Transcript – Podcast 70

[00:00:00] Kris: Hello and welcome to the Design and Prosper podcast. This is Episode 70 and we are going to run through some essential tech that you need to elevate your client experience in 2023.

[00:00:15] Don: Welcome to podcast number 70. Isn’t that a lovely number?

[00:01:35] Kris: Yeah. We’re at 70, so cool.

[00:01:39] Don: I was born in the seventies. So seventies. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. We’re seventies girls, aren’t we? Yeah. Okay, let’s dive in. The essential tech, a graphic design business needs.

Now, this is so important because there’s so much tech available to us. It can be intimidating and incredibly overwhelming. So we’re going to break down for you some of our favorites and some of the tools and apps that we just couldn’t do without.

[00:02:03] Kris: Yeah. And we were going to do this as a quickie episode. We’ll just, we’ll just list through some tech, you know.

And then we started doing the show notes for this and we started patting it out and we realized actually this has to be two episodes. Yes, yes. In order to keep within our, around about 30 minutes. We don’t really like our episodes to go much longer because, well, just from our personal point of view, we don’t really like other podcasts that go for too long because we just want, yeah.

You know, like that car trip or we want it to slot into our lives a little bit. Yeah, so we thought, let’s break it up. It’s a bit overwhelming if we do it all at once. Yep. So here we go.

[00:02:38] Don: So here we go.

[00:02:39] Kris: Let’s unveil a few of our favorite techy bits and pieces that will help you provide amazing customer service, and also to position you as a high end credible designer who is highly respected.

[00:02:54] Don: Yeah. That’s all important. To be respected, you’ve got all of the right bits and pieces at your fingertips. It feels really good. It feels really grown up.

[00:03:05] Kris: Yeah. And stuff we’re talking about today isn’t design software focused, it’s not about helping you with getting the actual design component done.

It is more focused on customer service, the client experience. And so things have changed dramatically and we find the technology super exciting. We just think, oh my goodness, why didn’t we have this when we were running our very big, you know, full service studios and we have talked a lot about technology through our podcast.

We’ll scatter it here and there, but we thought let’s put it into one podcast. So it’s all there. Easy to find. You’ll be able to see the blog post as well. We’ll link that in the show notes so you can see the full blog post with all the links.

[00:03:49] Don: Absolutely. Yep. It’ll be really efficient for you.

That’s right. Kris and I have talked about how our businesses would have felt, and I’m saying felt and looked, but felt very differently if we had have had some of the tech that is available to graphic design business owners today versus 20 years ago when we were in our design businesses at the very beginning of our design businesses that is. The efficiencies that can happen when you are using the right tools, the way that you can service a client. It’s so elevated. Everything is so elevated now. It’s really spectacular what we have available to us as designers.

[00:04:28] Kris: Yeah. And not to say that we didn’t have elevated client process and beautiful customer service.

[00:04:33] Don: No, we do it ourselves.

[00:04:35] Kris: It was a lot more time consuming

[00:04:37] Don: That’s right.

[00:04:38] Kris: So it actually made projects go on for longer and it wasn’t as efficient and there was a lot more, manual admin required, this step then that step and

[00:04:47] Don: Yeah we, we had to do all the work, we had to make all the systems, we had to make all the steps, and now we have really intuitive tech that really helps us out with this. So it’s so efficient, so exciting.

[00:04:59] Kris: Yeah. Nothing was automated.

[00:05:01] Don: Nothing was automated. Everything was manual.

[00:05:04] Kris: what we’re going to get into today. A lot the stuff is automated and it’s amazing.

[00:05:08] Don: It’s, exciting. Yeah.

[00:05:09] Kris: Yeah. Yeah. All right, so let’s get into it. The first up on our list of essential tech is a lead capture form. So why do you need this? So we’re going to tell you what it is.

Then we’re going to tell you why you need it. Then we’re going to give our recommendations for it. Okay, so a lead capture form. You need this to establish your authority, reinforce your professionalism, and to screen potential clients. Really important that last bit.

[00:05:35] Don: That last bit is really everything when it comes to new clients coming through the door. So Yep. Make sure that you have that there as a beautiful professional gatekeeper.

[00:05:46] Kris: Yeah. So even if you are not taking bookings for clarity calls and discovery calls yet, you need one of these. You need one of these babies.

