Hello guys, welcome back to the key productive YouTube channel, it is your host Francesco D'Alessio back for another video
So today what I wanted to do with you guys is dive into the topic of notion again
What I want to do specifically today is share how I manage clients and projects using notion
I've talked a lot about notion recently, but not really about how I use it. And sometimes people have messaged me saying
show us how you use something and that might help and I am working a little side project where you guys
Will soon get to share your own setups
Which I think will help the extended community
Because I don't really want to show my zero pond or show dozens of you know hundreds of setups. Hopefully in the long run
They will hopefully get you where you need to be and you can steal bits from other people, which is great
Which is fantastic, I think
So hopefully this video gives you a bit of context in how I use notion for managing clients and tracking clients as well
I use a notion. So I'm really excited about this one. I've just before we dive in guys
I want to thank this week's sponsor here on the key productive YouTube channel, which is set up now
You've probably heard of setup before maybe because they've already sponsored a podcast and tools they use podcast on iTunes
And also this this channel before which is great to have them back because I'm a user of setup
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Okay, guys, let's dive into the topic of client tracking inside of notion
Hopefully gives you some good tasty examples to go away with to apply to your own notion account
So here we are with my notion set up now
obviously, I'm gonna do a full video on this very soon because as you can see
It's probably dramatically changed the last time since you saw it just to be clear
I am using the lovely new dark mode. I think they've done a fantastic job on dark mode
I'm just a little tip. You can access it from up here. All you have to do is on the desktop version
That's all I know it for in a moment is dark mode being accessible there and you can use the shortcut command shift L
If you're on Mac to toggle it on and off which is quite impressive
Personally, I love it and you'll be seeing my setup here today in that mode
And so just be clear this video is going to give you an outline on
why I use notion for client tracking how I use it giving you an idea of
How it sort of compares to the likes of pipedrive I guess
and hopefully give you an outline of
How I use it generally for projects because I guess if you guys are looking at it as a resource
Then this might be an active example
now, of course
I'm not gonna show you my inside setup because that's quite personal but I'm gonna show you exactly the mock-up of it
Just without all the information on I hope you understand that
Now as you can see here are the real client page is over in my projects area
So it's the top of it. I access it quite regularly
So it's there for a reason and I can go straight into it
Now in this case, I believe I've saved the mock-up one in other yet mock-ups clients. There we go
So hopefully this will give you a nice outline. So let's start off with the top element
I've kept the top simple added the office emoji to the top which you can do and not really anything detailed here
So what I have to start with is a pinned we're not pinned. It's just placed at the top a page with my tax information
Obviously being self-employed you have to put your tax in and everything like that
I like this pin to the top because it means that I can check in exactly how much I paid so far
So I can actually go into that page and find all my payments so far in tax, which is quite helpful
And I can see all the projections as well, which is very easy to use
Now just below here. I'll put the month and this is almost like a just a baby dashboard beforehand - all of the information
I've got my balance
which I knew normally put my current bank balance on and this is really ideal for freelancers because you can see a
general idea of how much you've got in your current and I've put a yellow
Sort of background on that just so it's like clear like, okay
This is how much you've got to play with in terms of this month next month's
Savings, etc
I've got my August goal where I want the balance to be so that's quite nice to see it below because I can go okay
I'm gonna target it there and how much tax I have to pay left
And only recently have I sort of gotten to that interest in tax ideas
Obviously the idea of paying tax and and keeping it in tracking it inside of notion. So normally what I'll have
on this section second segment here is
Goals area so I'll put a nice big headed goals
And I normally allow it like three or four clear goals for the month of exactly what I want to do
so for example this month for me is
Securing new clients and making sure that I can get some on board for the next month and because I've dropped a few this month
This last month so making sure that I have that is a very very helpful so you can set out three or four
They're almost like objectives, I guess to some extent where at the end of the month. You can sit down and go, okay
Did I achieve these I mean now actually weaved into my own goals section
Which maybe I'll talk about in another video if that's something of interest so in terms of structure
Where is everything placed here? So I have a board?
