How Do I Start Automating My Work?
Studies show that executives and office workers spend between 10% and 60% of their time on repetitve tasks that could be automated. And when you let technology handle that busywork:
- You free up time to focus on higher-value activities that drive growth.
- You reduce human error and increase accuracy.
- The busywork gets done faster and more consistently.
What Types of Work Can Be Automated?
Around here, we have a simple rule of thumb for identifying things that can be automated.
If you can teach someone how to do it, it can probably be automated.
We'll circle back to this in a minute, but first you need to have the right midset for planning your automation efforts.
Think Small. Really Small.
Automations - their benefits, and their problems - compound over time. Don't think of automation as a thing - think of it as bunch of little things that work together to make your life easier.
For example, you don't automate your entire customer onboarding process in one go. You automate one step. Maybe it's getting the customer's information from a PDF into your database. Make sure it's perfect. The data is accurate. Errors are handled gracefully. Checks and balances are in place.
Then move on to the next step.
And the next.
And eventually, it's fully automated. And perfect. And delightful.
One thing to note: when we say "fully automated", we don't mean you can't be involved. "Human-in-the-loop" is a perfectly valid step in any automation, and pauses the process to let humans review, take action, etc.
So, What Should I Automate First?
The only thing that matters is what matters to you. Start by deciding what's primarily driving you to look into automation. Most people tell us they want to:
- Work Less - You're happy with the output of your business and want to free up time for yourself and make it more enjoyable for employees, or
- Get More Done - You want to grow revenue or profits without growing headcount.
Automation will do both, but your approach will differ based on your primary goal.
If You Want to Work Less
Thinking really small, start by identifying the most tedious, repetitive tasks that eat up your time or that annoy you. (Yes, automating the annoying stuff makes it feel like you're working less!)
Remember - don't think of your full workflow. You can automate bits and pieces, and then have "human-in-the-loop" steps where you or your team can step in to review or take action as desired.
Some tasks to consider:
- Data entry
- Creating spreadsheets
- Sending follow-up emails
- Manual invoicing
- Generating reports
If You Want to Get More Done
Still thinking really small, where are your bottlenecks? Does it take too long to get presentations or proposals out the door? Are you limited by how many customer support requests your team can handle? Is monthly invoicing a disruptive time sink?
For every business and business process, it's different. But by leveraging technology to handle the grunt work, you're freed up to focus on the high-value activities that drive growth.
It All Starts With a Plan
Having automations is easy. But there's a ton to consider when starting and building them - from choosing the tools to protecting customer data to monitoring performance & compliance.
But if you start really small and have a plan, you'll only regret not having automated this stuff sooner. We can help with that.