[00:05:56] Don: Yeah. So powerful.

[00:05:57] Kris: Yeah. So it’s a cleverly crafted initial touchpoint form. It’s where your client, your potential client is taking action get in touch with you to find out more find out more about your process.

So it will enable clients to tell you what their goals and needs are, a bit about them. We don’t want it too long. We don’t want it too detailed because it’ll scare them off.

Yeah, but you can recieve key information prior to meeting them.

[00:06:24] Don: Mm-hmm. You become a bit of a detective with this little one, and it can be super powerful if you create really strategic, targeted questions.

It’s really, really powerful because this is the first courageous step that they have taken. So the first touchpoint in your process where they have said, I am reaching out to this beautiful designer. So there may have been other touchpoints along the way, but this is the first really important one. This is the one that says, oh, I want to work with this designer.

I’m going to give away some really valuable information here. Remember that. Be really grateful for that. Be grateful that this person has taken the time to actually share this really personal information about their business you. It’s really important to remember that. Don’t take it for granted ever.

[00:07:08] Kris: There’s a level of vulnerability there on, on the client’s part.

[00:07:12] Don: To reveal that information.

[00:07:14] Kris: Yeah, absolutely.

We have a recommendation for what you include on your initial touchpoint form. We share that as part of our briefing system, the ultimate briefing system in the academy, and with our one-to-one clients. But one thing that we want to say about this is to include a pricing indicator, a pricing indication on this. form.

[00:07:34] Don: Yeah, it will eliminate the tire kickers out there. So, tire kickers, I think I’ve used this before and people are like, is that an an Aussie ism? What is tire kicking? So essentially it’s for those people who are just testing the grounds, like just wanting to see what, what you do and how you do it, and they’re, they’re just testing you really.

So we can get rid of those tire kickers and make sure that, okay if you are pressing submit on this form, you’ve got an idea or a level of understanding of the investment that is required. So if they proceed any further, your prices are not going to shock them. They’re not going to be like, oh, okay, I saw the $2,000 to $5,000 bracket on your initial touchpoint form, but I’ve decided that I’d like a logo for $420.

That’s never going to happen. Because they, they will see that and go, okay, I, I can budget for that. I can afford this.

[00:08:31] Kris: Yeah, exactly. So we’re going to screen them, make sure that they are a good fit for you because they might be an amazing client, but the kind of work that they want just might not be a great fit for your studio at this point in time.

[00:08:43] Don: It’s so important to note that.

[00:08:45] Kris: So, what can you use for this Lee capture form? Because this can be the very first website you have, essentially just this little form. You can just have it as a link on your socials. For example, it could go straight to say, Typeform. It could go straight to a Google form.

We use Dubsado for this because it’s all integrated. We will talk more about Dubsado in a moment, so if you’re wondering what we’re saying, it’s Dubsado, D U B S A D O, Dubsado because it is integrated into the whole quoting process and it really helps you stay on top of your customer relationship management when you’re doing that initial phase of the project. That onboarding phase.

[00:09:26] Don: Mm, makes the onboarding phase a no-brainer and we teach, we take a deep dive we really teach some of that critical tech for Dubsado inside the academy as well. That will get you started, will get you started with Dubsado inside the academy. But it is one of those tools that we have found to be most valuable in a design business.

We love it. We But like Kris said, there are other options. You don’t have to use that, but that’s our number one tech for this.

[00:09:54] Kris: So why we call it the number one thing is because we seem to have a lot of designers who are being perfectionists about their websites, and so you go to the Beautiful Designer’s website and it says, coming soon or Work in Progress and there’s not much else the client can do.

They might be able to follow you on socials, they might be able to send you an email, but we’re saying, put the form on, even if the coming soon page, put some sort of contact form on there with basic initial briefing points on there, initial briefing questions on there.

[00:10:30] Don: Yep. Absolutely. It is number one.

So I, I can imagine a lot of you out there, we have a lot of our listeners who take us for walks with them, so I’m sure there are a lot of you walking around your favorite track now going, ah, yes, I’ve had a coming soon now for a few months and yep. Nod, nod, nod. So we, want you to elevate that coming soon page and introduce this beautiful lead capture form.

Make it easy. Remove the barrier of entry. Make it easy for your clients to, to reach out and to understand what it is you were going to be doing with them.

