Establishing Systems
Last year, I joined several business/entrepreneur type groups on Facebook. I made a conscious decision that I wanted to be and do better with my art business. I knew I was woefully off track and was suffering from shiny object syndrome. Trying all kinds of different task and calendar apps to try and find a system that worked for me.
One of the Facebook groups I joined was called Own It. Crush It. It’s a group for woman bosses. In this group, I met a delightful woman by the name of Yvonne Heimann….come to think of it it…I may have met Yvonne in Robert Garcia’s group, Success Engineers…regardless! She was talking about a planner that she designed, its functionality, and how she created it because she was creative and could never find JUST the right one that worked for her. This planner…is called the Protopreneur Planner . Based on what Yvonne was saying and how I was seeing other use their planner, I knew I just had to try it. In a virtual world, I’m still very much a pen and paper kind of girl.
Before I get to the planner, I did want to mention that I actually use a combination of the paper planner and the Google based “Day to Day” task/calendar app. Through lots of different trial and error with using different apps, journal styles, and combinations of the two; this system is the one that works best for ME.
Parts of the Planner
I won’t go over ALL the different parts of the planner – I’ll leave some detective work to you. But this section will cover the parts of the planner that I really LOVE and what have helped me the most. I’ve been using the Protopreneur Planner since October of 2017. It’s now February 2018. My husband just had me get one for him because he saw how much it was helping me stay organized with both art business and personal related tasks.
Content Planner
As y’all know, I struggle with some health issues. One of the most annoying things is that I have to take regular breaks. For a while, during my breaks I would mindlessly surf Facebook, play a handful of different games, and really just WASTE a ton of time. This content planner (2 full pages) has enabled me to give myself a rough plan of attack for what kind of topics to post on what days across a variety of different platforms. It’s given me a bit of structure that I was lacking. Having this has helped me become more intentional with my posting which in turn has led to more consistency. Win-Win
Income Goal Tracker
THESE PAGES are GOLD!!! Up until I really started taking my art seriously and wanted to make it a solid business versus a “jobby” or a hobby, I’d never set income goals for myself.
At the end of the month I would also try and figure out how much I’d made that month. I was being reactive, not proactive. What these sheets allow me to do, is to sit and come up with a rough game plan. I have a few different income streams and those are all written down. Every few days I write in what has come in that day and then tally it up EVERY WEEK. I have a monthly income goal – $1,200 – so each week it lets me see how close (or far) I am from reaching that goal. It’s been a HUGE motivator and asset to the business side of my art practice.
Weekly Planning Pages
Here you are seeing half of this set of weekly planning pages – there are actually 4 every week. The other side of this spread has a place to keep track of habits like working out, taking your vitamins, networking, etc. On this page, there’s a to do list and projects to accomplish for the week. See the numbers? I participated in a challenge for time management and it focused on prioritizing your time in 15 minute increments. It didn’t work for me, but the strategy of creating priorities for the tasks did. As you can see, each priority is given a color. It helps me easily identify the one or two tasks that NEED to get done that day, and the ones that can wait if I just don’t have the energy/stamina to get it all done. This color coding system is of my own design and I just implemented it this year. I’ll go more in depth on how to apply it in a future post because it’s REALLY helpful for this spooniepreneur. The weekly layouts like this are on the following 2 pages.
Brain dump
Another set of favorite pages right here. The brain dump and notes pages. On the left you can see a project planner with the grid of squares. I use these pages to track my sculpture commissions , blog post ideas, apps I’m using for my website, affiliate links, etc.
Speaking of affiliate links (full disclosure, always 
). I’m actually really new to this whole affiliate game. But through my research I’ve found that it can actually be a half way decent passive income stream. There are a lot of people out there who earn their living from affiliate marketing, that’s just not my style. You can be rest assured that anything I have an affiliate link for is something I actively use in my art business and stand behind. I do have an affiliate link for this planner…want to know why???? Because I love this planner so damn much and kept referring people to Yvonne to get the planner and asking if I could get product credit for all the referrals…she bit the bullet and created an affiliate program! haha So to say that I love and truly value this planner would be an understatement. Yes, it’s just a bunch of paper bound together, but the thought that went into it, and the personal help that Yvonne gives through her Facebook page and her group have truly been instrumental in helping me streamline my business. (NO she didn’t ask me to write this either! haha)
It is a tool that I find great value in and felt the need to share. And it is now one that my hubby uses as he starts exploring tools to help HIM deal with post concussion syndrome.
If you are interested in learning more about how this planner might be right for you, you can click on any of the images and it will take you to Yvonne’s site. Or you can click HERE.
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