Using Automation to Minimize Time-Wasters

Entrepreneurs often try to do everything themselves in the name of "saving money". Sometimes this is necessary, of course -- especially in the startup phase of a business -- but it can result in feeling like you're chained to your desk.

There are things that entrepreneurs can do to help "run a business" rather than be "enslaved" by one.

Businesses automate all sorts of things. These include:

• Thank-you / confirmation mesages. This is pretty standard; most shopping cart systems and/or payment processing systems allow for an automated receipt to be sent out to the customer with all his order details.

• Customer follow-ups. Many companies touch base with their customers after their order has been delivered, to ensure that everything's OK. Pop the customer's email address into a list manager, set up your follow-up message(s), and let it run automatically. You can even hire a programmer to create a script that will instantly add customer email addresses into your database.

  Keeping touch with customers is a good idea anyways, if you want to offer them discounts on future orders, or to let them know about additional products or services that may interest them.

  Make sure you get their permission to email them this kind of stuff. You can do this via a checkbox on the order form (the box should not be checked; let the customer do that himself), plus a verification email.

• Product delivery. Obviously it's easier to deliver a downloadable product -- there are lots of solutions for this, including Digital Vault -- but a physical product is different. You have to package the thing, print up a packing slip, affix postage, and send it. But at least you may be able to automate parts of the process, such as a list of orders or a file you simply run through your printer if you want packing slips.

• Boring, mindless routine tasks. For example, let's say every Monday morning you make phone calls to customers who are more than 30 days overdue in paying their accounts. Normally you open up your database or spreadsheet program, run a search, and then view that person's information before making the call.

  The above system probably works just fine. If, however, you want to save some time, you could have a script automatically generate a list of overdue accounts, along with the contact person's name, phone number and other relevant details. The script could email you the list every night before close of business - or even right on the dot when you open for business, so that the email is at the top of your in-tray when you start work in the morning.

• Backups. Not backing up your important files regularly? You should be! Just imagine how much grief it would cause you if your computer or network crashed. Take a peek at DataProtector or HandyBackup to see if they can offer you what you need.

Keep in mind that it's not appropriate to automate all aspects of your business. Sometimes a personal touch is necessary (and good business sense). For instance, I've run into a few companies -- these are big companies, too, not micro-businesses -- who use a very annoying method of replying to emails. Some sort of software on their end scans messages for key words, then sends back a reply based on what they "think" the email is about. It is aggravating to ask very specific questions, then to receive replies that don't address them.

Automation can save you time and effort, but it can also do harm. Use it judiciously.

What about cost? Obviously to be able to automate your business, you have to be willing to shell out a few bucks to get all the back-end work done.

Not every business needs to be automated. If, however, you deal with a lot of customers it can help you by minimizing the time required to do routine tasks (and hopefully help to decrease stress at the same time).

For instance, when I started one of my businesses I invested several thousands of dollars to get automation built into the system. It was a calculated risk, based on a projected profitability. The business just broke even during its first 6 months of operation. But because a lot of tasks were automated -- or simple to do -- I was freed up to do more important things, like marketing. The initial investment has paid for itself many times over because I could concentrate on generating business, rather than spending my time doing menial tasks.

Ask yourself whether "less important" tasks are taking up too much of your time -- time you could be using to get paying customers or work on business deals. If so, it may be time to take a look at investing into your business and automating (or semi-automating) some of those tasks.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Angela operates the Online Business Basics website, which offers free marketing tips and articles for beginners to the 'net. Visit www.onlinebusinessbasics.com for more tips on how to effectively market your business on a limited budget.

Originally published November, 2004