Have you ever had to schedule a meeting involving several very busy people? Most of us have, and some of us do so on a regularly basis. You know what a nightmare it can be! Emails flying back and forth with options and alternatives; he can, she can’t; that works, that doesn’t. Oh my!

There is help out there, though, in a great little tool with a funny little name—Doodle! I like just saying it, and I love using it. It’s easy, fun, and free. And it’s not just for finding meeting times; it’s also a wonderful tool for conducting surveys and polls.

Here’s a little rundown of Doodle:

• Doodle is a very simple, online polling tool used for scheduling meetings, or taking polls and surveys among groups of busy people.
• The free version of Doodle offers the features most of us need for scheduling and polling, in addition to a mobile web app, as well as a native app for iPads and iPhones.
• Another great feature is MeetMe, which allows people to see your availability and submit meeting requests to get on your calendar.
• There is also an upgraded, ad-free version, at a very affordable price, that offers additional features if you need them, such as calendar connections.

To use as a meeting scheduler—

• Once you create your free account, you simply name your meeting, select your options for meeting dates and times, and then email your meeting poll to the invitees.
• As each invitee responds to the poll and enters their preferences, you receive an email to notify you of the update.
• Once you are notified that all invitees have completed their selections, you return to the meeting poll, you select the preferred date and time, and then choose the email function to send all invitees a confirmation email.

Sounds simple, right? And setting up a survey or poll is just as easy!

Our team has used Doodle many times to get meetings scheduled for our clients. It’s definitely a significant tool in our toolbox. If you’re not familiar with Doodle, you should give it try the next time you need to set up a meeting or gather opinions. It’s fun and easy to Doodle!

Isn’t it exciting when you implement a new system or process that improves your productivity in some way? I’m all about providing the best service I can to my clients in the most effective way possible, and my team and I simply could not do this without the great systems and processes we have in place.

About once or twice a year, I schedule time to review my systems and processes to make sure they are still serving us well. With my team’s input, I make any necessary updates or changes I feel will improve our performance, and our commitment to our clients. I take a look at everything we use to service our clients, no matter how simple it might seem.

Here are just a few of the areas I review on a regular basis. I hope it gives you some ideas for reviewing your own systems and processes:

Systems/Programs/Tools

• Project management
• Email marketing
• Client management systems
• File storage and transfers
• Accounting
• Security

Processes

• Internal communications
• Client communications
• Document transmissions
• Calendar management
• Time management

As part of my reviews, I might also include a quick search to see if there are updated versions available, or maybe even completely new systems I need to consider. I’m not one to make changes simply to say I have the latest and greatest if what I’m using is still serving its purpose. But I’m always open to change if I can see definite benefits for my team and my clients.

We owe it to our clients to provide them with best service in the most effective way possible. It’s what they pay for, what they expect, and what they should receive on a consistent basis. To ensure that you are living up to your great reputation for service and delivery, make time to review your systems and processes on a regular basis. You can only serve your clients as well as your systems and processes serve you.

In our last Cool Tool discussion, I shared with you some of the benefits of using an email marketing program in your business. Today, I want to tell you about another cool tool I’ve recently discovered called Send Personally, which can also be used to connect with your clients from the comfort of your Microsoft Outlook email program.

My team and I were researching alternatives to using full-service e-marketing programs for a client who isn’t yet ready for that step, but still wants to keep in touch with her ongoing clients. This particular client was looking for a way to easily communicate with the participants in her coaching programs. She wanted something simple that would allow her to send a quick email to her coaching groups without going into an e-marketing program and setting up a broadcast. We decided to go with Send Personally, and so far, it’s a pretty cool tool! It offers too much to discuss everything now, but here’s a quick overview.

What it is…

Send Personally is nifty little add-in feature for Microsoft Outlook users. It allows you to send individual, personalized emails, but with the ease of a bulk mailing. You can send to large groups at once, and you can even include attachments and special formatting in the text that will be received and displayed properly by each recipient regardless of their email client. I love that!

How it works…

• Once you purchase the Send Personally add-in (it’s very inexpensive), and download it to Outlook, you are pretty much set to go! Hint: Make sure your Add-in feature under Options is checked to allow add-ins.
• From Outlook, create your group in your address book, and then set up your email as you normally would.
• Now this is the really important part…When you’re ready to send, click on the Send Personally button (on your toolbar) instead of Send. That’s it!