[00:11:02] Kris: Yeah. Focus on that form before you focus on your portfolio section of your site. If you know, your auntie mentions you to somebody who’s in business and then they contact you, you want somewhere for them to go.

[00:11:15] Don: And it’s so professional. It’s so professional, especially when we’re starting out and a lot of the new client leads come from people who know other people. The people we know, and then they know a friend or somebody that they work with or whatever. We want to be able to give them this contact immediately and they go, okay, this designer is a serious business. They’re switched on. They’ve got a lead capture form. They won’t know what that is. They might not know that terminology, but they’ll go, okay, I, I’ve been sent to this briefing process. I understand there’s an indication of pricing. I understand the questions that have been asked are going to elevate my business.

The solutions are going to come from that. This is exciting. And you want that excitement when people actually get given your name and they go, oh wow, this is great. A legitimate design business I’m going to be working with.

[00:12:02] Kris: It starts here. And just a bit of a guide. I know I alluded to it just earlier about not having too many questions. Essentially, if you are not booked out like you are, you are really searching for clients, you have fewer questions. If you are booked out for months and you really want to screen clients, you have many more questions.

[00:12:25] Don: A bigger gatekeeper, a bigger padlock. yeah. It’s going to be harder to get into me.

That’s exactly right. So go on, get your form set up, but finish listening to this episode first. It could be the first link you have on your social, so get those appointments booked.

[00:12:43] Kris: All right, next one. So this is a little bit tied into the form, but something that we think is essential is for you to have an appointment booking form.

[00:12:55] Don: 100% essential. Now we don’t understand why this freaks design is out. They get so scared of this one, and it’s something that really has to be front and center again, removing barrier of entry, making it easy for our clients to reach out and to book time with us and to slot in to our calendar.

We want that to be easy, really easy.

[00:13:20] Kris: And it’s such easy tech as well to, put into place.

[00:13:23] Don: Absolutely. It can be so intimidating for a non-creative professional to get in touch with a designer. I think we’ve said this lots of times before, so make sure that you give your potential clients a helping hand.

Like give them a hand, make it easy for them so that they don’t have to get scared. We forget to think about them as being vulnerable and not knowing how to liaise with a designer, not knowing what to do.

They’re in this for the very first time. And so if they get to your lead capture form, oh wow, that was easy. All the questions are there. Yes, tick, tick, no, answering questions. And then the next step is, book an appointment. Oh wow. That’s easy. Book an appointment. This is what we want for you. We want that lovely level of ease with high level of professionalism.

[00:14:07] Kris: Yep. So there’s quite a few apps that you can use as a booking tool. So we actually use Dubsado, again. It integrates with the form really beautifully, but all the ones that were mentioned do integrate with a form so you can have, you know, the initial touchpoint brief with the scheduler if you wish.

So just what Don was saying before about, how intimidating it can be for a potential client to reach out to a designer and you think I’m just little old me, why would they be scared? But just say they find out about you through a friend, or they find out about you through socials and they go and have a little look, chances are you’ve got a beautiful feed.

You may look more intimidating than you think.

[00:14:45] Don: Yes.

[00:14:46] Kris: Just put yourself in the position of working with a creative professional for the first time.

[00:14:50] Don: Yes. So intimidating because it’s a whole new world and remember, the reason they are coming to you to engage you in this service is because they don’t have the skill to do it. So your skills, believe it or not, beautiful people out there are intimidating, you know? And, and they’re highly desirable and people want to pay you for them.

So again, you know, we can’t stress enough. We want every step of the client engagement process to be simple and easy.

[00:15:21] Kris: Yes. So as I said before, we use Dubsado for this, but that’s essentially because it’s built into Dubsado. So it’s like essentially we’re getting it for no extra cost basically. So that’s why we use that and it works really well.

But if you’re just looking for booking only, so a scheduler only. So you could use Acuity Scheduling, which is actually owned by the folks who made Squarespace. They purchased it . So it’s all part of the Squarespace platform as well. I think you have to pay a little extra, it’s like one of the tiers there that you can have the scheduling included.

So, definitely. An option for you Squarespace users or calendar? Calendar… I can’t, no. It’s

[00:15:59] Don: Calendly

[00:15:59] Kris: Calendly! Which has a free tier, which is good. So it could be a really good starting point.

