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I Streamlined Client Communication and Saved Hundreds of Hours with Plutio

How ZekTec Streamlined Client Communication and Saved Hundreds of Hours with Plutio

Customer Success Story

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<p>One of the most critical problems Antoine had managing West 7th Design Studio since 2009 was reducing his administrative workload to focus on fostering his team and growing his studio.</p><h2>How Antoine Thomas Uses Client Dashboards to Reduce Unnecessary support by 90 Percent</h2><p>Imagine a world where getting a tenth of the calls you did before gives you the time, space, and breathing room you need to be able to focus on your long-term strategic goals, all while spending less time at your desk and more time binging your favorite TV shows.</p><p>Antoine Thomas, Founder and Creative Director of West 7th Design Studio doesn’t have to imagine it. He’s already done it.</p><blockquote><p>“The amount of TV I’ve been able to binge-watch has been amazing. Like, ‘Oh, this is what people do when they stop working. Cool!’”</p></blockquote><h3>Spending Less Time Helping Existing Clients and More Time Growing</h3><p>Antoine has managed to reduce unnecessary client communication by over 90%, saving himself and his team valuable time and allowing them to concentrate on creating even better branding and design. He estimates that by using Plutio over his previous setup, he saves about 15 hours a week which means more time for other projects and personal work.</p><p>Business owners are often the most social and people-focused among us, constantly making new connections and depending on old ones to push their companies forward. It’s clear when talking to Antoine that his human-centered approach to brand strategy and business is what drives the success of West 7th Design Studio.</p><blockquote><p>“I’m people-focused, through and through. Everything I’ve done so far has been about connecting people.”</p></blockquote><p>However, being people-focused does not mean that you should be spending all of your time interacting with just anyone. It’s more valuable to devote face-time to nurturing growth than to customer support for clients who can quickly help themselves with the right system.</p><p>So one of the most critical problems Antoine had managing w7th since 2009 was reducing his administrative workload to focus on fostering his team and growing his studio.&nbsp;</p><p>In the beginning, he had no system to manage and deal with client requests, no formal invoicing system, and no way of managing projects or keeping centralized communication with clients, so he began searching for a solution.</p><p>The first solution was a “home-grown” web portal created by a friend that allowed w7th to invoice clients and manage their work. This system worked fine for the studio at the time, but as they grew and started expanding, they began to notice some major limitations of taking this approach. Building from the ground up means increasing your administrative overhead by a large amount, struggling to balance your work and the maintenance of your in-house tools, or sacrificing quality and consistency in your product.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Clean_Shot_2022_02_07_at_17_02_45_2x_copy_3e180e7309.jpg"><figcaption><a href="https://w7th.com">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><p>So w7th moved to a new system, this time managed and operated by someone else. While that system worked for the studio's needs for a couple of years, support essentially disappeared overnight.</p><blockquote><p>“Things would break and it would take support weeks to respond and then months to fix, if support even responded at all. I found myself going into the back-end and making my own program updates again.”</p></blockquote><p>Even before the portal support vanished though, it wasn’t an optimal experience for any of their clients. “The reporting function wasn't actually working,” Antoine said. “The messaging function wasn't working, either.”</p><p>Antoine was frustrated and stressed out.</p><p>Clearly, making a decision on what software to run your business on is daunting, especially when the success of your entire business is at stake. So when he found Plutio, he did a trial run with his team and a long-term client and they said “cool, this actually works! This is a viable solution!”</p><h2>A solution that changed everything</h2><p>Over the years, Antoine’s award-winning studio has amassed an impressive roster of clients, including the NAACP DC Branch and the Howard University Cancer Center. Much of this success can be attributed to the studio’s approach to design and nurturing relationships. They value and focus on the human element of their work so their clients form authentic connections with their audiences.&nbsp;</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Login_Screen_68be2219e9.jpg"><figcaption><a href="http://w7th.com">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><p>Therefore it was important to w7th to choose a system that not only worked but catered to the human sensibilities of how things should work.</p><p>Antoine was particularly drawn in when he found out that Plutio is a system designed from the ground up with direct feedback and input from its userbase.</p><blockquote><p>“I thought, okay, I can meet the founder. I can join this Facebook group. I can share some thoughts. I can see what other creators are doing. I can see what other business owners are doing and help build something that actually works on all fronts.”</p></blockquote><p>This community support not only enabled w7th to excel at offering their clients the best service possible but empowered Antoine to build a more robust system that allows his studio to get more work done in less time.</p><blockquote><p>“It’s very, very rare to find an out-of-the-box solution that just fits all of your needs, but to be in the community and see somebody say, ‘Hey, I was using this tool in the platform but I tweaked it and I use it like this now.' Like oh wow, that’s an amazing solution. Why don’t I try that? I like being able to really, truly make this platform my own.”</p></blockquote><p>Antoine has gone on to customize Plutio in a way that fully allows him to utilize dashboards to their fullest advantage. He has really honed in on how exactly to manage projects with ease with automation and integrations that rival larger corporate design studios.</p><p>“Plutio was a major game-changer for me, to be perfectly honest,” Antoine proudly says as he displays his dashboards.</p><h3>Dashboards</h3><p>While many things about Antoine’s setup are impressive, Antoine stressed that starting his day out being able to see everything that mattered the most has been integral to his studio’s success.</p><blockquote><p>"In our old portal, as the studio owner, I had a dashboard but my team members and my clients didn’t, so being able to create a dashboard specifically for them based on permissions is great. I can personalize this platform. I can welcome them with a branded experience all around. It’s perfect."</p></blockquote><h4>Main Dashboard</h4><p>Antoine’s primary dashboard has a place for everything he needs to see to keep his business running from a glance.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Dashboard_1_304913f8cc.jpg"></figure><ul><li>Payments</li><li>YTD Paid Invoices</li><li>Outstanding Payments</li><li>Payments and overdue invoices over time</li><li>Tasks</li><li>Timesheets overview</li><li>Completed Tasks overview</li><li>Personal notes</li></ul><blockquote><p>"I need to see how much money we have coming in and what we're owed. This is a great default look for me to come in and say, ‘Okay, this is where we are. This is what we have going.’"