Tag: Notion

  • Data-based Decisions require DATA 😤

    Being an entrepreneur is my favorite thing, but I’d be lying if I said it was easy or that I feel like i know what I’m doing all the time. I’m so blessed to have the education and experience and community support that I do, and the uncertainty of basing my income solely on myself has been at times much more challenging than I expected. The thing that has made it easier to trust myself and my ideas is basing my decisions on actual data instead of throwing darts at a wall full of ideas and hoping for the best.

    In this spirit of honesty, though, I didn’t always look at data when I first started.

    Heidi Klum brings her hands to her face in a horrified gasp and shields her eyes

    Yes, I can give myself grace for not knowing what I didn’t know, AND, sometimes the data was there and I just had no idea how to find it nor the executive function to pull together all the many different reports. Hoping for the best took much less energy than tracking down CSV files and crunching numbers, and I knew that if this was really important to me I would need to make it much easier in order for it to be an option for me. I wanted to be making informed and self-compassionate decisions, which meant I needed to know myself and my needs, and I needed information about my experiments and my actions.

    So I built the business hub piece by piece, adding in databases and templates and automations as I needed them, and slowly but surely, I was able to see my data in a way that made sense to me. I was able to include my own actions and observations and feelings with the same priority as my sales and campaign engagement, I let Notion do the math for me so I no longer had to triple check numbers because I wasn’t confident in my own skills, and I could see at a glance every experiment I’d tried and the results, whether that was numbers or my own notes on how it felt and what I liked or disliked.

    I’m confident now that I know exactly what’s going on in my business and most importantly, why I’ve made the decisions that impact myself, the business as a whole, and my customers. My work is so much easier and more confident as a result, and I’m so excited for you to feel the same. The Complete Notion Business Hub is now available for purchase, with every resource I use myself in my business and few extras that have been most requested by clients in their own systems. Now you can get started organizing your business independently for half the price of custom help – and if you purchase yours before the end of September, you’ll even get a discount code for 10% off a one on one session with me!

    I can’t wait to see you and your systems grow,

    Ela

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  • Streamlining Your Tech Stack: A Notion Guide to Subscription Tracking and Cost Analysis

    Keeping track of all your subscriptions, especially as a small business owner, can be super overwhelming. We’ve all had times when we’ve evaluated our software by vibe alone – it’s hard to know which of the many tech products you’re using are providing you with the most value when you’re not tracking use, cost, or subscriptions. This Notion guide walks you through setting up a subscription tracking system for your businesses Tech Stack, a simple way to calculate how much you use each software, and a cost analysis formula so you can make data informed decisions about your business finances and the programs you keep in your Tech Stack.

    Subscription Tracking and Documenting Your Tech Stack in Notion

    To begin, we’re going to create a Database in Notion that allows us to document all of the tech, software, and subscriptions you’re using in your business. You can also use the individual pages within this database to record any special instructions or information related to those service.

    an image showing different ways you can document your tech stack in notion

    Create a table view and name your database “Tech Stack” or something similar. Then add the following properties:

    • A ‘Name’ property, to record the name of the service
    • A ‘Status’ property, named “Use Status” or something similar, with the options “Upgrade”, “In Use”, and “Archived”.
    • A ‘Number’ property, named “Price/M” or something similar, and select your countries currency as the Number Format.

    Your database will function perfectly fine with only the above properties. If the following properties seem useful to you, you can also add:

    • A ‘Select’ property, named “Use Frequency” or something similar, with the options “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly”, and “Yearly”
    • A ‘URL’ property, to link to the service’s website

    Now that the database is created, you can add pages within for each of the services, softwares, or subscriptions that you use in your business and update the information for each.

    Tracking Subscription and Software Use in Notion

    Now that we have a place for our Tech Stack documentation to live, we’re going to get into the data collection aspect of tracking the uses of each of your subscriptions and softwares. To do this, we’re going to create a separate tracking database and connect that to our Teach Stack database by utilizing Notion’s relation and rollup properties.

    Making the Use Tracking Database

    Where you want this new database to live in your Notion workspace is up to you. If you’re tracking multiple subscriptions and softwares, it might be best to have this be it’s own page, or if you’re only interested in tracking a particular service, you could create it inside that service’s page in your tech stack database.

    An image showing what it looks like to track your subscriptions and use cases in Notion

    To begin, add a table view of your new database to the page you’ve decided on. Then add the following properties:

    • A ‘Date’ property, to track the date of each recorded use.
    • A ‘Relation’ property, to connect this database to your Tech Stack database. Select the Tech Stack database you created earlier, and make sure that it’s shown on both databases.

    If you’re going to track the use of multiple subscriptions or softwares directly within this database, you can set up templates within this database to make recording uses easier. Within each template, set the date as ‘Now’ to record thew exact time of creation, set the name as the type of service, and the relation to the page in your tech stack for that service.

    Now we’re going to go to the Tech Stack database and add a ‘rollup’ property. We’re going to name it Total Uses, select the relation to the Tracking database, select the ‘Name’ property, and select the ‘Count Values’ option for the calculation. This ensures that each time a new record is created in our Tracking database that’s related to this service, the number shown in this property is updated.

    Using Buttons in Notion to Track Software Use

    Since we’re using two different databases for this process, we can utilize Notion’s Button feature to make adding a new use case recording a one-step action. You can choose to add this button to your primary dashboard, if you have one, or you can add the button directly to your Tech Stack database. Either way, the steps are the same.

    To start, add a ‘Button’ block or property. Name the button: “used (service name)”, and select the trigger as ‘When this button is clicked’. Then add the following steps:

    • Add a page to your Tracking database.
    • Update the ‘Name’ property to the name of the service you’re tracking.
    • Update the ‘Date’ property to Now – time when updated
    • Update the ‘Relation’ property to link the page in your Tech Stack database for this service.

    Now each time you click this button, a new record will be added to your Tracking database stating that you’ve used that subscription or software.

    Using Notion to do a Business Cost Analysis

    Now that we’ve created a place to document the software and subscriptions inside of our Business’ tech stack, how much we’re paying for each, and how many times we’re using them, we can add a ‘Formula’ property to the Tech Stack database that will allow you to do a simple Cost Analysis.

    A gif that shows what a Cost Analysis formula looks like in Notion

    We’re going to start by navigating to our Tech Stack database and adding a formula property. Name that property “CPU” or something similar. Then click to edit the formula. In the window that opens, select the name of the cost property in your tech stack database. Then type ‘/’ to divide that by the name of the formula property, which in this example is titled “CPU”. Click ‘done’ and update the number format to your countries currency.

    Now you can see at a glance how much each item in your Tech Stack is costing you per use, and use that data to analyze the value of each of these business expenses.

    Notion for Business Management

    Organize your entire business in Notion with the Complete Business Hub!

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    the personal dashboard is show inside of a laptop screen, while a phone screen shows the navigation list. small illustrated icons of a brain, a calendar, a lightbulb, and a book surround the two screens.

    Through the strategic use of Notion, you can document your tech stack, monitor usage, and conduct a thorough cost analysis, ensuring you’re making informed decisions that optimize your businesses financial resources and help make decision making easier.

    Whether you’re streamlining for efficiency, evaluating for value, or planning for future investments, If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur looking to navigate the complexities of business operations, we’d love to help! Schedule an Exploration Session to chat about custom system solutions for your business, or browse our other free resources.