[00:16:06] Don: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:16:08] Kris: Okay. So there’s a few things we want you to consider when you’re choosing a booking system.

So we want to make sure that the booking system has the following. We want to make sure that it gets the potential client to fill out some kind of form, so that you can get essential info, like we like to screen our leads like we’re talking about in the last thing with the initial touchpoint form. So essential that it has a form.

[00:16:31] Don: Yeah. One. Tick!

[00:16:33] Kris: Yep. We want to make sure it links to your main calendar.

[00:16:37] Don: Essential. If that isn’t happening, you don’t really have a booking system. It’s imperative that it links to your main calendar.

[00:16:46] Kris: Yes. So the calendar you use on a daily basis. So also it needs to mark your calendar as busy when an appointment is booked so that you don’t have double ups, because that would be very embarrassing.

[00:16:58] Don: It is embarrassing and tech occasionally can let us down and can double book things for us. So be on top of it. Even though this tech is working in the background for you, make sure you do a little bit of due diligence throughout your day and check in and make sure everything is lined up. But essentially it will be doing all the hard work for you.

[00:17:15] Kris: Yeah. Do you know what catches us out? Is when we have put an event into the calendar and haven’t marked it as busy and then somebody has come in and booked an appointment over the top of that because it wasn’t marked as busy.

[00:17:29] Don: So that’s a reverse engineer thing that Kris has just mentioned there. So you want this to be working really well for you. You need to be really diligent with your own calendar.

So you need to make sure, if you want blocks of time that are not available for meeting and greeting beautiful new clients. Then you have to make sure that they are marked within your calendar is busy. Like Kris said, that has caught us out a couple of times and it is embarrassing when that happens.

[00:17:56] Kris: Or, your calendar system should be able to restrict the hours that you’re available for bookings. Yes. So you’ll be able to say, I’m only taking bookings from 10 to 12. Yeah. And from two to four, say every day or only from Tuesday to Thursday, for example.

You get to decide when people can book in with you. Mm-hmm. So that’s, that’s another really important point that your calendar needs to have. Another thing is limits bookings to a maximum number of per day. Because it’s exhausting. Yes. Taking lots meetings.

[00:18:25] Don: Yeah, absolutely. And we want to be able to, we want to know, Kris and I love, love, love batching time.

So we love to have a really strict boundary around the times that we are available for calls, so that we are ready, we are prepped, hair’s done, because usually a Zoom meeting we are ready to be on. So make sure is not so much the tech, this is more about your own discipline around this, but make sure that you are really fully aware of what’s happening for your business and make sure your scheduler is, is aligned to that.

[00:18:58] Kris: Yeah. So making sure it suits you and the way you work as well. We’ve known people who actually prefer to have booking back to back to back, right throughout the day because they think, well, I’m already dressed. I’m ready to go, and I might as well just keep on going. might be you as well.

[00:19:12] Don: Yeah, Yeah, that’s right. Another great thing for your scheduler to have is the ability to send a lovely reminder email, so with a message that is customized by you. So our clients need a little bit of help staying organized, so we like a little reminder email and it also, we have it sent to us as well, so we get the reminder at the same time our potential client gets the reminder or our existing clients gets the reminder so that we’re all on the same page.

It’s really a beautiful little add on that we think is essential for your scheduler to have.

[00:19:44] Kris: Yes. And then another thing that the scheduler needs to have is it needs to adjust to your client’s time zone because we’re running global businesses now and we need to make sure that they’re booking it in their time zone, but it appears in your time zone, in your calendar.

[00:19:59] Don: Absolutely. And if you are not, if you feel that you are not running a global business, be careful. You just may be. So just set yourself up for that in case it happens in the future. Yes. So, an option, an option to have with your scheduler.

[00:20:15] Kris: Dubsado does this, which is one reason why we love it is an option for clients to pay for a session when they’re booking in a session. So that could be used for things like a brand audit session or a strategy session. So it’s a really great thing, you know, to be able to set up a paid booking.

[00:20:34] Don: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:20:36] Kris: Get those appointments booked and get that form up. Really two very important things.

[00:20:42] Don: Yes. All right. Now the third one is your CRM customer relationship management software. Woo. That’s mouthful, isn’t it? I much prefer the acronym of CRM .

So why do you need this? To seamlessly manage the client onboarding process. That’s it in a nutshell. That’s what we want from this.