</p></blockquote><h4>Projects Dashboard</h4><p>Antoine uses his Projects Dashboard to quickly get a feel for where everyone is on their given projects. He can quickly see how many tasks are assigned, how many projects are on hold, and how many client tasks are overdue.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Projects_Dashboard_ab4444e370.png"></figure><h4>Studio Dashboard</h4><p>Lastly, Antoine has a dashboard dedicated specifically to internal projects. This gives him a quick overview of anyone working on anything studio-related. He can see every task that needs to be completed, how long it’s been assigned, and who is working on it.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Dashboard_3bb243dfbb.jpg"></figure><h3>Automation</h3><p>If you’ve ever worked in an internal agency for a large corporation, you’ll likely have seen how complex automation can get. Common automations include:</p><ul><li>Concatenating various projects and request data into a string to use as a project ID</li><li>Automatically creating tasks or projects based on incoming requests</li><li>Applying task workflows and timelines based on specific criteria</li><li>Pulling and pushing data between various platforms for reporting or operations purposes</li><li>Much, much, more.</li></ul><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Integromat_Automation_1a4cefc596.png"></figure><p>In Plutio, you can apply this kind of automation through various 3rd party automation platforms, and Antoine has automated his Plutio instance using Integromat. He’s taken full advantage of the ability to automate with Plutio, and some of his key automations include:</p><ol><li><strong>Automatically creating a folder structure in pCloud when a new project is created: </strong>When a new project is started, a Client, Project, Admin, Working, and Final Files folder are all created on Antoine’s server, giving everyone on his team a place to put their files, whether they be design assets, invoice backups, contracts, or final deliverables to be sent to the client.</li><li><strong>Automatically creating a Project ID:</strong> Project IDs are valuable in helping to quickly understand what type of work a project requires, including; what team should be working on it, when it was created, and more. It also gives each project a unique identifier which can be helpful for financial and reporting purposes.</li><li><strong>Automatically create a group conversation in Projects:</strong> Streamlining communication with clients is one of the key benefits of the inbox feature in Plutio, and Antoine has managed to streamline it in a way that puts everyone on the same page automatically. Once a project starts, a group conversation with the client and all project team members is automatically created. (He uses this feature in combination with snippets. To see those, read on.)</li></ol><h3>Project Management</h3><p>West 7th Design Studio has an in-house Project Manager that keeps track of all current projects and ensures that everything is handled on a timely basis. In order to do this, they need a project management tool that can handle everything they can throw at it, which is why Antoine has been so happy with Plutio.</p><blockquote><p>“Projects are easy to manage and they get done on time. I’m really happy with the platform so far.”</p></blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Projects_94501db33f.jpg"></figure><p>Here’s a list of some critical project management features that Antoine has found helpful for streamlining his company’s workflows.</p><h4>Project Budgeting</h4><p>One of the key features of project management that Antoine has found useful is the ability to track budgets within the project settings page.</p><blockquote><p>"I have my project manager meetings on Mondays and I can ask my manager, 'Hey, you know we’ve used 23% of the budget for this project. Are we 23% done?”</p></blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/W7th_Project_Budget_5fec10839f.jpg"></figure><h4>Automated Workflows</h4><p>As soon as a project is created, tasks are created and assigned based on the project type. Antoine even has a task assigned to the project manager to plan out the project timeline.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/w7th_project_bc1e7e219f.jpg"></figure><h3>Integrated Communication</h3><p>Not only does Antoine have to deal with internal processes and management at West 7th Design Studio, he also has to manage a team of designers, developers, and salespeople. Luckily, Plutio’s inbox feature handles communication streamlining in a way that Antoine didn’t realize he needed at first. To ensure that everyone is on the same page and able to communicate effectively with each other, Antoine has implemented both automations and snippets.</p><h4>A snippet for every situation</h4><p>One of the keys to communicating with clients efficiently has been creating snippets for the various stages of any given project.</p><p>Antoine has prebuilt snippets that his project manager can use for any project, including:</p><ol><li>Client Onboarding Snippet</li><li>Project Started</li><li>Project Update</li><li>Project Delayed</li><li>Project Completed</li></ol><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/w7th_snippets_c763ca63bc.png"></figure><h2>How Plutio Has Impacted West 7th Design Studio</h2><h3>1. Incoming Client Calls Reduced by 90 Perecent</h3><p>The biggest benefit Antoine has gotten from switching West 7th Design Studio to Plutio is that clients are now always in the know when it comes to the projects they're paying to have completed. During the onboarding meeting, clients are walked through how to stay up to date on their projects and communicate with w7th via the inbox. This has resulted in what Antoine estimates as a 90% reduction in unnecessary client communication. While Antoine states there are clients that call to confirm “they did ‘the thing’ right,” Plutio has saved himself and his team many valuable hours and has allowed them to concentrate on doing their jobs.</p><h3>2. A Work Week That’s 15 Hours Shorter</h3><p>Antoine estimates that he personally saves about 15 hours a week from his personal workload by using Plutio over his previous setup. This time isn't just valuable from a business perspective but allows him to have a greater work-life balance. He uses his spare time to relax and get his mind off of work so that when he returns, he's fully ready to put in the effort his business needs to continue to prosper.</p><blockquote><p>“I can watch TV, read a book, play with my dog, and just enjoy life outside of work without feeling guilty or like I'm forgetting something important for my team or my clients. That's an amazing feeling.”</p></blockquote><h3>3. Powerfully Reliable Business Analytics</h3><p>Through fully-customized and powerful dashboards, Antoine has developed a way to always ensure he has his finger on the pulse of his business. Antoine uses dashboards to keep track of revenue, project budgets, overdue tasks, and more. Starting his day by checking on the overall health of his business has been an extremely powerful way of ensuring that he's staying focused on the activities that matter most to the financial sustainability of West 7th Design Studio.</p><blockquote><p>“I'm so glad I came across Plutio. This platform has been amazing for my studio and I'm excited to see what the future holds!”</p></blockquote>