Which I used for clients a board, which I use for sponsors and a board which I use for
Potential and they're all regular bots and so you can add different views, but this is a really simplistic board
So as you can see here
I have a new client template whenever I want it to make a new client of not making the client
Work with the new client or I just want to get slink down
I will duplicate that one and drag it on to the relevant area
Um, and I'll just delete that for example, but it's just a good way to get started
So let me show you what a client template this for me right now again
I'm really trying to fine-tune my stuff and this actually isn't my latest version of it
But it'll give you an idea of how I'm using it right now. So the new client template up here
I've got different areas or different tags. I guess you can highlight
That help breakdown it. So for example have status. What's the current status of these?
And that's actually the position in the board the type of clients
So I've got a few selected here, like easy a writing client is a consultancy
Is it one that I do screen sharing with others in like content creation?
Commission-based or a sponsor again don't necessarily need sponsor in that anymore and also the payment number as well
Which is quite handy if I'm working on a project only base which can be quite helpful. So down here
I have a basic template
So I have the current project eg what I'm gonna be working on with them
A lot of these clients are gonna be like one-off clients
So they're working on a little bit of the project or you know that they're not necessarily ongoing necessarily
You've also got notes down here so you can start a list as well. And also the project outline
So what I can do here and maybe need some modification on this is exact dates and times that I need to check back in
This is generally a lock that you can access and the great thing is all you have to do when you're creating
This is simply start adding this to the page
So this instantly becomes a page when you start adding it to the bottom so you can see here
that's a new client template when I get a new client, I'll add your information there and
And I'll drag it to the relevant status area. So in the clients area, I have three core status
Sections
So I have active projects which tend to be
One-off projects or ones that I'm working on right now that I know it would see the end in if that makes sense
Ongoing clients, which I know that
Bring the money in regularly per month and I need to obviously like hygiene and keep
Ending so once that I know we'll be closing soon
And I'll have all of that information there and also ones that I've recently finished with and that's just for reference there
So just to give an idea if I go into the this one here, I can't be it will be an ongoing status
obviously the writing client this was
And I could also here we go
I can add a few notes on the general proposal and what it is ongoing so I can have all that information there
And this one here, for example
You know, like what is this articles? What articles have I done? What modifications by done as a tally log?
I really want to improve this in terms of the process
I'm going through but for now, it's a lot better in how I was using it before in Evernote. I'm in Evernote
I was tending to just make a table at logging all of them and constantly adding to them again
I'm constantly refining this and that's where I want to talk about pipedrive
Near the end of this video to give you an outline and why I don't specifically use it yet
as
And why I use notion instead
So there there's sort of four core areas that I use for clients and obviously as you guys know
We have sponsors like set up today. I'm gonna come on the channel
and what I have is a separate area for that and that's sort of like my two roles my freelancing work and
My creator work and then I have the same sort of set up upcoming ones
Ones at the ending and ones that have recently finished
As a way to view all of that and I can basically just keep all the information
There now. You're probably wondering how do you capture like new leads or new projects that are coming in? That's quite easy
So what I'll do is if there's any new leads that come in like people that are interested in francesco
Could I borrow you for some influencer marketing or PR and i'm like, okay. That sounds cool then
I'll add them as an item down here as a potential in the potential
Table and what i'll do is then if the client goes, okay, we're actually looking at you know
You've july time or august time or september time?
