Grow Your Online Business and Manage Stress by Making Templates

I’m betting you already use at least a few templates in your business. But have you considered a systems-based approach to making templates that includes reviewing, cataloging, and storing them?

This proactive approach is different from creating templates here and there, as needed. For online business owners, templates are one of the workhorses of running a business. This alone makes it worth using a strategy to guide their creation and use.

Using templates effectively can profoundly impact your business and life. They automate tasks, boost productivity, alleviate stress, and ensure consistency - all of which free up time for two super important things:

• Time to focus on strategic activities that create revenue and grow your business
• Much-needed time for self-care, personal pursuits, relationships, and relaxation

Not only is this approach a system in and of itself, but it links back to and strengthens your overall business system.

Here you’ll find an overview of various template types - perhaps some you haven’t thought of. We’ll also discuss the self-care and business benefits of using them as well as 5 tips to make templates. 

Common Types of Templates

Online entrepreneurs juggle various responsibilities and need ways to streamline routine operations like sending emails or creating social media posts. Making templates is a powerful strategy that will maximize your time, effort, and efficiency. 

Understanding the various types of templates available allows you to tailor your template strategy to your specific business needs and strategy.. 

Creating templates is easier than ever. You can create virtually any kind of template you need on the platforms or software you prefer. Let's explore the key types of templates you may want to focus on as an online business owner.

Document Templates

Document templates are among the most common and versatile forms of templates. They help us create consistent and professional-looking documents for both internal and external use.

Think: contracts, invoices, PDFs, or workbooks. By having these pre-designed templates at the ready, you will significantly reduce the time it takes to generate essential documents. This leaves you with more time to grow your online business while focusing on self-care (which is an integral part of growing your business :)

Social Media Templates

Love it or hate it - we’re living in the Barbie world of the social media age. 

Maintaining an active presence on social media is crucial for establishing your brand and marketing products and services. Social media templates simplify the process,  creating visually striking posts and graphics that compete in the noisy and never ending feed of your potential clients. 

You may need a different template for different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or TikTok. Further, you may also need distinct templates for different types of posts on these platforms, such as personal story posts, various graphics, marketing posts, etc. 

Email Templates

Some people have claimed that email marketing is dying or somehow less relevant than it once was. One look at data tells a different story.

• Email marketing is nearly 40 times more efficient than the combined impact of Facebook and Twitter in attracting new customers for your business (McKinsey).
• Approximately 91% of American adults prefer receiving promotional emails from companies they purchase from (MarketingSherpa).
• When it comes to driving sales, email marketing often helps grow your online business more effectively than social media marketing (Optinmonster).

These numbers show that email marketing is one of the most direct and valuable things online entrepreneurs can do. 

On top of this, it’s likely that you need a variety of email templates: Welcome sequences, newsletters, new release promotions, opt ins, onboarding, etc.

Website Templates

Website templates provide pre-designed layouts and forms that help customize your brand, content, funnels, and systems. They eliminate the need to start from scratch and enable you to use master templates to make changes quickly and easily. 

Aside from the design templates offered by many website building platforms, here are a few other types of website-related templates:

• Snippets templates
• Form templates
• Widget templates
• Page content templates

Project Management Templates

For online business owners, project management is a must for planning and execution. These templates are things like task lists, project timelines, Gantt charts, and even links. Whether you're working solo or collaborating, these templates save time, help you stay organized, and help meet deadlines. 

Project Management Platforms:

• Notion
• AirTable
• Trello
• Asana
• Microsoft 365

Content Creation Templates

Content templates. Where do we even start?

Content outlines, blog posts, video scripts, Canva graphics, workbooks, cheatsheets, infographics, freebies, videos . . . basically any of the multitude of ways you want to deliver content. Whichever you choose, creating a structured template helps you stay on brand, save valuable time, and create consistent, high-quality content. It also helps creators avoid procrastination and creative block because it gives you a pre-formatted starting place.

The Self-Care and Business Benefits of Creating Templates

Making templates that help execute your systems has several key advantages.

Perhaps the most significant benefit of templates is their positive impact on work-life balance. Their automation allows you to allocate more time to personal pursuits, family, and relaxation. 

They also serve as stress-management tools, helping to minimize stress associated with tedious and repetitive tasks while supporting high standards of quality. Streamlining these routine processes frees up time and mental energy to focus on strategic and revenue-generating activities. This enables you to grow your online business. 

Using templates help you and any collaborators seamlessly adhere to brand guidelines, bolstering brand recognition and consistency. Of course, last but not least, templates support change and creativity by adapting to your business’s growth and evolution over time. 

How to Make Templates 101: A Systems Approach

What does your template need to do? Identify your needs by determining the specific tasks you frequently use that would benefit from a template. Then, match these to a template format. Example: You need a template for a monthly newsletter with 1 brand graphic. Two base template formats would be a brand graphic saved in Canva and a Word or Google doc that contains an outline of all elements every newsletter should have, and in what order.

Create a visually appealing and user-friendly layout. Make sure it's easy to customize on a case-by-case basis while maintaining a consistent structure, look, and feel.

Get an idea for which parts can be customizable and which should remain fixed. For example, you may want to provide a catchy, themed header graphic for each monthly newsletter. However, you don’t want to change your base outline. You can also note ideal word counts for each section. This would also be part of your template.

Create a system to store and organize all your templates. While you *could* use a dedicated file folder on your computer, I recommend using the cloud. I use Canva and Google Drive to save content. I then use a Free Airtable account to organize the links to each file.

Learn a Strategic Approach to Making Templates for Your Business

My Systems and Templates Masterclass is all about a strategic approach to making templates. The masterclass includes a great workbook for you to use over and over. I hope to see you there!