One of the most critical problems Antoine had managing West 7th Design Studio since 2009 was reducing his administrative workload to focus on fostering his team and growing his studio.

I used dashboards and inbox to reduce client support calls by 90%

Story

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<p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri Lasota has been helping authors format their books, design their covers, and create stock art for their graphics needs since 2004. Like most business owners, she didn’t start her business because she loves managing tasks, responding to emails, and dealing with technical issues.</p><h2 style="margin-left:0px;"><strong>How Cheri Reduced Time Spent on Administrative Tasks by 50 Percent</strong></h2><p style="margin-left:0px;">The years of business experience Cheri Lasota has acquired have been driven by her burning passion to learn more about the topics she’s most dedicated to: editing, publishing, graphic design, web design, and, most notably, 3D illustration.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Every day, I have to learn something new or else I feel bored or lost. If you’re not learning anything new, your business, and you personally, are stagnating.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">That’s why Cheri nearly halving her weekly administrative tasks has been a huge personal and professional victory. While she has crafted a well-rounded and vibrant business centered around giving authors the resources they need to successfully launch a full-fledged writing career, it wasn’t easy to get to where she’s at today.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Home_Page_Seeker_Stock_Art_1_b49e126f7c.png"></figure><p style="margin-left:0px;">As a self-described “education junkie” always looking for new ways to increase her income and grow her skill set, Cheri often found herself frustrated and bewildered by the tools and systems she had used before.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">No matter which combination of business management tools she tried out, she always spent an exorbitant amount of time managing her workflows, administrating her systems, and dealing with technical issues. As she grew her business, the problem only got worse, and she found that the more work she was doing, the more busy work was needed to keep things moving along.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">So much of my time was taken up with technical problems with apps.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Before she knew it, the majority of Cheri’s workweek was being consumed with menial administrative tasks that, while important, made her feel that she no longer had the time she needed to continue to grow and develop her passions.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">I hate that feeling, of not having any time. I needed a structured and organized way of managing my business in order to have more time to learn more. I need to have all of my processes streamlined and as quickly as humanly possible.</p></blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Olivia_Highlight_267223af84.png"><figcaption><a href="https://www.seekerstockart.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Finding System That Saves Time</h2><p style="margin-left:0px;">What made the situation more difficult was that because many of Cheri’s projects are billed at an hourly rate, time that she spends on administrative work is time she isn’t getting paid. And having a huge amount of time required to manage administrative tasks while juggling client work leaves little time to implement a system that will save time in the long run.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">If I’m wasting hours of time on administrative tasks, I’m losing out on client work and potential income.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">So, while Cheri knew that she needed to spend more time on the passions that drove her business, learning new things and developing her professional skillset, she struggled when the time she spent setting systems up were with inadequate systems.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Every single one that I’ve tried has just failed me utterly in supercritical areas of my business.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">While Cheri faced setback after setback when trying to get past this arduous phase of her business growth, she knew that she needed to continue searching for a solution that would give her the tools she needed to take her business to the next level.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">That’s when someone in an online community mentioned Plutio.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">It’s been a game-changer for me. I really like that Plutio is really willing to listen to customers and get feedback. That, in a company, is incredibly rare.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri’s primary goal with Plutio was to streamline the ways in which she’s done business, saving time and money in the process. Here are the ways that she’s been able to do that:</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Managing Projects</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri’s favorite feature of Plutio is the ability to keep her on track and focused on the daily tasks that she needs to get done to keep her business running smoothly. She doesn’t have to spend time looking up meeting times, scheduling appointments, sending out invoices, or any other time-consuming tasks that she previously had to do manually.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri generally uses 4 task groups within each Task Board.</p><ol><li>The first task group covers critical, long-term, and high-level tasks that she needs to keep her eyes on at all times.</li><li>The second task group covers administrative tasks that she needs to do in order to facilitate the project’s progress.</li><li>The third group includes any minute and tiny tasks that need to get done but could easily be forgotten. This board is critical to Cheri’s success on any given project because it helps her always ensure that the quality of her work meets her standards.</li><li>The last task board includes tasks directly related to client interaction: sending invoices, following up on outstanding requirements, etc. (Cheri keeps this task board hidden from her clients to avoid unnecessary awkward conversations. You can easily do this by opening the task boards menu and changing the permissions for the Plutio user in question.)</li></ol><p style="margin-left:0px;">While no project management methodology is perfect, what Cheri likes about this setup is that it allows her to keep track of high-level items and details all in the same view.