How many times have you heard the saying “Go big or go home!”?
It’s a common mantra, but it’s gone too far, especially when it comes to the entrepreneurial community.
The intention behind this saying isn’t malicious. In fact, it’s often used to inspire and push people to the next level. However, for so many entrepreneurs, including myself, it’s taken on a more negative meaning, making a lot of us feel ashamed if we’re not constantly hustling, steadily grinding and, invariably seeking to move everything “up and to the right.”
We’ve accepted as small business gospel that bigness — HUGENESS — is the only definition of success. The “go big or go home” mentality has us believing that, in order to be successful, we have to have:
- Big lists
- Big groups
- Big events
- Big houses
- Big TVs
- Big cars
- Big social media followings
We’re stuck in a cycle of glorifying the endless hustle, but I want to challenge that mindset this holiday season. Instead of dedicating ourselves to the endless grind, what if we focused on what matters?
This is easier said than done, but as a small business owner, I’ve found something that works and allows me to save time, focus on what matters most and tune out the noise of this “go big or go home” world we live in. Small business CRM and automation software is the answer, and it’s just what every small business owner needs as they head into the holiday season. If you’re ready to trade the hustle for some holiday cheer, keep reading to discover how this software can help you get there.
Getting organized with a small business CRM
Before you can kick back, relax and deck the halls this season, you have to get organized, and it’s hard for any small business to do that without a CRM.
If you don’t already have one, a small business CRM is the place where you can store everything you know about your customers and leads. This tool can keep track of the names, emails, phone numbers, order histories and contact records of your clients and prospects so you never have to worry about losing a single one. It takes the pressure off you and your team, and it can help you rest easy knowing everything is where it's supposed to be.
If you already have a CRM, it’s important to note that it shouldn’t simply store your contact information. Instead, make sure your software has additional features to help you make the most of the data you have.
It should be able to:
- Automatically capture and organize leads from your website, social media, forms, landing pages and anywhere else they come in from
- Track each contact’s data and activity to categorize people based on their position in your sales pipeline
- Segment contacts into groups so you can communicate with them more specifically and effectively
- Integrate with the other apps and programs you use so you can access information easily and put your contact records to work for your business
Your CRM should also seamlessly work with your marketing automation software. Bonus points if your software does it all — CRM and automation. This will make you and your team’s lives easier this holiday season and beyond.
Holiday help from marketing automation
The holidays are a prime time for marketing, and there’s no doubt that you and your team will be trying to make the most of it and land some sales. However, this doesn’t mean you have to give in to the hustle culture and sacrifice time you could be spending with loved ones. Instead, you can do both — make sales and soak in the holiday cheer — by enlisting the help of small business marketing automation software.
Marketing automation software can take your holiday campaigns, bring them to life and then automatically run them when needed — without you or your team doing the work in real time. This season, get back some free time by finding software that can automatically:
- Send your holiday email campaigns
- Capture new leads and funnel their information into your CRM
- Follow up with leads and nurture them through your sales pipeline with pre-built text and email campaigns
- Send personalized 1:1 or broadcast emails and texts to remind your subscribers of any promotions or sales you have going on
- Generate reports to track marketing campaign effectiveness
All this can be done for you as you’re dashing through the snow, building a gingerbread house, throwing a New Year’s Eve party, or watching Elf for the 12th time this season. If you want to take a break without pushing pause on your business growth over the holidays, automation is the answer.
Looking for software that can make this a reality? Keap is the small business CRM and marketing automation software I trust to automate and run my business year-round. It comes equipped with business automation and workflow automation, which automatically assign tasks to team members, schedule meetings, send payment reminders and so much more. It’s the perfect holiday helper so you can put your business on autopilot and take some much-needed rest this season.
3 additional steps to improve your life year-round
Escaping the holiday hustle doesn’t have to be isolated to the last few months of the year. When you unleash the power of small business marketing automation and CRM software in your business, you and your team can reap the benefits all year long.
Once you take this step, I encourage you to use your newfound freedom to live life on your terms without letting the “go big or go home” mindset control you or your time any longer. Below are three pieces of advice I’ll leave you with that can help you and your business thrive:
Define what success means to you. In order to challenge the “go big or go home” mindset and break out of hustle culture, I’ve found the first and most important step is realizing we get to define what success looks like for us and our businesses.
Years ago — like, last century, or maybe even the last millennium — a sales VP told me, “Don’t let other people spend your commission checks.”
What did he mean by this? He was reminding me not to waste my money on things that only served to prove my success to other people. I want to urge you to do the same. Stand strong against those urges. As you start making money, don’t waste it on things you don’t want or need to impress people you don’t know.
Instead, define your own standards of success and then…
Go all in on what really matters most to you. The key here is that YOU get to decide what matters.
Maybe it’s…
- Catching up on sleep, exercising and regaining your health
- Spending more time with friends and family
- Traveling more and creating memories via exciting experiences
- Writing your first book
- Going dark for two months or two years to launch an app or other business you’ve noodled on for your entire life
- Going back to school
The options are endless, but decide you must. Otherwise, you’ll be living the life of someone who has decided for you, and you’ll be existing to please other people until the end of time.
Tune out the noise. As you figure out what matters most to you, start ignoring the outside noise that demands your attention. Noise is what pressures so many entrepreneurs into a life of endless grind, and it's what has so many of us living life trying to keep up with the Joneses.
What if we opted out of the noise and learned how to get back to the basics? Making little changes that aren’t based on the pressure of the world can make a big difference, and it can make the bonds of families, friends, and society stronger. It can also cut down on the stress and the nonsense that has kept you tired, frustrated and distracted. Decide what matters most to you and then start tuning out everything else that doesn’t align.
Wrapping it up
These three steps — coupled with your new small business marketing automation and CRM software — are the best gifts you could give yourself this holiday season. They’re also the gifts that’ll keep giving for years to come as you stop glorifying the grind and start building a life and business you love.
Take the first step by automating your business before the year is up. You can try Keap’s small business CRM and automation software free for 14 days (no credit card required).
About the author
Wes Schaeffer is The Sales Whisperer®, an entrepreneur, copywriter, speaker and marketing automation expert. He is the author of 2.5 books on sales, marketing and CRMs, host of The Sales Podcast, and host of The CRM Sushi Podcast.
