I remember the first time I went to see my accountant. I was around 19 or 20, and figured it was time for me to treat my side hustle of building websites as an actual business.

I had been reading books on how to start a business, and one talked about the Shoebox Method for accounting: just shoving all of your receipts into a shoebox for your accountant to sort out later.

That sounds like madness, but I thought I’d play a little joke on my accountant (a family friend) and tell him that’s what I was doing. I’ll never forget the look on his face — wide eyes, mouth agape, cold sweat forming on his brow — before I told him I was just kidding and had a spreadsheet, to go with a folder of the receipts in my bedroom (slash office).

Even back then — over 20 years ago — I knew the importance of having some system. I was a pretty sloppy kid, but in my business and school work, I was very organized.

I knew I had to be if I was going to be good at anything.

Years later, before I got connected with my now long-time accountant, Rachel, I actually met with someone local who told me my accounting system was so good that he didn’t think I needed him. My strong suspicion is that he didn’t want to do small business accounting, but it was still a nice compliment.

Something I hear often is, “your systems and automations look great, but I have no idea where to start.”

Back in 2003-ish, I was faced with the same problem regarding accounting. Before that, I wasn’t really tracking anything because I barely had expenses. I hosted my client websites on a web server I set up at home.

As things evolved into something that resembled an actual business with real income, expenses, and W9s, I knew I needed a system to track my expenses. So I set up a spreadsheet with 2 sheets: Income and Expenses.

I also had a binder with receipts, in case I needed them.

Today that system looks vastly different, and I’m using actual software and an accountant. All of my expenses go on a single card that is connected to the accounting software. But only after I started with that simple system.

So how can you do the same thing? I recommend these steps:

1. Think about where you spend the most time.
2. Take a single task or process you do manually.
3. Ask, “How can I make this slightly easier?”

That’s it. You take one simple step towards an easier process. Here’s an example: When I started batching podcast episodes, I would lose track of where I was with each episode. So I set up a simple Google Sheet with Guest Name, Status, and Publish Date.

That’s it! That was the seed that sprouted into a nearly fully automated system. When I hired my podcast editor, I would move files into Dropbox and then manually email the link to my editor.

Thanks to that first spreadsheet, I was able to set up an automation: when the status changed to “Ready for Edit,” email Joel.

The same thing could be said for cold outreach, my CRM, my YouTube channel, idea generation, and email inbox management.

But you still need to start somewhere. So your homework: take a single task you do, and ask yourself, “How can this be easier?”

I want to know what you come up with. Comment below and let me know.