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/AA_Project_84bf0110ea.jpg"></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Managing a Social Media Calendar</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri also uses Plutio to keep track of the various pieces of content that she’s planning for her social media posts. In this way, she uses each board as a different social channel and adds due dates to each task within the board.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri also uses custom task fields to denote what type of content each post will be. She has over 20 fields that denote content types such as quotes, surveys and polls, community engagement posts, and more.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/AA_Social_Media_Management_2b9397d895.png"></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Managing Learning and Training Opportunities</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">One unique way that Cheri uses Plutio is by using it to keep track of topics that she wants to learn more about. She creates a Project Board, categorizes the tasks (by topic), and adds them to a calendar of upcoming training sessions, webinars, and consultations that she wants to schedule.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">What’s incredible about using Plutio in this manner is that it helps you track your progress on your professional skill development.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Pinning Shortcuts to the Side Menu</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">One of Cheri’s favorite features of Plutio is that you can pin your most used projects and tasks to the sidebar. For example, she has pins for her social media calendar, ongoing studies, and high-earning projects. It’s a quick way for her to see the projects she needs to focus on, on top of everything else that she has going on.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Easily Creating Customized Invoices</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Invoices are another essential part of Cheri’s business. She creates custom invoices for each client and features those in Plutio, along with the work that she’s done on the job and the time it took her to complete it.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/AA_Invoice_41f3163709.png"></figure><p style="margin-left:0px;">In addition to creating custom invoices for each client, she also keeps track of how long it takes her to get paid on her invoices.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">One invoicing feature that she loves is that you can create templates for any given item. This allows her to effortlessly create invoices perfectly tailored to each client.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/AA_Item_Templates_ea02e3cf9e.png"></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Drafting Well-Considered Contracts</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Anyone that makes their money from providing a service to others knows that contracts can be an integral part of reducing the risk of miscommunication or unfulfilled expectations.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Luckily, Plutio has a feature that makes it easy to create and send contracts to your clients so that both parties are fully aware of their obligations and expectations.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Over the years, Cheri has drafted and redrafted contracts that consider a variety of situations she has encountered. She uses these contracts as an effective way of preventing loss of clients and revenue.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Cheri also speaks of contracts as a great way of educating clients who have never published a book before, letting them know how trademarks and copyrights work so that they’re not surprised later down the road if this topic comes up.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">It’s important to me that they understand what they’re getting into when they sign a contract with me. They need to know this ahead of time, then they will feel comfortable working with me.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">She keeps all of her clients’ contracts in Plutio as an archive that she can quickly reference at any time which, again, allows her to save time and stay organized.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/AA_Contracts_27a8d0284b.png"></figure><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Measurable Impacts of Plutio&nbsp;</h2><p style="margin-left:0px;">Overall, Cheri is much more efficient and effective now than when she started. She still works full-time as a business owner, but she has significantly cut down the number of hours she works on tasks that don’t directly make her money. Her clients love the feature that lets them see exactly what she has worked on at any given time, and they are delighted by how it streamlines their work with her.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">1. Better Communication with Clients</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">A significant benefit that Cheri has found is that she can keep all of the important information about her clients in one place. As a result, she doesn’t have to worry about losing important documents or remembering everything she wants to discuss with them. It's something that her clients love about working with Cheri, as well. They always know where they stand and what to expect because they can see everything visually themselves. This helps to protect Cheri's relationships with her clients and adds to her already overwhelmingly positive reputation.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">2. Increased Revenue</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">As Cheri puts it, “Time is Money”. And the time that Cheri has saved by switching to Plutio means that she's been able to spend more time working on her revenue-generating activities, such as creating 3D assets for sale or working on a cover design order. This is a stark difference from before where much of her time was spent on troubleshooting system issues and managing her work. She's also able to keep track of her progress on any given project to ensure that her time spent on a project is worthwhile.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">3. Admin Time Reduced by 50 Percent</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">To sum things up with a clear statistic, Cheri estimates that her administrative workload has been reduced by 50 percent. This is the time that she would typically spend resolving technical issues or supporting clients with simple tasks like invoicing. As a result, she spends more time doing the things that drive her—learning, teaching, and growing her business.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">To learn more about Cheri, visit <a href="https://www.seekerstockart.com/">SeekerStockArt.com</a>.</p>

