If you have a small business or if you’re thinking about starting one, you need all the help you can get. But hiring people is expensive, and for someone who doesn’t have all the capital in the world to start, managing expenses can be tricky.
However, there is one way you can get the most amount of work done and not even have to pay any extra wages! Don’t worry, we’re not talking about some employment scam. We’re talking about automating certain processes in your business. With the help of some smart software and the right planning, you can make sure you’re getting the most out of the money you put into your business.
But knowing where to use automated processes, and even how to navigate the world of business tech and their complicated UIs can be difficult at first. With how many options there are in the market, it might even be hard to know where to start! But don’t worry, we have you covered. So keep reading for more information about automated processes in business, and how to go about making it all happen.
Decide What You Want to Automate
The best things to automate are the simple, repetitive processes that take too much of your or your staff’s time but don’t require too much decision making. Examples would be sending out abandoned cart emails to customers who almost made a purchase, generating leads, invoicing, and even customer service for some basic queries.
Certain news and media organizations have even automated the writing of their news articles, and then there are organizations that use services like fieldpulse.com to automate a whole range of business processes, from the assignment and streamlining of business processes to the tracking the time employees spend on each task.
We won’t recommend such ambitious plans for your small business though, which brings us to tip number two.
Start Small
When you first start out in your automation journey, expect to hit some bumps along the road. You’ll only get it right after failing multiple times, so while the idea of making “robots” do all your work might sound good, you need to take it slow and start small.
Look for tasks that would be easy to program, like invoicing or scheduling social media posts, and then go from there. Once your team feels comfortable working with technology on a more involved level, you can start focusing on bigger things.
Know What You Want To Automate
This might sound redundant, but let us elaborate – if you want to automate a business process, you need to know how it works, or have someone who possesses that knowledge involved in the process. This will make it easier to divide the process down to a number of steps that would be easier to program.
For example, you can’t handle email marketing automation on your own. For that, you’ll need the help of your marketing manager and a copywriter so they can make sure the quality of the emails being sent out and the timing is satisfactory.
Don’t Automate Your Main Product
How many times, since you’ve started your business, have you thought “I just wanted to do what I loved, why do I have to do all of this?” while you slaved away over accounts, or marketing, or HR? Well, the best way to go about automation is to automate one (if not all) of these processes with time. This way, you’ll be able to invest time and energy into the parts of your business that actually earn you a profit, and you’ll be able to do what you love too.
That’s not all. Automating the process (especially if it’s creative) that goes behind your main product might hurt your quality, and you’ll lose a huge chunk of money while you’re trying to get the automation right. This isn’t feasible for small businesses, and even the more established ones prefer to keep production under their own control.
