Hello I’m Tequila and I am a Business Operations Strategist who helps business owners who are bogged down with business tasks leverage the power of automation and team so they can re-focus their business systems and quickly get back in front of clients in order to increase revenue.
It's time to stop doing all the stuff alone and leverage the power of systems, automation, and team.
Do you sometimes wonder how in the heck all the other business owners and entrepreneurs “get it all done” in their business (and then some)?
Ready to talk automation & delegation? Automating and delegating in your business is being talked about everywhere. You see it in your inbox, on your socials, and when speaking to other business owners.
The truth is, money can come and go; however, time is something we cannot get back. Once the time is invested, it is gone forever. It's why automation coupled with delegation is transforming the way to operate in business, allowing business owners to do more with less and scale in ways never thought possible.
Across all industries, automation has become the key to success: 40% of large businesses automate at least one business process, while twenty-five percent of small business owners report using automation. Businesses that use automation can improve customer support, generate more leads, improve rapport with customers and gather data for future campaigns.
If there is this much business success using automation, then why are more small business owners, especially entrepreneurs, not implementing automation or delegating more inside their business.
Do you feel like you're working too hard and don't have enough time in your day? You're not alone; it's a frequent occurrence for business owners who feel the need to be in total control.
However, there's a much smarter way to run your business: Automation and Delegation. Knowing what tasks can be automated and which ones can be delegated gives you more time in your day to focus on your clients, revenue growth, and the other things you love.
It's time to stop doing ALL the tasks, especially those that don't bring you joy or that are not your strong suit? We can't be good at everything – we each have a different ‘zone of genius' – so if you focus on those tasks that use your strengths and your genius, you'll be a much happier business owner.
Keep in mind that no matter what stage of business you're in, you'll find tools and contractors at all different budget levels. Most online tools also have various levels of features, so it's fairly simple to use a tool and then upgrade as your business grows.
When you start automating different if not all aspects of your business: from marketing to capturing leads to closing sales to servicing your customers to checking routine office tasks off the to-do list, you will then see your business begin to grow.
The benefits of using business automation reduce the probability of errors in most manual processes. Automation in your business can optimize processes so that they are completed in less time and with more accuracy.
When captured repetitive processes are automated and/or delegated, small business owners can instead devote time to the goals that really matter—like attracting more clients and growing the business.
Even if you're outsourcing elements of your work or hiring full-time staff, it's still essential to ensure all of your systems are running as smoothly as possible for several key reasons:
In this article, you'll learn about 25 things every small business owner can and should—automate and how automating systems and processes is a lot easier than you might think.
Let's just dive right into it!
Do you struggle with mapping out your daily tasks?
If you do, I recommend you recruit the help of someone who can sit down with you, take a look at your overall picture, listen to everything you have on your plate, and help you sort through it all. When I first meet with a client, the first thing I have them do is dump all their tasks. Tell me everything. Then we go back and re-organize it all so it can all get done quicker.
When you invite someone else in, and they know about your scheduled tasks, it increases your accountability. It is much harder to let someone else down, and when you are a business owner, it's sometimes hard to be held accountable when you're your own boss. The plus to it all is you will increase your motivation to get things done and clear them off your plate when you know someone else is looking at your schedule and your deadlines counting on you get your CEO tasks accomplished.
Business owners often complain that they lose hundreds of leads every year just because they forgot to respond to an email. Whenever someone uses your website to submit an email address, it is vital to respond within the next 30 minutes.
You can make this process easier and simpler by having one “contact us” form on your site, where the visitors can submit their names, email addresses, and queries. You can integrate this form with automation software, which can shoot a pre-written reply to the potential client and assign the lead to your team for a follow-up call.
Once you have a lead in your system, your next step should be to get on a phone call with the potential client. Automate your business phone call process with an internal form to fill in information about the client and add any instructions. The automation system will enable you to choose a sales representative on the form and automatically alert the staff member about the task.
Instead of sticking Post-It notes on your desk, establish an automated system for returning missed phone calls. If your team could not reach a potential client over the phone and left a voicemail, always note it in your automation system.
The automation system will send an email to the client informing them about the missed call. It will also remind your sales rep to attempt the call on the following day.
Business owners collect a big pile of business cards that often end up getting washed in the laundry. The best way to store the contact information of your networking connections is by using a CRM tool. After entering all the contact information in the system, you can schedule a follow-up email to your new connections.
You can attract more leads by using lead magnets, such as free PDF, checklist, and e-book. Keeping track of every lead magnet can be difficult. You can automate this process by using a web form to collect visitor's information who want free content. When you receive a lead through this form, your automation software can send the requested content.
An automated sales process will help you as a business owner to transform the generated leads into customers successfully.
A sales cycle starts when a customer shows interest and ends when they buy. With a strong business model, you market and drive people toward your product or service.
Most people don't have the money to establish a business model cycle when starting out. With the right model, you can spend your money in the right places to create and drive traffic. To automate, you need a business model cycle that gets constant eyeballs on your business.
Having a defined sales process will ensure that all prospect's requests are accomplished with consistency and within a given timeframe.
Business owners can use automated processes to rank each lead to judge which potential client is ready to close the deal. The lead score will guide you to prioritize each lead and focus on the clients who are ready to buy your services.
Sending marketing emails can be an incredibly time-consuming business if you don't automate it. Even with automation, it still takes a lot of work.
