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Do you struggle to keep up with your photos and graphics? Are you easily distracted or overwhelmed by your workload? Girl, you need to start simplifying your business with the batching method!
The batching technique can streamline everything from promotional activities to customer care. It’s not only about being more efficient, but also maintaining your sanity.
What is the Batching Technique?
In the simplest terms, batching is doing one task multiple times. Examples that I’ll discuss are batching graphics, photography, brainstorming, and customer follow-ups.
As a working mom of two young girls, I have an inconsistent and often hectic schedule. Many of you can relate and may have difficulty penning in time for your business each day or even each week.
When I batch, I know the one task I’ll be focusing on for however long I have that day. And I can often complete it without distractions from other aspects of work. Let me explain further.
Batching Ideas
Sometimes ideas come to us when we least expect it (like in the shower at 11 pm…). Others materialize during hard-core brainstorming sessions. Creating a master list of blog topics or social media posts ensure you’ll always have something to write about.
Pick a time of the day when you’re most relaxed and feeling inspired, and grab a fresh notebook. With your ideal client in mind, start writing down potential problems your product or service can solve. Let yourself jot down whatever comes to you and see which ideas you can elaborate on or break down into sub-topics.
Having this collection of brainstorming notes will come in handy on days you find yourself struggling with what to write about, and it probably didn’t take much time to create at all! 😀
Batching Photography
As a small boutique owner, I take a million photographs of my clothing each week for my customers. Ok, maybe not a million, but it’s a lot. Since you’ve already done your brainstorming, you know exactly what photos you’ll need for outfits and post graphics, right?
Batching your photography saves you time and effort because you’re only pulling out your lighting kit once. You only need to have a backdrop set up once. Editing? You guessed it, one time.
As we approach the busy holiday season, take advantage of batching by keeping festive props nearby during your session. That one dress (or whatever you sell) can be pictured with a mini pumpkin, holly sprig, and NYE glasses in a matter of seconds. You now have 3 photos of one item and it took minimal effort on your part.
Work smarter, not harder!
Batching Graphics
Now that you have all of your written posts and pics ready to go, you can create your graphics in batches too!
For this, I love PicMonkey! It’s Hub stores all of my templates for easy ‘plug and go’ creation. (Check it out HERE)
As a blogger, you’re aware of the um-teen different social platforms, widgets, featured images, etc., that you need an eye-catching image for. Here’s where templates are a lifesaver!
Create (and label!) each template for its purpose. Examples of my own include:
600×900 Pin Desk
300×200 Feature Blue
1200×600 FB Promo Clean
Images in similar categories may use the same template, with a few minor tweaks. This tip alone easily saves me HOURS over the course of a month.
Batching Customer Care
Since we all run our businesses differently, use my system here as an inspiration and mold it to fit your needs.
No one cares for the daunting backend tasks of business ownership. Even as a former bookkeeper, printing, logging, and filing expenses makes me cringe.
Each Monday, after I send my girls to school, I put on my imaginary accounting hat and get to it. Not only is frequent and consistent data entry smart, but it’s also a major time saver come year end.
After I enter in the prior weeks purchases by customer, I print it out and save it for follow up messages that afternoon. This list gives me all the info I need and doesn’t distract me from continuing my bookkeeping efforts right then.
Please note that although I’d never encourage a ‘cookie cutter’ follow up, having a written template for messages where you can insert your customers name and item(s) purchased can be a huge time saver. Make edits to ensure it’s personal and sincere before hitting the send button.
Batching my bookkeeping and customer follow-ups ensure I don’t miss or forget any during my busy week!
Think of other areas of your business or life that could benefit from this batching technique. I’m sure many of you batch your shopping errand, and I also use it for cleaning! You can find my #1 Quick Tidy Tip here.
I’d love to answer any questions you have about how I batch or the systems I use. Please message me or comment below to share thoughts or other ideas!