Cool things to know…

• Even though your entire group list shows in To: section of your email, each recipient’s email will be addressed only to them. They will not see the other recipients’ names.
• If a recipient mistakenly hits the “Reply to All” button, their email will still only be sent to you. None of the other recipients will receive it. Nice, huh?
• Because each email is generated as an individual message, it eliminates the size of the heading becoming huge, which occurs when an email is sent to dozens (or hundreds) of recipients at once, and can often cause issues with being tagged as spam or junk mail.
• You can use macros in your emails to further personalize your message to each recipient.

One word of caution…You do want to be very careful about using this as an email marketing tool for sending to people unsolicited. That’s called spamming, and that’s not allowed. This program is really meant for communicating with groups of people who know you and who want to receive information from you. It’s a good idea to include a message at the bottom of your emails instructing the recipients to reply to you if they want to be removed from your mailings.

If you’re not quite ready for one of the more sophisticated e-marketing programs, and you are Outlook user, check out Send Personally. We’ve had great success with it so far, and our client is very pleased!

As a small business owner, you may already be using an email marketing program to build your list and capture readers for your newsletter or other marketing campaigns. But these cool tools can be used for much more than that!

There are so many great e-marketing programs out there today—Mailchimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, and various shopping cart programs for full-on email marketing with purchasing features. Not only do these programs automate your list-building and newsletter processes, they are great for streamlining your client/customer communications.

While my team uses numerous programs for our clients, we use Mailchimp for our own business. It’s very intuitive, allows us to customize our templates, copy names between lists, and export the lists when I need to. We use Mailchimp for communicating special announcements to our valued clients. It works well for us, and is so easy to use and maintain. We also like Constant Contact and AWeber, both of which offer a few additional advanced features.

As a coach, trainer or consultant with a steady client base, e-marketing programs are invaluable for staying in touch with your clients. You can automate your systems by setting up autoresponders to broadcast different messages at regular intervals. Your messages might include program notices and announcements, weekly lessons and tips, and notes of encouragement or appreciation. Even surveys and feedback forms can be sent through your e-marketing program.

Most e-marketing programs offer a variety of features and service levels that will accommodate even the tightest budgets, including a free version, which I always recommend trying first. To find the one that’s right for you, research the features and costs, and if available, sign up for a free trial and play with it for a while. Make sure it fits not only your specific needs, but your work style and your budget. User-friendly to some is tech-speak to others, so technical support is very important. Also, you may want a program that is easy to upgrade when the time comes, and has integration features with other programs.

The more you can automate your processes, the more streamlined your business becomes. And that makes for smooth operations and easy management.

I love summer! Every year, I look forward to it and everything that comes along with it. Summers here on our farm are full of outdoor activities with the kids, play time with the animals, lots of fresh veggies from the garden, and evening cookouts and bonfires with friends and family. Here are the kiddos spending time with some of our animals.

There’s just one thing…business goes on all year long! I can’t put my business on hold simply because the temperature rises above 85 degrees (but wouldn’t that be nice?!). So, I’ve had to find ways to manage my business, maintaining the high level of service and care I provide my clients, and still make time for the kids and summer time. With lots of organization and careful planning, I’m able to have the best of both worlds.

Below are a few of my best tips to help you find that work/life balance during these glorious days of summer:

1. Start planning early. Whether it’s writing your blogs and newsletters, preparing your social media and other networking activities, or launching your summer coaching program, begin planning in early spring. Create a calendar of activities that need to be done over the summer months, and complete as much as you can before your summer begins. This is important—Include both work and play time on your calendar.

2. Automate as much as you can. Take advantage of some of the awesome automation tools out there to help you stay on schedule. For instance, Hootsuite is great for scheduling your social media posts. And all of the newsletter programs, such as Mailchimp and AWeber allow you to schedule your broadcasts far in advance. You can even create autoresponders in these programs to stay in touch with your clients, and send materials and other info at regular intervals.

3. Communicate. Have a conversation with your clients as well as your support team so that everyone is on the same page about the summer schedule. Work closely with your support team so that during times when you do want to get out and enjoy a bit of laid-back summer time, your team will be there to handle things while you’re away, making your time off worry-free!

Whether you have kids or not, enjoying your summer can and should blend well with managing your business. Scheduling a little play time each day to go for a horse ride, a swim, sit on the porch, or whatever your summer fun involves is an important part of balancing your work and life during these hot summer days. They’ll be over before you know it, so get busy and go have some summer fun!