Automate today. Thank me tomorrow.
There are a lot of jobs that you’re doing right now, as a business owner, that you should really consider automating. It’s simple too. There are only so many hours in your day. Wouldn’t you be better off focusing your day on only the tasks that are going to help grow your business.
Whether it’s nurturing prospects, onboarding clients, managing your schedule, or even paying your taxes—there are ways to automate your admin work without hiring an admin. We get bogged down thinking that running a business means ripping your hair out. It doesn’t. Here’s everything you need to consider.
You’re Batman. Automation is Robin.
With automation by your side, business becomes easier. Everything moves more smoothly, from closing sales, tighting operations, reducing costs, and driving growth. All of a sudden you’re streamlining repetitive tasks and taking your time back minute by minute. It becomes addicting. Each new automation like another notch in your utility belt.
So where to start?
When I first built my mobile coffee shop business, I was exhausted. Rolling out at 6am, managing staff, finding new leads, keeping tabs on the books and everything in between. It took closing shop for the winter to stop the bleeding.
If I was going to move forward, I needed to know my margins. Only way to do that in the food business is through catering.
With a path forward I needed to build a system that could draw leads in and take them through a funnel. From my website through my back end. But running multiple businesses, staying on top of everything was damn near impossible.
That’s when I started to take a microscope to the problem. How can I grow this business while limiting the busy work that doesn’t push the business forward? I’d have to create a system.
And that’s exactly what a good business should be—an operating system
One that works with or without you. It can grow despite your efforts. If it sounds too good to be true, don’t hold your breath. It takes a ton of work and know-how, but it can be done.
I’m going to outline how to better automate your business, regardless of what it is, from implementation to optimization.
But what can I automate?
I can’t answer that for you. Not without popping up the hood and taking a look around. For me the answer is simple—Where does this task fall under the 80:20 rule?
The rule is simple; 20% of your actions lead to 80% of your business. If the specific task falls in the 20%, I continue to take the lead on that. If it falls in the 80%, that’s when I start to look at how can I remove myself completely from this workstream.
Here’s a simple 3 step approach to analyze what bucket your task is falling in:
Analyze your workflow
Identify repetitive tasks
Evaluate their impact on future growth
The results should fall under 2 categories:
→ 20%: high impact & unpredictable.
OR
→ 80%: low impact & highly repetitive.
Really focusing in on processes that are time-consuming, prone to errors, or require significant manual intervention is best. But also think about your business goals and customer needs, because those will ultimately drive whether or not your automations are successful.
Choosing the Right Automation Tools and Technologies
Next step is finding the right tool to swing. There are so many automation softwares and platforms out there, you really need to do your research. For example, for my catering company, we use Honeybook.
It’s a software platform designed to streamline and automate business processes for freelancers and small businesses. We use it for client management, project tracking, invoicing, contract creation and so much more. It allows us to efficiently manage our workflows, trigger automated CRM sequences, and simplify financial operations.
That’s just one tool in a sea of ‘em.
Depending on your business needs you can fall down a rabbit hole on robotic process automation (RPA), workflow management systems, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).
The way I evaluate new tools is to engage with vendors and request demos. Not only is that a great way to learn the ins-and-outs of a product, but it also gives you a fair view on the competition (who you should be engaging and demoing as well).
Of course, it’s super important to ask around. Engage with other small businesses and agency owners to learn the newest and best. Trust your network to steer you in the right direction.
Designing Automated Workflows
Your workflows matter. And designing an efficient system is vital to a seamless integration and optimal results. Break down complex processes into small, bite sized chunks.
It’s always helpful to think of your client of customer into their journey. And you may have multiple customers on multiple journeys, but the more refined and all-consuming you are, the easier this exercise is.
Now start to ask yourself, “what information do they need right now?”
Start to build out the order of tasks from when they first enter your sales funnel until when they’ve committed and taken action.
Now start to reverse engineer the information they’ll need from start to finish. For DRIP the consumer journey is easy:
→ Contact form
→ Schedule a call
→ Follow up with more information
→ Execute contract
→ Send invoice & receive deposit
→ Put hold on calendar
→ Initiate event/project planning
→ Establish expectations
→ Build a timeline
→ Final payment
→ Event
Leveraging this mapping technique should allow you to visualize your workflow at it’s bare bones. It’s super important at this point to start involving key stakeholders for a diversified opinion on process & management, gather insights, and identify potential bottlenecks.
And for that business, the only place I insert myself is on the initial call. And the very real reason is because on the backend I have Mechelle, making sure the system runs as smooth as butter.
Virtual Assistants for the win
Mechelle is my virtual assistant, based out of the Philippines, who I’ve trained to run the show. She is smart, kind, and a diligent worker.
Now building a training system for VAs is another post for another day, but it’s very doable. And once you train a VA, you will be astonished by just how capable they are. But getting into the ins-and-outs of VAs requires it’s own focused blog post. Another day.
Implementing Automation Step by Step
Don’t overhaul everything today and screw up you’re entire business. I’ve done it. I’ve thrown wrenches in good things and have paid the price. The process of unwinding and pivoting is as humiliating as it is annoying.
Start by automating a single process or department and gain some experience from that. Use those learnings to refine your strategy. Develop a comprehensive plan of attack. which should most certainly include testing, training, and management strategies.
Monitoring, Measuring, and Moptimizing
No, it’s not a word. But I like alliterations. So we’re going to run with it. It’s “Moptimize” until the cows come home. And by that I mean, the act of continual act of refining your processes.
But seriously, automation is an ongoing process. Now let me say it again for the kids in the back.
Automation is an ongoing process.
It takes testing and continuous monitoring, measurement, and “moptimization”.
By utilizing analytics and reporting tools you can track very specific performance metrics. Whether that’s a new email sequence, a cold outreach initiative, or a reintroduction campaign.
All you need to do is establish some key performance indicators, or KPIs, and start tracking. Regardless of how you or I feel, the data is the blunt truth. And it’s a powerful tool to use in refining your process.
You can also identify areas for improvement by gathering feedback from employees, customers, and other stakeholders to understand the impact of automation on their experiences. Regularly review and update automated workflows to adapt to changing business requirements and emerging technologies.
On the other side of Automation
Beyond efficiency gains, automation creates opportunities for your business to grow. Fully automated, you can handle more leads, you can track more clients, you can bring more people into your sales funnel.
Oh, and most importantly, YOU can focus on the 20% of tasks that will actually grow your business.
We’ve seen how automation has impacted hospitality, service businesses, private practices and so many other industries. I’ve yet to stumble on a case where smart and timely automations didn’t drastically free up time and improve a business.
And now with the growth of AI, the potential is limitless. AI and Machine Learning are unlocking new possibilities in customer service, product development, and decision-making.
More free time and resources means more opportunities to invest your dollars and time into new strategic initiatives, such as market research, new product launches, or expanding into new markets.
With a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, your business can achieve long-term success.
Now I know automations sound scary…
I can’t stress this enough; if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, but see a value in it, bring on an agency.
If it’s worth doing once, it’s worth doing right.
Chances are, you’re really good at what you do. Whether that’s running a medical practice or building homes. See how ALGND can help you get started.