Cheri Lasota has been helping authors write books, submit manuscripts to publishers, and grow their readership since 2004.

I halved my admin workload to focus on my passion for learning

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<p style="margin-left:0px;">Yazan and Mawaheb started their agency while in university and initially had only a few clients. As their business grew though, they realized their processes were too inefficient to scale. They needed a system that would save them time and earn them money.</p><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">How Yaz Marketing Saved 200 Hours a Year Making Fully Customized Proposals</h2><p style="margin-left:0px;">Arguably the hardest and most important part of running a successful marketing agency is regularly converting prospects into paying customers. Without the ability to get customers on an ongoing basis, an agency is grounded in uncertainty and may find it hard to grow.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Moreover, even if you are great at writing proposals with a high conversion rate, at the end of the day onboarding new customers is still a numbers game. It’s inevitable that a substantial percentage of proposals sent will either be rejected, canceled, or flat-out ignored.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">That means it’s crucial for agencies to have a defined system for writing high-quality and enticing proposals that have high conversion rates. However, this system of writing stunning proposals also needs to be quick and nimble so that proposal writing doesn't become an overbearing cost center for the business.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">This was the problem Yazan and Mawaheb sought out to solve after founding their Marketing Agency, Yaz Marketing, in 2017.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Home_Page_Yaz_Marketing_47aa96b138.png"><figcaption><a href="https://www.yazmarketing.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><p style="margin-left:0px;">When they started, Yaz Marketing was far from a proposal powerhouse. Yazan and Mawaheb began with no clear organizational structure for courting new prospects with proposals.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">They often found themselves relying on writing proposals with basic document creation tools such as Microsoft Word. While this process worked fine in the early days, there were several issues with it.</p><ul><li>Proposals made in Word Processors look out-of-date and low quality</li><li>Even with cloud backups, it’s easy to misplace, lose, or overwrite proposals written with these tools</li><li>You can’t easily have your client sign the proposal if they’re ready to accept it</li><li>There’s no easy way to integrate your proposals with other features such as contracts and invoicing</li><li>There’s no easy or seamless way to dynamically insert new prospect info into your existing proposal templates</li></ul><p style="margin-left:0px;">Once the pair graduated from college they knew that if they wanted to see the company thrive, they’d have to invest in developing business processes that solved these problems. What they ended up with is a brilliant way of writing high-quality proposals tailored to each prospect in just a matter of minutes.</p><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Discovering a System to Streamline Operations</h2><p style="margin-left:0px;">Compared to their old method of proposal writing, which took ‘hours’ to create a new proposal, their new process allows them to create a proposal in just a few minutes. This amounts to an overall reduction in time spent writing proposals of about 95%, or roughly 200 hours saved for the company, which sent 200 proposals in 2021.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Yazan: There are so many other platforms out there and we looked into some to be honest, but we actually felt that Plutio is going to go somewhere we want to be in. We don’t want to switch all the information in somewhere else and then go back to Plutio. Overall, Plutio is amazing.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Mawaheb: I think it’s the fact that we have everything all in one place and that itself is amazing. Having the project, the invoice, the contracts, the files. Having Everything in one place, I don’t have to worry about where should I put the file, where should I put the image, where should I put the tasks, the contracts, the proposals. I don’t have to jump between applications, because that itself is stressful.</p></blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Proposal_List_f825c6d27e.png"><figcaption><a href="https://yazmarketing.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">How Yaz Marketing Makes Customized Proposals in Less than 5 Minutes</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">The key to their success has been in Plutio’s ability to dynamically insert client details into exiting proposal templates. Once they have a prospect loaded into Plutio, creating a proposal for them automatically includes key client details, such as the company name and contact information.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Next, Yaz and Mawaheb dynamically insert custom proposal fields that correspond to key parts of the document. Filling out these fields further customizes each proposal to each prospect, helping to make prospects feel that their particular needs have been fully considered before the proposal was made.