[00:21:02] Kris: So once again, we use Dubsado for this, but there are so many options out there. So why we like Dubsado is because it houses all these things in the one spot and it auto-populates future things. So if we have a lead form, somebody fills it in, it’ll auto-populate to a proposal, it’ll auto-populate to the invoice further along. So we use Dubsado really for the first stage of onboarding clients.

[00:21:28] Don: Hmm. It’s beautiful. It’s all integrated, so we love it. All of those initial systems are housed in the one spot.

[00:21:35] Kris: Yeah. So, if you’re using Dubsado and we’ll have our affiliate link to Dubsado, which will give you 20% off your first year if, which is really great.

[00:21:45] Don: Make sure, I’m going to interject there. Make sure you select year, because the 20% off a once only thing. First payment. So if you go monthly, it’ll only be 20% off the month.

And then if you choose the year, you’ll get 20% off the whole year. So mm. Yes. We learned the hard way with that one.

[00:22:03] Kris: We did and we had to beg and plead change it.

[00:22:05] Don: And they were great. They were great. It happened so fast so they could see that was, yeah,

[00:22:09] Kris: but we probably shouldn’t publicize that cause that would annoy them (laughs). What you’re going to do with Dubsado is to start small. Dubsado is actually a real beast of a program and they even recommend like the, the creators of Dubsado also recommend to start small because it’s very robust. It has a learning curve. Don mentioned earlier that we have Dubsado training as a part of the academy because, we realized how confusing it is to start off with and there’s so many tutorials out there and it was like, okay, let’s just create a really easy go-to training so that you can get set up to send a proposal with an invoice and a contract. Yes. Within couple of hours, you know, just set it up on the same day.

[00:22:54] Kris: So this is what we recommend as a starting point with Dubsado. So connect your payment facility. We use Stripe and PayPal, but we’ll get into that a little bit later down the track.

[00:23:05] Don: Yep

[00:23:06] Kris: Set up your design contract, set up your standard packages and pricing, and these can be used as a starting point . For all bespoke and custom quotes moving forward.

So, time saving there. Set up your invoice. Set up your appointment booking scheduler, as we mentioned earlier and then set up your initial touchpoint contact form. We also mentioned that earlier, so we’ll have those steps on the blog as well, so that’s what you need to focus on first.

[00:23:32] Don: Yes.

[00:23:33] Kris: Don’t even think about workflows and some of the other features of Dubsado when you’re just beginning, you can get to that later.

Don: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like Kris mentioned, it’s a very robust platform and you do need to just inch at it, inch away at it. Yeah.

[00:23:48] Kris: Just a little note on something we don’t like about Dubsado and why we really only use it for onboarding and for any future contracts that we’re going to use. Like, design proof contracts, printing proof contracts, all those sorts of things throughout the process because it is, with any customer relationship management software, any CRM, you really need to be able to have legally binding contracts. So that’s something that Dubsado will do. And there’s other ones out there too. We’ll put a list in for, for you to have a little explore if you’d like because new ones are coming up all the time and we’re

[00:24:27] Don: are open to it.

[00:24:28] Kris: You know, we are absolutely open to it. Our academy students bring new CRM’s to the table and we’re like, ooh, okay. This looks interesting. Yes. Kris rubs her hands together with glee because I’m, I’m just always wanting to go down rabbit holes. Find out new tech because my brain just goes there. Gets so excited by it.

Okay, so, we don’t like Dubsado for the client portal because it’s a bit clunky and you know, they might improve it in the future. Who knows? We’ll, we’ll keep you posted on that. Which brings us however, to our preferred client portal platform.

[00:25:04] Don: Yes. Let’s have a chat about that. So why do you need a client portal? So essentially, your client portal will help you to manage client projects, the files and the timelines to set client expectations and set boundaries around your process. It’s your go-to. This is where your business processes really reside, all inside the client portal.

So, you must be very new around here if you haven’t heard us banging on about Trello.

We love Trello as the tech for a client portal, but there are lots and lots of other options. The principles that we apply to our Trello client projects and management of client projects applies to any of the client portal tech.

Kris: And we also have our free client portal template. If you haven’t downloaded that, you should. It’s great. It’s got all the bits and pieces inside that you need to consider. It’s a wonderful starting point for you to build upon.

