If you feel overwhelmed by the multitude of tasks that need to be done on a daily basis in your business, you need to start automating those items. Automation doesn’t mean a robotic, cold approach to business, but rather a thought out, strategic plan that increases productivity.
Take the time to sit down and plan each process that you want to automate in your business. Ask questions and look at what needs to happen at each stage. This is the step that many businesses overlook. Let the whiteboard or the large sheet of paper be your friend as you outline each step of the process.
What types of processes can be automated? Here are just a few:
- New Lead Follow Up – When a new lead emails or calls you, how do you handle the new request? Do you put a sticky note on your screen to remind you to call them the next day or do you have a defined process? Why not automate that process and have an auto-generated email to every new lead that comes into your system? That email can provide a link for them to schedule a consultation or request additional information before your first call.
- Billing – Do you have clients on retainer? Wouldn’t it be nice to automatically charge their credit card on the 1st of the month each month without having to lift a finger? Or how about having the system charge a client for a recently completed project just by adding a check mark in the system?
- Internal Processes – When you onboard a new employee, do you go through the same orientation process for every employee? Create a system for your onboarding process. I know of one business that has all of their new employee orientation emails scheduled within Infusionsoft and EVERY employee receives the same emails and process based on their hire date. That way they know every employee has been exposed to the same training.
- Marketing – Is your marketing automated? Do new contacts receive consistent emails from your company to nurture them over the long-term? Set up email sequences to keep your business top of mind with new contacts.
- Referral Partners – When someone refers a new client to you, how do you keep track of those referrals? Do you provide referral bonuses? How do you track those? Do you know how many of your customers come from referrals? Create a process to automatically track all referrals.
- Sales – Have a product you are selling online? Perhaps an e-book or other digital file? Automate the purchase process so that as soon as someone purchases the digital file, an email is sent to them with the digital content. No more manually processing orders.
- Proposal Process – Are you manually tracking proposals or quotes that are being reviewed by clients? Why not set up an automated process that monitors it for you? Once the proposal is received, you can also automate emails that send links for payment, documents, or scheduling.
These are just a few of the process that can be automated in your business. What have you automated in your business or what would you like to automate in your business?