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Mawaheb: It gives the client the feeling that this is customized for them and for their industry and without us having to put a lot of effort in writing each and every word.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">On Yaz Marketing’s social media marketing proposals, Yaz and Mawaheb simply have to fill out custom fields indicating the social platforms they will be using, the industry of the prospect’s business, and the number of posts they’ll be making per week, and voila! The proposal is fully customized to that particular client’s needs.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Proposal_f7f405771f.png"><figcaption><a href="http://yazmarketing.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Other Key Benefits of Using Plutio</h2><p style="margin-left:0px;">While the proposals feature has been one of Yaz and Mawaheb’s favorites, they’ve also leveled up many other aspects of their Agency using Plutio, including project management, contracts, automatic invoicing, and forms.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Contracts</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">One of Yaz and Mawaheb’s favorite features of Plutio is the fact that proposals can be directly linked to contracts. This means that when a client is ready to sign a proposal, the contract is included and they’ve covered their legal bases as well.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Automatic Invoicing</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Once a client signs proposal, they’ll automatically be enrolled in a subscription for the services Yaz Marketing will be providing. This saves additional time on billing and payment collection and ensures that Yaz and Mawaheb can focus their energy on the tasks they are getting paid to do.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Project Management</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Yaz and Mawaheb use the project management feature of Plutio to build a ‘to-do list’ for each new project they’re working on. Using this list, they can check off important tasks as they are completed.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Project_List_fb59da3117.png"></figure><p style="margin-left:0px;">In addition to tracking projects and tasks, Yaz and Mawaheb also track each prospect’s status in Plutio. By doing so, they can see at a glance which opportunities are moving forward and which have hit a snag.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Having projects in the same place clients signed their proposals and pay their invoices also means clients find it easy to check in on the status of projects.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Mawaheb: This is something that our clients love, is the transparency of the work. So nothing is hidden, you get to see everything.</p></blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Project_dd4bebe481.png"></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Forms</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Yaz Marketing has been able to use forms for a variety of purposes, from taking advertising requests to collecting feedback on the services that they’ve provided.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/blog.plutio.com/Survey_e0b225ce1d.png"><figcaption><a href="https://yazmarketing.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Image Source</a></figcaption></figure><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Files</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Having a way to keep files for every client in the same place that work is being done has been central to Yaz Marketing staying organized. It also gives them the ability to stay on the same page with the latest files for a given project, client, or task.</p><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Key Benefits of Using Plutio</h2><h3>1. Reduced Time on New Proposals by 95 Perecent</h3><p>Being an organization that sends out multiple proposals per week means that it's extremely important that this system is streamlined as much as possible, and Yaz Marketing luckily has found in Plutio a way to do that. Using Plutio to dynamically generate proposals has reduced the amount of time spent on proposals by 95% because they no longer have to manually write and send them. Instead, everything is handled by Plutio. Moreover, they've also found a proposals system that keeps all of their proposals safe, in one place. Proposals can be made from any computer from anywhere in the world, and there's never a risk of forgetting where the proposal was saved to</p><h3>2. Integrated Signing and Invoicing</h3><p>In addition to viewing and signing proposals, clients can view and sign contracts and pay invoices all from within the app. This means that Yaz Marketing has been the ability to streamline its legal and payment collection processes. Once a client signs a proposal, they are immediately taken to the corresponding contract and then to the invoice. Plutio also lets the client choose the payment method that works best for them. Is it any wonder that they've already been paid almost $400,000 USD using Plutio?</p><h3>3. Integrated Project Management</h3><p>Having project management as a key part of the rest of the system ensures that Yaz Marketing can easily collaborate with their clients, without having to introduce them to an entirely new system. This reduces the amount of back-and-forth and ensures that time spent on a project is not wasted on unnecessary updates and communication. Instead, project progress and status are communicated in real-time through the platform itself.</p>

