There are so many tasks that must be managed just to keep a small business running. The strategy needed to help a business grow is essential for the long term, but it can be hard to find the time to prioritize these important tasks. By investing in automating aspects of your business that are currently taking up the precious time of you and your employees, you can free up the right people to do the bigger-picture strategy work that’s essential to scale your business year after year.
If you’re looking to invest in greater business automation, there are a few key areas you’ll want to focus on. Below, we outline six practical ways to get started.
1. Automate Your Accounting and Bookkeeping
One of the most time-consuming aspects of running a business is keeping on top of your finances. Automating your accounting and bookkeeping can save you a significant amount of time and stress.
There are a number of great accounting software programs on the market such as Quickbooks or Wave that can automate many of the tasks associated with bookkeeping, from tracking expenses to preparing financial reports.
2. Automate Your Customer Relationship Management
Another key area to focus on is automating your customer relationship management (CRM) system. A CRM can help you keep track of your customers’ contact information, purchase history, and preferences.
Programs like Hubspot or Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) can also automate tasks like sending out emails and reminders, making it easier to stay in touch with your customers and keep them happy.
3. Automate Your Marketing
Marketing is another area where automation can be a huge time-saver. There are a number of marketing automation platforms that can help you automate tasks such as email marketing, social media campaigns, and targeted ads.
Depending on the tasks taking up most of your time, you could automate the scheduling of social media content and blog posts, pre-schedule email marketing campaigns and broadcasts, and even populate essential marketing data into pre-populated reports to help you analyze the right data even more efficiently.
Using a marketing automation platform can help you reach your target audience more effectively and efficiently.
4. Automate Your Human Resources
If you’re looking to automate your business, you may also want to consider automating your human resources (HR) processes. There are a number of great HR software programs on the market that can automate tasks like employee onboarding, performance reviews, and time off requests.
Using HR software such as BambooHR can help you save time and money while also improving the efficiency of your HR processes.
5. Automate Your Inventory Management
If you have an inventory-based business, automating your inventory management can be a great way to save time and money. There are a number of inventory management software programs that can help you automate tasks such as product tracking, order fulfillment, and warehouse management.
Using inventory management software such as Shopify can help you keep better track of your inventory and improve your overall inventory management process.
6. Automate Your Website
Finally, consider automating your website. There are a number of plugins and apps that can help you automate tasks such as creating backups, optimizing your website for search engines, creating landing pages, and automating your web security.
Using a service such as Sectigo can help you automate the lifecycle of SSL certificates and your PKI management to keep your website safe and secure for both you and your visitors.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, there are a number of ways you can invest in greater business automation. By automating your accounting, customer relationship management, marketing, human resources, inventory management, and website, you can save time and money while also improving the efficiency of your business.
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