When I decided to start my own business the most important element of any business I was going to create was it had to be flexible around my little boy Henry.
I needed a business that allowed me to spend time with him when he needed me and get work done in the short amount of time when he napped (fingers crossed this lasts a while longer, I feel I’m running out of time with an 18 month old).
WHERE TO START
Before I talk about how I have implemented automation in my own business I want you to consider a couple of things. Ask yourself:
- What tasks do you find yourself doing repeatedly?
- What day to day tasks do you find tedious/boring?
- What things are time consuming in your business?
- Are there things more than one person to handle in order to complete them?
- Are there things you’re doing over and over that not only need to be automated, but could also be outsourced to someone else?
1. Email Automation
If you haven’t already set up an email marketing campaign I urge you to go do it now. It is a way you can nurture your audience, getting them to like, know and trust you with out spending too much personal time daily sending emails.
I personally use ConvertKit I found it much easier to use than other email marketing platforms out there. It allows you to create a form which you can embed on your website or link to it on your social media platforms, this form ideally promotes a freebie or blog post which is so enticing it encourages the user to part with their email address to get the freebie.
Once they have entered their email address they get sent an email with the freebie and then they should be placed on what is called a welcome sequence this is usually a 5 email long sequence which introduces the new subscriber to who you are why they should care about you and your product or service and then in the final email you can offer them the opportunity to buy into you.
By doing using a service like this it is a once and done scenario, you write the freebie and welcome sequence once and then promote it continuously across different platforms so it keeps bringing traffic to your site.
2. Time blocking
Whilst this isn’t true automation it means you can get a lot of important work done in a couple of hours meaning you don’t have to spend all day working. If you want to read more about Time Blocking check out my blog post HERE but here is a quick condensed version.
Think about what’s most important for you to work on each day. This could be slowly completing a long-term project, or finishing something you have been procrastinating on for a while. Make a list of your top three work priorities.
Make a list of your typical workday tasks. Beyond the bigger stuff, you’ve probably got tons of other things going on that take up time every day. Write down these smaller tasks, noting about how long they usually take you to complete. This could be answering emails or phone calls, promoting your company on social media, or posting an online comment about a book you’re reading in a networking group.
Block time for your hardest tasks when you’re most productive. For most people, this will be right at the start of the workday. Dedicate a minimum of one hour to your highest-priority task. Start there, and then move through to the next time block in order of priority.
- For example, if you know you work best before noon, plan to spend the block before your lunch break on your toughest task
- Usually, time blocks aren’t effective if they last more than a few hours.
3. Social Media Automation
You didn’t think you could read a blog post from me and I wouldn’t talk about social media did you? I have spent a lot of time reading and researching this because I needed all the help I could get initially, I used to find myself going round in circles on various social media platforms and an hour would pass and I wouldn’t really know where it had gone or what I had done.
To stop this time wasting carousel I decided that at the beginning of each month I would sit down and map out my content for social media. By planning my images, captions, hashtags and strategy. This completely changed the amount of time I was spending on social media.
Whilst I still hang out there regularly, I can spend the time engaging with followers and discovering new accounts rather than scratching my head trying to think of a witty caption that helps my overall business plan.
Need a little extra help with what to post? I’ve got you covered, check out my free 30 day content plan guide below. Using this it will help your customers get to know, like and trust you and not over sell your business each time you post which will help to eliminate that feeling of being sleazy selling online.
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What are favourite ways to automate your business? I’d love to know.
Love Abi x