Yaz Marketing is a full service marketing agency founded in 2017 and based in Dubai.

We boosted our sales pipeline by 80% with automated proposals

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<blockquote><p><span style="font-size:19px;">“<strong>Plutio makes me feel blue chip</strong>, even though I’m often a one-man band.”</span><br><span style="font-size:19px;">- Simon Longson - .NET Developer &amp; Entrepreneur</span></p></blockquote><h2><strong>Meet Simon - The Builder Behind the Build</strong></h2><p>Before Plutio, Simon Longson had already spent <strong>two decades deep in the trenches</strong> of bespoke web development. Coding since the Dragon 32 (look it up, Gen Z), Simon’s first real taste of design freedom came from - of all things - <strong>MySpace</strong>.</p><blockquote><p>“I loved how you could tweak everything - the colors, the layout, the feel. It was personal. That stuck with me.”</p></blockquote><p>He left university early after landing a placement at a local company, which turned into a full-time role and, eventually, <strong>co-ownership</strong>.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, Simon runs a UK-based .NET development agency, building custom platforms for plant nurseries, logistics firms, au pair agencies and more. He specialises in helping “small” businesses take that scary step into the world of “medium.”</p><blockquote><p>“I love that transition - when a business hits its first million and things start to get real. That’s where I can make the biggest impact.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>The Pain of Piecing It All Together</strong></h2><p>Before Plutio, Simon’s workday was a masterclass in <strong>tool chaos</strong>.</p><p>There was Jira for project tracking.</p><p>Confluence for wikis.</p><p>ClickUp for tasks.</p><p>Spreadsheets for CRM.</p><p>QuickBooks for invoicing.</p><p>Word docs for who-knows-what.</p><p>Oh and everything was stored <strong>locally</strong>. No cloud. Just risk.</p><blockquote><p>“If the server went down, we could’ve lost everything - all our client data, gone.”</p></blockquote><p>This setup might’ve worked in theory. But in practice? It was messy, brittle and slow. Every project meant context-switching between tabs, platforms and file systems - killing productivity and destroying any sense of flow.</p><blockquote><p>“The speed at which we could do things was constantly interrupted. Logging in here, switching there... It just chips away at your day.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>The Moment Everything Clicked</strong></h2><p>Simon first stumbled across Plutio on AppSumo - during a time when new project tools were popping up like weeds.</p><p>But Plutio wasn’t like the rest.</p><blockquote><p>“It felt like a blank canvas. The others had their own way of doing things. Plutio let me build my way.”</p></blockquote><p>That openness - the freedom to customize without restriction - reminded him of why he got into tech in the first place.</p><p>The interface felt sleek. Intuitive. Familiar. Within minutes, he felt at home.</p><blockquote><p>“I pretty much fell in love with it. And that’s saying something, because I was already deep in ClickUp and Jira.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>From Spaghetti Stack to Seamless Flow</strong></h2><p>What really hooked Simon wasn’t just the interface. It was the <strong>invoicing</strong>.</p><blockquote><p>“I could make my invoices feel high-end - branded, professional, unique. Suddenly, I looked like a blue chip company, not a solo dev.”</p></blockquote><p>From there, it snowballed. With <strong>just one login</strong>, Simon now manages everything:</p><ul><li>Invoices &amp; tax tracking</li><li>Recurring subscriptions</li><li>CRM &amp; client records</li><li>Scheduling</li><li>Branded forms</li><li>White-labeled portals</li><li>Internal chats</li><li>Automation (with more coming)</li></ul><blockquote><p>“Everything’s in one place. I don’t break flow anymore. I stay in the zone and things just get done.”</p></blockquote><p>And the impact?</p><blockquote><p>“Invoicing used to take hours. Now it takes half the time - and once I get my automations set up properly, I think I’ll cut that in half again.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>Blue Chip Branding for a One-Man Band</strong></h2><p>Simon doesn’t just <i>use</i> Plutio - he bends it to his will.