About The Brand
A creative design studio in Cairns that builds effective and engaging websites, beautiful graphics, and photo + video content.
Challenge
The client shared the following challenges:
- Leads don’t automatically convert to projects. The data entered into the CRM list is not transferred when it becomes a project.
- Setting up and managing projects manually. The process of managing projects manually is not as smooth as it could be.
- Workload Projections were done Manually. Without an automated process, forward workload projects were calculated manually.
During our audit of the ClickUp CRM and Project Delivery workflows, we found the following root causes:
- CRM workflow was not optimized. There are duplicated fields and statuses.
- Project delivery was not standardized and productized. They had to create project boards and add the tasks manually for new clients.
- Automation was set up but not working properly. He already has a few automated workflows on Zapier and ClickUp, but they’re not working properly.
Solutions
After doing the audit, we agreed to implement the following solutions for each problem:
1: CRM was not optimized.
✅ Clean up the CRM list by removing unnecessary fields and statuses.
✅ Optimize the CRM workflow by fixing the automation and setting up correct triggers.
✅ Set up additional automation to increase efficiency in the CRM.
#2: Project delivery was not standardized and productized.
✅ Standardize and productize the project delivery for all 4 core offers by identifying the end-to-end project stages and the deliverables for each stage.
✅ Create project templates for each service they offer that can be automatically duplicated for new clients.
#3: Automation was not set up properly on ClickUp and Zapier.
✅ Map out the transition from lead to project. Then, identify the steps we can automate.
✅ Set up automation on ClickUp & Zapier for webhooks.
✅ Set up automation for when the lead is won, the new project board will be created automatically.
✅ Test all the automated workflows to ensure they’re working and their efficiency.
#4: Workload Projections were done manually
✅ Create a list of his internal tasks (not project-related but important) so they won’t be missed.
✅ Create a dashboard to manage tasks, calendar, and projects and see forward workload at one glance.
Results
After the entire project, we were able to:
- Troubleshoot all automation that is not working.
- Improve the forward workload forecasting through automations and dashboard.
- Reduce manual work in transitioning a lead into a client and setting up projects.
Most importantly, by identifying the end-to-end process of the delivery for each service, we were able to standardize the project delivery system for their 4 core offers which helped the creative agency save 250 hours annually from all the manual work and focus on just delivering exceptional client experiences and results.
250 hours are equivalent to 31 full working days (with 8-hour shift a day) 😉
For them, these 250 hours are equivalent to $25,000.
That’s how much they are losing if they continue to spend their time doing all the manual work (when it could be automated!)
And for a creative agency, this is big!
Future Growth
This creative agency wants to improve consistency with social media content planning, creation, and scheduling, updates to websites, templatize proposals and improve systems and workflows.
These certain areas have a lot of opportunities for process improvement that we can tap into and the client can save more time and money.
One example is to create a content creation system on ClickUp to improve consistency and visibility.
When they decide to add new offers, duplicating the current project delivery system is easy – making sure everything is standard!
Conclusion
This demonstrates how productizing services, strategic workflow optimization, standard project delivery, and automation can transform operational efficiency, reduce workload-induced anxiety, and increase time and cost savings, thereby enabling greater focus on growth and creative output for their clients.
If you are an agency owner, seasoned freelancer, or a service-based biz owner who’s experiencing the same challenges as outlined above and wants to save at least 20 hours in a month…
Book a FREE 20-min Discovery Call
Important Note: We are only taking limited clients at this time because we want to be intentional about helping our clients build simple and functional systems to save time while not sacrificing our time too.
Remember
We all have 24 hours in a day and we must invest it wisely in our business or our life.
If you think doing manual work doesn’t cost you money, think again.
Minute adds up!