[00:26:00] Kris: Yeah. So Go grab it.

Head to designandprosper.co/free

If you haven’t used a portal before, it will be a game changer.

[00:26:08] Don: Yeah, it’s game changer. The client portal is, is like, like we just said, the, it’s where all of your processes reside.

It’s where you can set those boundaries. It’s, it’s really, it’s a beautiful insight into your process for your clients as well.

It, makes them feel really seen and heard, and it elevates your business to such a professional level when they have access to this beautiful portal created just for them, this gorgeous page where there’s all of these beautiful, access to their files, access to their project brief, the contract, it’s all there. The assets are all there. You know, this is in itself a podcast episode because we are saying that Dubsado robust, so is Trello. so much going on in there. Lots of gorgeous automation. That’s another thing, that it, it’s just incredible. but again, as long as you have a client portal. That’s the main thing to have everything housed there, and there are so many reasons why. Making sure that your clients only contact you via that way so you’re not getting dms and emails and all sorts of things all over the place.

Assets all in the one place, timeline highly visible, your availability highly visible. There is so many reasons why a client portal and and really gorgeous tech for a client portal is necessary for your business.

[00:27:30] Kris: Yeah and designers around the world are using different software for this. There’s so many out there. People are using Click Up, Notion, Monday. Oh, there’s just many. So many and we like Trello because of its simplicity and beauty. But like Don was saying, there’s so many automation, so many plugins for Trello, it really turns into your very own software. It’s like you’re creating your own customizable software.

[00:27:54] Don: It is your business, basically all of your processes housed in the one spot. So beautiful.

[00:28:00] Kris: Which brings us to the next essential tech. Project management software.

[00:28:05] Don: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:06] Kris: Which we also use Trello for.

[00:28:08] Don: Trello wins again.

[00:28:11] Kris: Yes. So this is where you are managing internal systems, your all your projects, timelines, managing them with ease. This is going to house all your working operations and all the content for your business as well. We absolutely love Trello. So if you’re wondering, well, what is the difference? Why do I need all these things? What’s the difference between a client portal and project management software? Well, a client portal is client facing, so the client will see that and your client will interact with it.

You can send you messages there, see what the project is up to, all that sort of thing. Project management software is for team.

[00:28:48] Don: Yeah. So it’s internal.

[00:28:50] Kris: It’s internal, so to manage all your operations, your team, your timelines, and ideally whichever project management software you, you, you use will link in to your calendar of choice

[00:29:03] Don: aYep. Beautiful.

[00:29:05] Kris: All needs to link.

[00:29:06] Don: All needs to link and it’s all there. That’s why we love Trello so much powerful, powerful tool.

[00:29:11] Kris: Okay, so the next one that we see is absolutely essential is having cloud storage of some kind. So why you need this, to securely house and protect all of your business and client assets, digital files. To make files easy to collaborate on and share and to safely securely house them.

[00:29:33] Don: Yeah, absolutely. So picture this. This has happened, to our beautiful Kristine Lubinski.

You spill a full cup of tea over your laptop, the motherboard gets fried. Crying happens. You take it to Apple and they shake their head and say no, and say it’s $1,200, or you can buy a brand new laptop.

[00:29:57] Kris: Yeah. So there was tears and distress and drama of course. But the good news is, I bought a new laptop, it was an ageing laptop and I thought, uh, okay. It’s not worth spending the $1,200 on if it was only like six months old, it would’ve been worth it. Yeah. But it was ageing anyway, but the thing that happened was I came home I turned on that laptop, set it up, and I had everything ready to go back into my projects.

[00:30:28] Don: So out of the box laptop. Here we go.

[00:30:31] Kris: Yep. It’s brand new. I set it all up within. An hour, an hour and a half I was back working on projects. Mm-hmm.

[00:30:40] Don: It was actually amid a launch.

[00:30:43] Kris: Yes

[00:30:43] Don: Do you remember that, Kris? There’s never a good time for this to happen, but it was the most ridiculous timing.

[00:30:48] Kris: Yeah.

[00:30:50] Don: And we’re like, this has happened. What? What?

