Are you keen to automate your business? To let go of the time-consuming admin tasks and have technology do the heavy lifting for you?
Using automation in your business is key to freeing up your capacity so you can grow and scale with ease.
It’s not always easy to know what to automate so I wanted to share 5 key areas to get you started.
Let’s automate your business
1. Website enquiries from potential clients
When a potential client has a question about your service they can fill in a contact form on your website. An automated email can then be sent with a link to your calendar booking software, a list of FAQs or the timing for you to reply (e.g. within 24 or 48 hours). What you use this email for will depend on what you want the next step to be.
2. Initial discussions with potential clients
You might have your calendar booking software embedded directly into your website so the first step for a potential client is to book a short call with you. They’ll automatically receive a calendar invite and a zoom link – you can set up reminder emails to go out automatically too.
You can also ask relevant questions within that software as the replies can be very useful in preparing for your calls.
The appointment will automatically go into your calendar. You might like to receive an email alerting you to the appointment as well.
A calendar booking tool is my favourite automation. I recommend clients get this in place as it saves so much time. No more back and forward with emails or having to work out time zones. I use Calendly.
3. Transfer of information
When a potential client books in for a discovery call their information, and their answers to my questions, are automatically transferred to Asana (a project management tool).
One of the ways I use Asana is for tracking potential clients coming into my business, who I may need to follow up in the future.
I use Zapier to transfer the information from Calendly to Asana.
Zapier can be used for a very wide range of tasks. If you ever find yourself thinking, “I’m constantly having to do this task manually” then check if Zapier has a way to automate it for you.
IFTT (If this, then that) is another similar tool.
4. Email enquires
Set up an automatic email to convey your availability.
This automation can be particularly useful for business owners who aren’t always at their desk, e.g. photographers, or business owners who need a large amount of uninterrupted creative time, e.g. graphic designers.
Most email providers will have the option to set up an out of office message.
5. Managing your inbox
When it comes to managing your inbox I’m always a fan of being proactive. Just because someone is sending you an email at 10am on Tuesday doesn’t mean you need to read it right away, this particularly applies to non-client related emails.
As a business owner it’s more than likely you’ve signed up to receive emails from someone (like me!).
Those emails aren’t going to be urgent, and they may not even be important compared to the client related work you have on that day.
Yet there they are in your inbox; taking up space, making you scroll past them, a constant reminder that you’re “behind”.
To manage your inbox you can set up a filter (often called rules) that divert those emails directly to a folder you’ve set up for that purpose. Those emails will never even touch your inbox.
Decide when you want to read them and put a reminder in your diary. The reminder is key to making this automation work for you.
Now I love a good piece of automation as much as the next person but, and it’s a big BUT…
There is no point in automating anything if you don’t have a system that works.
By mapping out a system that simplifies and streamlines the way you operate you’ll be able to see where automation will be useful (and where it will be a distraction). Always get your systems working before you start automating.
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