5 Ways to Start Saving Time In Your Business With Automation - That You Might Not Have Thought Of

"I want to build more automation into my business but I am not sure where to start"

Sound familiar?

Automation like so many words means a lot of different things. You think you know then you think maybe you don't know.

Lets look at 5 ways you can start saving time in your business with automation that you might not of thought of.

1: Off-the-shelf Automation Apps

There are so many apps out there whose entire job is automation. You probably have at least some of these in your business already. Some examples include

• Meeting scheduling - schedule appointments directly into your calendar via a link
• Email marketing - automatically send email blasts
• Financial Management - automate your invoicing
• Customer Relations Management - automation of keeping on top of you r sales and contacts
• Social media scheduling - automated the posting of your content

2: In App Automations

Most of the apps that you use have automation built in. Especially those apps used to track projects or your work as it flows through your business.

• When I complete a tasks > notify so and so
• When a tasks moved to this status > create another task
• When a task in in XYZ status for too long > Notify me by email

It is well worth investigating these options if you haven't already.

3: Spreadsheets

Ah spreadsheets, I love spreadsheets. Most businesses I work with are using spreadsheets to track or monitor some aspect of their business. But equally most are not using them to their full advantage. There are so so many automations within spreadsheets that are easy to set up.

And these days the correct formula or instruction is an AI prompt away.

4: No Code Platforms

So many business owners are scared of no code but there is nothing to be scared of. If you pick an entry level platform like Zapier it is really intuitive to use.

They all work with the same principle. You set up a trigger - which is a defined event that kicks off the automation and it then runs an action - a set of defined tasks. Most of the platforms are drag and drop and integrate directly with the apps you have so it really is super easy.

5: Integrating AI

I HAD to include AI. Integrating it is probably a more advance way to automate but certainly not unreachable. There are 2 ways I use this in my business:

Custom GPTs - these are apps that you can program within Chat GPT but you program them with normal language. You can tweak them and also add data to them. The video demos one I use in my business.

API - An API is a way to send a question or request into an app and it will send an answer back. When you integrate the Chat GPT API with a no code platform like Make.com there is a series of very powerful things you can do.

This is how I created my Newsletter Summariser which takes the newsletters from your inbox, summarises them and sends you back a weekly email with all the summaries and audio files so you can listen on the dog walk. Find out more here.

Need Some Help?

If you want to chat about any of the above in your business I offer free consolation just send me a DM.