sale to an existing customer, if it’s going to make quick an influx of cash, or if it’s going to create a system or processes or more than one of those. It could be all three. It could be two. Add your prioritization number. Identify who will do it. And then finally, add that to your project management software or your planner with the due date. So that way, you know it’s on the calendar to get accomplished. If you can’t do it today, make sure you have a due date of when it will be done.
[00:09:18] And that’s that simple process. So basically, we’re looking to save time and save money by getting the right people doing the right tasks and prioritizing those tasks by things that are going to be creating money or creating a more efficient business for you during the time of recession.
Join Crochet Business Academy Today!
[00:09:39] So I’m going to pop over and see if you have any questions. Before I do that, I’m going to remind you that the doors to the Crochetpreneur Business Academy are open through tomorrow. At the time of this taping, they’re open through tomorrow at midnight. If you haven’t already joined the Academy and you’d like to learn more, feel free to send me a message, send me a DM, comment below, and I will get you more information. You can take that link that’s in the description to find out more about the Crochetprenuer Business Academy. There is a page with all the information you need. Doors are open periodically and right now is a time that it’s open.
[00:10:21] If you are already a student inside of the Academy and you want to upgrade to VIP, there’s a special link for that. Send me an e-mail to [email protected] and I’ll get that to you. And that’s my little spiel. If you’re looking to grow your business and have a strategy, a step-by-step process of how to make that happen so that you can just check off the tasks and get it done to build your own unique individual crochet business that meets your personality, fulfills your dreams, and serves a customer that you love, join the Academy. And I can’t wait to help you. All right. I hope you join us.
[00:10:59] Okay. Let me see what’s going on. “Please read my e-mail regarding registration.” Okay. I will check it out. I’ll check out my e-mail as soon as I get off this video. “How did you know I needed exactly this?” Well, I know you.
Is Social Media a Priority for Makers and Sellers?
[00:11:23] Okay. That is it for today. Super quick, super actionable, easy task for you to get done today. And hopefully this will help you streamline your task list. I’m going to give you an example. Oftentimes, especially crochet business owners, we prioritize TikTok, or we prioritize Instagram Reels. And if we actually look at that task list, is it important for your pivotal goals? Typically, no, because you don’t get a lot of clicks off of Instagram. Does it create a sale for your current customers? Typically not because people don’t typically use Instagram to make sales. Does it make quick cash? No. And does it create a system or process? No.
[00:12:15] So if you have social media, TikTok, or Instagram Reels as a top priority for your business and you look at that analysis, you’re going to see that it doesn’t even end up on the list. So really hyper-focusing on what does move the needle forward? What does put cash in your bank? What does serve your customers? And what does create a more streamlined business? Those are the tasks to focus on. So I hope that helps.
Wrapping Up
[00:12:50] The Product Line University videos will be in the CBA modules and in the Product Line University platform this week. So I’m speaking with my assistant right after this, and she’s going to get working on that. So you’ll be able to watch those for now. They’re in the Facebook group. So you can find all of the videos in the Facebook group if you are part of Product Line University.
[00:13:12] Okay, I’m going to let you all go and I hope you have a wonderful week. And be sure to send me any questions that you have about the Crochetpreneur Business Academy or reach out to a current Academy member. And they would be happy to help you. Have a wonderful week. Talk to you next week. Bye.
