Four Templates to Save You Time Running a Business

When you run a business, you get busy fast. I run both a blogging business and a flash mob business, and I get tons of emails and have to create new documents and content regularly. I found that some templates can save me a lot of time if I get them setup ahead of time.

Email Templates

In my blog business, I get regular emails about advertising and partnership opportunities. In my flash mob business, I regularly get emails about getting a custom mob or asking how to join a mob.

I have been able to cut down on the volume by creating new pages on each website, but the biggest time saver has been creating standard canned responses for the most common four questions I get.

I wrote the responses in Word, but saved them in Gmail as “canned responses” that I can use with just a couple of clicks.

Here is a great post on how to setup Gmail canned responses. You can also save emails as a template in Outlook. If you can’t figure out how to use templates or canned responses, you can always save a Word document and copy the text when you need it.

Contract Templates

Many businesses need legal documents when they sell a service or bring on a new vendor, and creating a new contract from scratch can be a huge time suck, if not a big expense.

If your business is simple, you can create basic contract templates to fill in whenever needed. I used Microsoft Word to create forms with fields to fill in with new customer information.

If you deal with high dollar deals or complex products, I suggest working with a lawyer to create a template that fits your needs.

Contracts are a serious part of business, and you don’t want to make mistakes by creating a sloppy contract. Instead, create one quality contract that can be used every time you need it.  If you don’t know how to do it, you could also use a service like Rocket Lawyer.

New Blog Post Templates

If you are trying to build your website in Google’s eyes, the best way to do so is with a blog in your website. If your primary business is not blogging, that takes a lot of work, but can take less time if you have a template.

Every post I write has an intro, 3+ sub-headers and sections, and a conclusion. I use specific colors and formats and image sizes to ensure I am consistent, so I created a template that I can copy and paste to get me started.

Excel Templates

If you have to do similar calculations regularly, Excel templates (or Google Docs) are a great resource. I use templates to divide up my cell phone bill and calculate rent and utility expenses.

If you want some spreadsheet template ideas, check out the template gallery from Google Docs and templates for Microsoft office.

How Do You Use Templates?

I only have a few ideas for templates here, but you can use them to save time doing many tasks for your business. Please share your best template ideas in the comments.