If you set your email marketing system up properly, you can easily ensure subscribers receive content automatically.
Even if your prospects are not ready to become your clients, it doesn't mean you have to forget about them; Your aim should be to gain their trust and let the relationship grow. Having a lead nurturing process will ensure that you don't lose contact with any of your leads. You can set up an automated system to send gentle emails to the prospect and help them decide.
On a large scale, this can be used for Nurture Sequences – the series of emails that leads your new subscribers to become clients – but on a smaller scale, you can automate a lot of elements in your email marketing:
Day-to-day, your email automation system will work incredibly hard at generating sales in your business. It's your second most powerful sales tool (the first being your website!).
When a lead is successfully transformed into a sale, you can send a series of emails welcoming the client into your business. A smooth onboarding process is everything when it comes to running a successful business. Automation software like Dubsado can help you keep your client interactions smooth and effortless.
If you sell recurring services, it's a good idea to have an automated system to remind you and the client about purchasing the service again. To ensure a sale, you can send an email to your client, along with a list of services they bought from you and links from where they can purchase them again.
It's prevalent for clients to add a product to their shopping cart and forget about it. If you have clients who have abandoned the shopping carts, you can set up an automated system to detect if someone has initiated an order without completing it. The automation software will then send them emails reminding them about the pending purchase.
Automation systems will collect and store the billing information of all the clients at the time of purchase. It will automatically send invoices, perform credit checks, and charge the credit cards on the subscription orders file. In case a bill is not cleared, it will notify the business owner to collect the payment as soon as possible. The system can also send reminders to the customers if their credit cards are approaching the expiry date.
Poor customer services can drastically affect your business. To enhance the customer service experience, you can add a “contact us” link on your website, and other pages is a great way to interact with your potential clients. Automation software can ease the process of responding to queries. When someone clicks the “contact us” link, the automation system will alert your team for a quick follow-up.
Business owners often need to remind their prospects and clients about appointment dates and times. Instead of spending hours sending appointment alerts, you can let automation software handle this task.
Once you have scheduled an appointment, the automation system will send a series of emails to the client, including an appointment confirmation and reminder. Using a simple tool like Acuity Calendar will help you save a tremendous amount of time, and the bonus is you can charge for your services using the same platform.
Businesses rely on client reviews to improve their products and services. Even a bad review is essential for business owners because it allows them to rectify the situation.
You can use automation software to send surveys to clients who have purchased services from your company. You can set your system to sort negative responses from positive ones. For every bad review, the automated system will trigger an alert to your staff to contact the client about the bad customer experience.
One of the best marketing strategies is word of mouth from your existing clients. You can ask your customers to recommend your business to their friends and families. Rather than sending referral emails to your client one-by-one, you can use the automation system to send pre-written emails offering a gift or a coupon for giving a referral.
If you can't think of the time when you last sorted your email subscriber list, you might be sending emails to people who don't interact with your content. Use automation systems and processes to detect inactive subscribers and then remove them from your subscriber's list.
In case your client forgets his password, it can be a very long process to retrieve the password. If you have an automated system, it will only take a few seconds. All you need is to ask your client to visit your website and click on the lost password. When they click on forgot the password or lost password link, the automated system will send an email to their registered email address, giving instructions to set up a new password. I can't tell you how much time LastPass has saved me, and it's the best way to protect your passwords, especially if you are working with a team.
Automation systems and processes can take over any task. Whether it's as simple as offering birthday wishes to your clients, you can set up an automation system to send a birthday email.
Social media marketing takes many efforts, mainly because you have to focus on multiple social media platforms. To attract new clients through social media, being active on the platforms is very crucial. Business owners can use automated systems to schedule posts and send notifications to their existing clients. Automate your social media with a platform that will tell your brand's story and grow your audience with a publishing, analytics, and engagement platform you can trust.
All businesses have recurring tasks that are time-consuming. Automation systems and processes can help you organize repetitive tasks by setting task reminders. Automation tools will help you track all of your to-do tasks in one place instead of jumping from one app to another.
Is the design of your site a constant worry, a thorn in your you know what? Maybe your site's home page is not converting. Maybe it is already designed the way you want, but it requires consistent maintenance and updates. This is something a business owner should not be thinking about. Instead of allowing yourself to stress about website stuff, outsource it! The goal is to make it one less task for you to worry about and one more thing to pass off to a professional.
Business owners need to share many documents with the clients, including contracts, proposals, reports, etc. You can set up an automated system for all the tasks based on the type of documents required. Whenever you are working on a certain task and need one document from your client, you can use automated email to alert your customers about the required document.
Having a strong and efficient team is the backbone of every business. Whether you use an online job portal or have an HR department, you need to have an automated process to hire new employees for your team. No one has the time to sit down and review all the resumes submitted and then schedule interviews. How about using automated software to finish the small tasks?
For instance, if you have the job posted online, you can add a web form to collect the candidate's personal information. The automated system can set up preliminary interview question sessions to judge candidate's strengths and weaknesses. After completing the interview questions, the HR manager or the person responsible for hiring new employees will receive an email asking to review the candidate's application.
These were 25 things that all business owners should automate in their business. Are you ready to automate your business? Click here and access the automate and system workbook.
Hello I’m Tequila and I am a Business Operations Strategist who helps business owners who are bogged down with business tasks leverage the power of automation and team so they can re-focus their business systems and quickly get back in front of clients in order to increase revenue.
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