</p><p>Take his invoicing setup: gradient-coloured invoices that convert to clean black-and-white when printed - all thanks to <strong>custom CSS</strong>.</p><blockquote><p>“Most systems can’t handle that. But with Plutio, I made it look great online and efficient on paper. Saved on ink too.”</p></blockquote><p>His white-labeled client portal? So polished, clients often assume it was custom-built just for them.</p><blockquote><p>“It feels like something we made - and that gives clients instant confidence.”</p></blockquote><p>He even built a custom field called “Filed” so he can flag invoices that have been sent to his accountant - saving time and avoiding mistakes.</p><p>It's little touches like these that make his entire system <strong>feel tailored, not templated</strong>.</p><hr><h2><strong>Real Hacks from a Real Power User</strong></h2><p>Simon’s not just a user - he’s a builder. Here are a few tricks he’s picked up:</p><ul><li><strong>Use forms as emergency data capture.</strong> When a bug wiped some customer info from his ice rink ticketing system, Simon spun up a Plutio form in minutes to recover it. Crisis averted.</li><li><strong>Automate status changes.</strong> He’s working on a flow where when an invoice is marked “paid,” it’ll auto-email his accountant and update its status - no clicks required.</li><li><strong>Use scheduling for subscriptions.</strong> Hosting renewals, domain names, monthly services - they’re now locked and loaded on repeat. No more missed payments.</li></ul><blockquote><p>“I automate as much as I can. And with Plutio, I can automate even more.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>The Backbone of the Business</strong></h2><p>When asked what he’d say to someone on the fence about Plutio, Simon didn’t hesitate:</p><blockquote><p>“It’s brilliant. I don’t need to look anywhere else. If I want to do something, I know I can probably do it in Plutio.”</p></blockquote><p>And this isn’t lip service.&nbsp;</p><p>Plutio isn’t just part of his stack - it <i>is</i> the stack.</p><blockquote><p>“Plutio is the backbone of my business. If it disappeared… honestly, I don’t know what I’d do.”</p></blockquote><p>Even during the brief moment of uncertainty about Plutio’s future, Simon admitted it shook his confidence.</p><blockquote><p>“I was worried. I pulled back a bit. But I came back - because nothing else gives me what Plutio does.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>What’s Next for Simon?</strong></h2><p>After a difficult season personally, Simon’s now regaining focus and rebuilding momentum. His plan?</p><ul><li>Expand his client base</li><li>Take on new, high-value projects</li><li>Scale his systems using Plutio at the core</li></ul><blockquote><p>“Now that things are stable again, I’m getting back to outreach and growth. And Plutio’s going to power that next chapter.”</p></blockquote><hr><h2><strong>Beyond the Code: Simon’s Story</strong></h2><p>When he’s not deep in the weeds automating workflows or helping clients scale with rock-solid backend systems…</p><p><strong>Simon Longson</strong> isn’t afraid to step outside his comfort zone - and sometimes, <i>way</i> outside.</p><p>Case in point?</p><p>He once packed up the whole team and flew to <strong>Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands</strong> (almost 2000 miles away) for a team-building adventure that included kiteboarding and exploring volcanic beaches.</p><blockquote><p>“We went from code to kiteboards. I came back with the smoothest feet of my life — volcanic sand does wonders,” he laughs.</p></blockquote><p>That same spirit - practical, playful and willing to dive in the deep end - is what fuels his client work today.</p><p><strong>Want Simon to help you build a robust backend system to scale your business?</strong></p><p>Check out his work here: <strong>[link placeholder]</strong></p><h2><strong>Thinking of Switching?</strong></h2><p>If you’re a freelancer or small business owner still duct-taping tools together, here’s Simon’s advice:</p><blockquote><p>“You don’t have to feel limited. Plutio’s a blank canvas. If you know what you want - you can build it.”</p></blockquote>

Plutio has cut my invoicing workload in half - and with automation, I think I can reduce it by another 50%.

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Thanks to Plutio I’m definitely more organized, waste less time and have less to be stressed about.

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