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Why Does This Matter:
Whether your old school or a tech guru in this day and age building automations and systems that run without you are a crucial part of any business.
This is mainly about ADVANTAGE. If everyone in the world is utilizing a tool that you are not, then you will run into problems and get behind; imagine a business that was not using the internet in their business while everyone else was. Yes, it is possible for them to survive and get business, but it is not likely. Or even a simpler example, imagine trying to ski without poles. While you can make it down a mountain (debatably) you will have much more trouble than someone with poles, and it will require a lot of luck.
The same thing happens in business, while it is possible for you to run your business and make sales or profit without automation, it is a very powerful tool that will help you, so why waste it?
Usually, this is because it looks hard, it looks like something only a tech genius can figure out, the influencers posting about it, make it sound “Simple” but also undoable, making you think it requires thousands of dollars of software and “their special formula” but it doesn’t. They are getting paid to say this, paid to promote, and paid when someone uses them.
The first step is easy, it is just about going through your day to day and trying to find remedial tasks that cause annoyance or make your life repetitive.
• Email Follow ups: All of these are industry specific, if you find yourself following up with 3 or 4 people a day, this one may not be for you. While AI is very good at crafting follow ups, you can easily have a virtual assistant follow up for you, if it is not something that you find annoying or time consuming, it is always best to give that personal touch to do it yourself.
• Invoicing: I have seen small companies with ten employees have multiple people in their AR and AP department, making one of their only tasks invoicing and paying. While again this is industry specific and some industries do handle many transactions, making this a key point in handling their transactions and operations, but for many industries these invoices can be automated. If you find yourself typing out or sending the same invoice over and over (weekly, monthly, yearly invoices), this might be a good one for your lists.
• Onboarding: Many companies go through employees very fast, and while if you find high employee turnover, it might be good to review some of your practices, company culture, or policies, it still makes for a very repetitive task of constantly bringing them through the new sign ups and training. If this is you, put it on your list.
• Marketing tasks: Posting and writing content can become monotonous. Sometimes just part of practice is annoying. Posting might come easy for you but having to post at the optimal time (3 PM on Wednesdays for a random example) while you have a scheduled meeting at that time might make for an annoying part of your day. If you find trouble or struggle with any side of content posting, put it on your list!
This brings us to step 2, Documenting! As you are going through this list start writing them down! Don’t just go through your day to day in your head, write them down in real time. While you are writing that invoice for the 3rd time this week, make sure you have a planner or word open to write it on your repetitive lists. Don’t worry about making this list perfect, just get all the crucial information on the lists and make sure that your information is complete rather than neat.
Now the fun part, going through your list and finding some quick ways to automate what you can. Never look for the perfect system right off the bat, find ways to automate quickly and you can go back to refine things later. One of Buzzy Work Pro’s core Paradigms is ‘Don’t chase butterflies!’ There will always be the better idea, the new system you must follow, or the perfect approach, but with content constantly changing and being pushed in your face it is better to put down one system than no system.
Some quick and simple automations to do while you sort through:
1. Email Follow ups: MailChimp’s or your CRM. If you do the same follow up every time, same promotion to multiple clients at once, set up a MailChimp automation that sends that message out to multiple clients at the appropriate time.
2. Invoicing and payments: Simple tools like QuickBooks and Square have automations built in allowing you to set up reoccurring invoices and products that make your life faster.
3. Appointment booking: Finding yourself going back and forth with clients constantly with scheduling, try calendly and have the client choose a time that works for them.
This next step looks at which tasks you are saving money by doing yourself and which tasks are costing you. Doing everything yourself is admirable but not scalable. At some point every business owner must either outsource, hire, or Buzzy Work. Outsourcing works great when you have a specific need such as social media management, marketing, or taxes. Hiring works great when you are at the level in your business when you can afford that hire and have a wide range of tasks that need to be done. Buzzy Work offers a third option, when you are not ready to hire and no outsource plans fit the bill, try a task-based operations manager.
After delegating, a problem remains that you still need to know what is going on. This is where you need to create a task management system to be able to see the statuses of all your current tasks and whose managing what. Tools like Monday.com, clickup, or asana are great ways to be able to see all of these tasks on one platform and be able to make sure everything delegates is getting done.
Unfortunately, no system is perfect, so don’t just set and forget. Each quarter take a look at your system and make sure you are still using the optimal methods, the best automation, and best tools out there. Don’t try and change things every time you come across the next new thing but rather write it down and when the time comes to revisit, figure out if it is the right tool for you.
Building the right system and automation is never easy, finding the right tools and processes seems impossible, but starting with something and building from there is a very doable challenge you can give yourself to start getting closer to YOUR perfect system. Need help setting these systems up? This blog was just as confusing as everything else you’ve read? Book a call with us today to see if Buzzy Work Pro would work well with your business.
Mission: Next Gen Small Business Workforce
