Have you ever felt jealous of those people who take holidays and don’t worry about their business continuing to run smoothly?
Or the ones who spend all their time doing the parts of their business they enjoy, and minimal time on the rest?
Maybe you think they have a big team of outsourcers working for them in remote parts of the world. Or maybe you just think they’re lying and really working 24/7.
Actually, none of those scenarios are totally true. The reality is that successful people do work hard, at least at the early stages of building their business. And they rarely have the budget for a huge team.
Solutions?
Their solution is a combination of outsourcing and automation.
They follow these three rules:
- Automate as many tasks as possible
- If it can’t be automated, outsource it
- If it can’t be outsourced, decide whether it’s worth doing at all
Templates can be used for various purposes including:
What’s left are the core value-added parts of your business that either you or a highly-skilled member of your team must do.
In this report, we’re going to look at the first rule – automation. Which parts of your business can run on autopilot or made much easier with technology, including:
- Website Creation
- SEO
- Sales Funnel Management
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Analytics and Testing
- Website Maintenance
- Payments
Free Business Templates Worksheet
Download the free Template and start creating systems and structure to make your business more efficient and streamlined.
As you read through this blog, keep a pen or pencil on hand and note which of the parts of YOUR business you can automate.
Why You Need To Automate Your Business
One of the nice things about running an online business is that so much of it can be automated. Think of all the tasks you have to do each day.
Many are repetitive and tedious, wasting your time and energy. When you automate, those tasks take care of themselves and you can focus on more important things.
The Benefits of Automation
The main benefit of automation is that it speeds up and streamlines your work. When you get rid of time-draining tasks, you can focus on more important things.
There are both routine tasks and ‘thinking’ tasks that require more concentration and critical analysis on your part. When you can put some of the routine tasks on autopilot, you can spend more time on the value-added tasks.
Automation eliminates human error. You’ve probably been up at the wee hours finishing tasks that need to be done and only half awake doing them. When tasks are completed by software programs and online services, these mistakes disappear.
Finally, automation is important because it allows you to scale your business. If you have an ecommerce store and you have to take each order manually, a sudden increase in business can overwhelm you. An automated sales system allows you to keep up.
Tasks You Can Automate
- Website Creation. Automation allows you to set up websites quickly using templates and content management systems.
- SEO. A great deal of the everyday work of search engine optimization can be done through automation.
- Content Creation. Although content can’t be created solely through automation, there are tools to help you cut corners. You’ll get some suggestions in the separate list of Popular Tools for Business Automation.
- Sales Funnel Management. Your sales funnel can be maintained and monitored through automation so that you can focus on analyzing and improving it.
- Email Marketing. Profitable email marketing isn’t possible without automation to manage your email lists and send out broadcast messages.
- Social Media. Dashboard tools and other programs help you easily manage multiple social media accounts.
- Analytics and Testing. Websites and marketing campaigns can be split tested and analyzed using various tools.
- Website Maintenance. Tools and programs help you update your websites when they need it.
- Payments. Automation allows you to take payments and manage financial tasks so you don’t have to do it manually.
What Can't Be Automated
There are some things that should never be automated. The main one is your marketing strategy. You need to be in charge of your long-term goals and the measures you take to achieve them. It all needs to be thought out by you.
Relationship building also can’t be done by machines. With social media and other online marketing channels, it’s as important as ever to be real with your customers. Automated responses and replies are off-putting.
Fundamentally, content creation should not be automated. It needs to be fresh and original. The same goes for content curation. There are software programs that find content for you but you should always look at the content yourself before sharing with your readers to make sure it’s relevant to them.
Of course, automated systems aren’t perfect. You need to learn how to use each tool for automation and this takes a bit of time upfront. However, the time you save in the long run makes it well worthwhile
