You probably don't realize it, but there is a good chance you are letting a lot of extra money in your business slip right out of your hands. In fact, if you don't have good systems in place, I can almost guarantee it. In this post I'll pull back the curtain and show you some of the systems I use to keep things running tighter. Specifically, I'm going to tell you about an end of year/new year's marketing campaign, targeting my private clients from 2010.

But first, think about this problem in a system-less business. Coming up on the end of the year, I would think, "Shit, I better start training some more people next year...where can I turn to find new clients? Should I advertise? Should I call some old clients? Do you think my current clients will pay me twice as much??? Oh my god, what am I going to do!!!"

Ok, so maybe you don't spiral out of control right away, but if you have good tracking and good systems going all along, it's so much easier. For an independent movement educator to have simple systems in place (that are really cheap and not that hard to implement), it's like finding money between the cushions of your couch.

I sat down earlier this week and "looked through the cushions" in my business. My simple end-of-year audit turned up 5 different strategies for picking up money around the edges of my existing business -- no crazy new ventures either. You know what I forecast I could get from a little extra effort? $10,000 in the coming year. Who wouldn't give themselves a $10,000 raise with found money? But you know what? You can only do it with the right systems in place.

Putting Systems to Work

There are three systems that I use on a regular basis, that make launching a follow-up marketing campaign a piece of cake: Online Training Notes for Each Client, Contact Management Database, and Email Marketing Software.

As a part of live training, I always give my clients access to an online resources to supplement their training. I'll share notes about complicated exercises or a technique video. In this case, I'm going to leverage the online resources to remind them about the training we did earlier in the year. Even if they haven't checked the resources in a while, they still have access to the material.

STEP 1: EXPORT 2010 CLIENT LIST FROM TRAINING DATABASE

I use Highrise for keeping track of all the people in my business universe. It's super easy to navigate -- both inside the application and in conjunction with other programs. Check out all the different applications that integrate with it.

STEP 2: UPLOAD CONTACTS AND TAG THEM TO YOUR CAMPAIGN

My exported list from the training software is identified inside Highrise with a "tag" specific to this campaign. Every contact can have many tags. You get a picture of the different relationships with each client when you look at the tags they collect over time. The real beauty of the tag, though, comes when I use an integrated email marketing application.

STEP 3: PULL CAMPAIGN TAG FROM HIGHRISE AND CREATE EMAIL

This is the smoothest part by far. No need to download a list from one program and upload it to a new program, worrying about formatting. The email application and contact management application talk to each other through an API (the programs share how they each map data, so the information can flow back and forth). From inside the email application, I can select Highrise contacts, filtered by tag, and create a new mailing list just for them.

Once I've got my list, crafting an email, or several (haven't decided yet) is easy in MailChimp.

And there you have it, a quick and nerdy explanation of how to use your business systems to create better marketing and pick up the spare change lying around your business!