Dubsado is an extremely powerful tool that can help take your client’s experience, and your business, to the next level. Dubsado is your CRM, invoicing platform, scheduler, and so much more. Jade, the CEO and Founder of Mrs. Smith Assist is a Certified Dubsado Specialist and uses Dubsado every single day, along with many of our team members. It’s safe to say we are all fans of Dubsado here at Mrs. Smith Assist! If you’re curious as to what all Dubsado can offer, take a look at their full feature list here. But, don’t get overwhelmed. It’s easy to get caught in a whirlwind of ideas and goals before you even get started. How could you not? There’s an endless number of ways you can use Dubsado to level up your business, where do you even start? That’s why we’re here! So, you signed up for Dubsado, now what? (Psst, if you haven’t signed up yet, use this link or code mrssmithperks to get a 30% discount year round! Dubsado is also having their Summer Sale from July 18th – July 22nd, and you can use the 30% discount on top of the sale price. There really isn’t a better time to sign up!) Naturally, you probably want to jump in and hit the ground running. Send out lead capture forms and officially start your CRM? Yes please! Create automated workflows that make it look like you’re on top of everything, all the time? Even better! Before you start creating to your heart’s desire, let’s take a step back and make sure you’re making Dubsado work for you, not the other way around. The whole point is to streamline and improve your unique processes, right? We’ll walk you through the best practices when getting started with Dubsado to make sure you are building a strong foundation for the future. Don’t worry, you’ll have time to play with all the bells and whistles Dubsado has to offer, in the future. Let’s make sure you start off on the right foot. How do you do that? Establish and Understand Your Goals It’s important to know what you want from Dubsado before getting started. Are you looking for a hands off approach, and wanting to utilize as many automations as possible? Or, do you want hands-on processes where you’re involved every step of the way? Do you want to use Dubsado to scale your business and be able to manage a heftier workload, or do you want to save time on your current workload and leave it at that? Take a few moments to think through how you hope to use Dubsado now, and in the future. It’s okay if you aren’t totally sure. That’s the beauty of Dubsado- you have endless opportunities to tweak it to your liking and make it into exactly what you’re looking for! However, the more you know about your goals for the future, the easier it is to map out your path to those goals. Map Out Your Processes By now, you hopefully have a semi clear vision of what Dubsado has to offer and what your current goals are. Let’s combine those with your existing, or new processes, to get a crystal clear vision of what those will look like. It’s tempting to jump into Dubsado and start mapping out your processes by creating forms, workflows, and canned emails, but it’s crucial to have an outline of your processes before you start creating, to make sure you’re creating the right things! We recommend keeping it simple- a pen and paper, a whiteboard, or a blank Word document. You want the flexibility to easily change and rearrange the steps in your processes until they feel right. First, let’s start with your processes. You may have different processes for different services, and that’s okay. Choose one to start with and start getting it all down onto your paper. What’s your first step? Your second? Could this process branch off into another process? Here’s an example of what this may look like: Client completes lead capture form Schedule discovery call Send questionnaire for more info Select package and send client proposal Send client contract And so on and so forth. Tip- it may be beneficial to also map out exactly what this process looks like from your clients perspective! Create your Dubsado “To Do” List Now that you have your processes mapped out, go back through them and start identifying which items you want to create in Dubsado. That lead capture form? Dubsado has that. Scheduling a discovery call? You could automate that. Sending a proposal and contract? Well, you probably get where we’re going with this… Refer back to all the features Dubsado has to offer, and identify which steps in your processes can utilize those features. Maybe you’ll remember an amazing feature that you want to use, but your process doesn’t really allow it. The beauty of having it all written out on paper is that you can easily make changes without losing the big picture view. As you’re working through this step, remember that you don’t have to know how to set up all of these features, yet. You’re just identifying which features you do want to learn about, which ensures you’re spending your time where it matters. Jump Into Action Now that you’ve identified all of the Dubsado features your current processes will utilize, it’s time to take action! Go through your list of features and start creating those items in Dubsado (these may be canned emails, setting up your scheduler, payment plans, etc.). If you come across a feature you don’t know how to set up, that’s totally fine! Dubsado has tons of resources that walk you through the process of using every feature they offer. We recommend their help center and Youtube channel. Phew! That may have felt like a lot of work, but you’ve gotten it off your plate. You should be proud! You have the biggest pieces of your processes