This has obviously been refreshed since I last made the mock up then I'll drag it to the relevant area and as you can see
here
maybe I've got a couple here that want me to contact them in August or
The actual project standing in August and all I simply do is for example if I'm like, okay
This one's starting and it's an active projects not an ongoing one. I will drag it up to
Here and be able to see that there and then that's where I start and in really detailed notes
Again, it's a really simple process
There's not really too many
Intricate things about this and what I quite like about no notion is that you can obviously drag it across different boards without it affecting
The details inside or also the card itself and finally here
I'll have a few previous clients
Which I'll read routinely check in to see how they're doing whether I can help them whether I can
Just like see what they're doing, I guess and just make sure they're there. Okay, because I'd love to keep positive relationships
Best I can so just sort of an outline of that. Obviously. I have the top so I have clients
I have sponsors. I have potential which are then used to drag up the clients and previous clients as well
I think it's a really simplistic process. There's nothing too much here. Many of you guys might know a software called pipe drive
This is more of a sale software. I know that like Sir Paul miners use it. He references his a lot
He also even does management training on it
but pipe drive is
A lot more sales focused and I think if I'm honest I probably will move to pipe drive in the next few years
But maybe I need to sort of get a bit more progressive at the moment. This is a really healthy medium
So previously I used the links of Trello
Beforehand, it's all used. Sorry. I used Evernote then I use Trello
Tralee was actually a good tool for it
and but notion I feel like is a really happy medium because I manage most of my projects here and I would like to see
All the information as well at a glance. So I probably will look to move to pipe drive. There are other solutions as well
I saw one the other day
Honey book again a one that you can manage proposals from start to finish and you can actually send them out
I don't think pipe drives done that I think pipe drives solely focuses on the sales side of stuff and
Another one called Taleo which was on and I will put these guys and links to as well, which is available on
And I saw Ron initially. So there are lots of different for client management solutions
But I think if you're getting started, then you're sort of progressing and I'm sort of in that stage
I'm like, okay, I've gone from Evernote to Trello to notion in the space of three years and
Notions something that I'm probably going to spend the next year
With so it's not like I'm leaving at least from this side of the process
But obviously and you can create your own setup, so I probably need to do a bit more
Fine-tuning with the template. So I'm talking your ears off now
Let me give you a few ideas of what I want for the future at least in the next six months with this area
I'm going to create profiles for each client inside of their cards
I'm also gonna have an area where previous clients are available to access
Sort of reference information not their personal information or like client details and stuff like that
Just what I've worked with them on not necessarily the documents and stuff. Just the
General sort of agreements and information so it's obviously gonna be a place for that
So I'm gonna have any current or upcoming work. I'm also gonna add my
Ideal client list. So normally I have like this sort of list of 25 clients that I'd love to work with in the future
As I progress my own freelance marketing work
And I can have that there. I'm also going to have a page for people that I work with specifically say for example
And the likes of Alice who's as the tools they use podcast
Scripting and she does a couple of the website stuff, which is amazing. I'm gonna have a reference area for that sort of stuff
So just to give you another idea of how I use this in the day
So what I'll do is I'll access the clients page
Probably once or twice a day and what I'll do is I'll just check in
And see if the page is okay, you know general information
I guess just routine admin. And what I'll do is if I have a new lead or a new client
I will do that automatically even in offline mode. It works very well. Say for example, let's say, you know, Dave
Emails me and said I want to work with you. I'll say brilliant
I will add you I won't say this to him my own head
I'll say I'll add it into notion as a potential and then I'll slowly manage that so that's really easy
I'll just tend to start with going down in potential then when it's it. Once it becomes more date based
I will move it on to a
Different area into the month and then once I'm happy that it's going ahead
I'll move it into active projects or ongoing depending on the situation active projects again
Very static more like a month or two months bit of work ongoing more like three plus months. I'd just so I'm
Doing that I'm always adding and removing new clients just so I'm always spring cleaning it
And what I would do as well is at the end of the work week normally on a Thursday or Friday
Morning, I will sit down
I will look at all my current clients and see areas that I can improve on all of them
am I being fast enough with a lot of them in terms of like response time in terms of delivery of product in terms of
Making and going above board a lot of time
and in my rodia's list a few ways in how to improve that or do I need to
You know
Dramatically do better and that's when I'll highlight it inside it
My to-do list as something that I need to focus on during the week
so I do have time to review clients and make it a bit more successful in terms of
Exactly how I can develop this now, of course, as I said, this is something open to interpretation
So I really love your thoughts in the comments below
Um, if you've got any ideas on how you use boards very similar
Maybe that would be something you can pop in the comments below because I really love to hear stuff like that. Um
Before we go guys a big thanks to set up for today for sponsoring this video here on key productive YouTube channel
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So if you're just starting out freelancing or something like that, it's gonna be ideal for you. Um an another note
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So guys, I really appreciate you stopping by today. Hopefully this give you some nice insights. I'm into my own notion set up and
Hopefully you can apply it to some of your own projects or activities or give me some tips and tricks
Any guys, thank you so much for stopping by today
Make sure to have a great week keep productive and I'll see you guys very very soon
Cheers
I can't forget that that we met you lose