This has been on my mind a lot lately, so I’m sure many of you have given this topic some thought, as well. In what ways can you set things up in your business to happen automatically, so you can free up time?
Let’s dive in!
- Bill Pay – I would say the bulk of us already utilize this time-saving step. Many banks now offer bill pay service to automate payments each month. It’s a simple tool to use and set up; but the major perk of this service is avoiding late fees. No matter how much money you have in the bank, inevitably without automated bill pay, a bill gets overlooked and then you are charged an unnecessary fee. It’s frustrating to throw your hard-earned money away on fees and they can quickly add up. Automate what bills you can. It can take some time in the beginning to set up the vendors, but well worth the effort. After that, set your mind at ease that your bills are being paid on time.
- Social Media – This is a big one right now, and the one I have been thinking a lot about. I recently saw a survey that said on average small business owners spend six hours per week on social media marketing. That seems reasonable, but many business owners would rather focus on the core of their business, not six hours posting content on social media. Not only does a social media scheduler like Hootsuite or MeetEdgar let you schedule your social media posts, MeetEdgar for example, will automatically pull posts from your content library to keep your social fresh every day, on repeat. Your Christmas post this year can easily be used again next year. Talk about evergreen! You can schedule out your posts to stay in front of your customers and audience without being chained to the computer for hours upon hours. You have something better to do, right?
- Employee Onboarding & Pre-Interview – Automating all of the forms for new employees saves time and headaches. Simply have the forms available on your website and direct the employee to fill them out and email them back. This would be valuable when sorting through potential employees as well. Having forms on your website for potential employees to answer questions about themselves, their work ethic and their experience when applying can help you separate those who would be a good fit in your company versus those who would not, saving you literally hours in interview time.
- Email Newsletters – Email newsletters are a very important component to your business marketing efforts. They keep you connected to current and potential customers and clients, keeping them informed of all aspects of your business from events to promotions to products. This can also be automated using a marketing platform such as Mailchimp.
The more ways we can find to automate our businesses the more time we have for what we really enjoy about our businesses. Unless paying bills is your thing (I do kind of like it – geek moment).
Warm regards!