And we couldn’t believe how having the right tech in place, really bottom line, it amounted to a few hours out of the day. The trip to the Apple store and back again and the hour and a half to set back up again, it really did amount to minimal impact on the business and I think that is a message that we need to, to glean from, from this series is that tech is going to save us in so many different ways, having the right tech, it’s efficient, protective. You’re doing so many wonderful things for your business when you have the right tech and this. This example that we’ve just shared with you is reason enough to make sure you have the right tech in place.

[00:31:37] Kris: Yeah so the reason why I was able to get set up so quickly is because we, donna and I save absolutely nothing to our desktops, very little anyway. We don’t have anything in our downloads folder. It’s all saved to the cloud and so that’s why I was able to get up and running. I hadn’t lost anything. There was nothing lost. Cause all our software is cloud-based as well, like Adobe Suite and all that sort of thing. Just reinstall it all. Had to sign into a few things, but that, that was the hour and a half basically just signing in, logging in, re-downloading some software.

[00:32:12] Don: Remembering your passwords.

[00:32:13] Kris: Yeah. Just all that. Yeah. And then bam. I was back and we used Google Drive for this, hands down, our favorite, favorite thing.

[00:32:22] Don: Oh my gosh, We cannot speak more highly of Google Drive. It’s a game changer. It, it really is. It’s been phenomenal for our business and efficiencies.

Efficiency is going to come up a lot because that is what tech should be doing for you and if it’s not doing that for you, beautiful designers out there, if you are not getting efficiencies from your tech, consider your tech, is it the right tech for you? If it’s, if you’re sort of spiraling out and wasting time with it, but Google Drive, oh my gosh. It is just golden.

[00:32:53] Kris: Yeah. And a lot of people get turned off by Google Drive because the online interface is a bit clunky and it’s doesn’t feel as nice, especially if you’re an Apple user and you are used to using the Finder and it just feels really lovely and . Intuitive. We use Google Drive for desktop for that, and then it’s exactly like searching on the

[00:33:13] Don: Exactly.

[00:33:13] Kris: Yeah.

[00:33:14] Don: Yeah. It was amazing. I mean, you, you also must be new to the podcast if you don’t know this. Kris is our tech guru here at Design and Prosper. She’s amazing and I remember getting Google Drive set up and, and feeling like, Oh man. No. Oh no. This is ugly. Oh no. Kris I can’t do this. Precious Donna strikes again going up. Oh no. I’m so used to having my finder, I, it’s not beautiful.

And then kris introduced us, our business to having it on our desktop, and it was like, game on this is exactly what I’m used to. I love the intuitive nature of it. It’s really powerful. It’s really beautiful. It’s real time. We can work on documents and save them. We can see when it’s being saved. It’s incredible. It’s an incredible tool. So, yeah.

[00:34:04] Kris: Yeah. Just essential for collaboration. Mm-hmm. We love how we can share folders or individual files with clients or collaborators or suppliers. It’s incredible. It’s just, it’s a game changer. Like it was used to be so hard to even work from home. We had an, in, like a, an inbuilt server. It was very complicated tech to be able to work from home. You know, a few, a decade or so ago, it was just not this easy. And it even works well on like mobile data. Like you can be sitting in your car overlooking the beach with your laptop and you can work from your Google Drive and just open everything up.

[00:34:45] Don: Love it. Love it. True story. Kris and I spend a fair bit of time in car office with kids and running around and sitting outside of extracurricular activities and things like that for our children and we’re still on. We’re still still We’re still working and we can access our beautiful drive in this way. So yeah. Love it, love it, love it. So check it out.

[00:35:05] Kris: All right, so we’re going to leave it there, lovely people. We’re going to do a part two because we still have about nine more tech bits and pieces to share with you.

[00:35:15] Don: Yeah and we love all of these things, so we need a little bit of time to talk about each one. Yes. So this is a two part series. So you have just listened to part one. So check out podcast 71 when it drops. That will be part two of Essential Tech

[00:35:31] Kris: That’ll release in about a week. Yeah. So yeah, keep your eyes peeled for that one and start implementing. So what is your task for this week? The number one task that you need to do if you haven’t got it already, is to set up some sort of initial touchpoint form, so people can be funneled through and you have that level of professionalism from the start and they feel cared for from the start.

[00:35:58] Don: Yep. Go get it done. Yeah.

[00:36:03] Kris: Okay.

[00:36:03] Don: Alright.

[00:36:04] Kris: Have a beautiful week.

Don: Bye!