Thursday, November 7, 2024

Automation can help your business

By Leland Baptist 

When is the last time that you had your business run on autopilot?

For most local entrepreneurs, they’re the lifeline of their business. If you were to wake up and have a piercing head cold. Who would run the business? Do your customers or clients solely depend on you? 

As a business owner, you probably are a little reluctant to hire or outsource various parts of your business. But the truth is …. if your business does not have some sort of automation. Then most likely you’re not working your business. Instead, your business is working you.

With technology, you have the ability to automate most of your business. With the proper planning, this can allow the solo-prenuer to plan and execute tactics to grow and scale with less time and effort than ever before.

Here are a few key sections of any business that can be automated for success and scale:

  1. Prospecting – By using tools such as email. Whenever I am prospecting I tens to use a tool called YesWare. This tool allows you to place various emails in templates and give an authentic feel.
  2. Phone Systems – There are tons of phone systems available that will answer your prospect or clients phone calls. By you developing the various script of back office, a call center can act as your personal assistant. We like to use either PatLive or BusyBee. These can range from $50 – $100 per month for 60+ minutes of phone time. Not to mention that you receive a custom phone number of your choice.
  3. Retention – By broadcasting your message to various customers. It allows you to stay right in front of them at all times. One of my favorite tools for this is Callloop. If you ever hate the dreaded cold call. Just record the message and have the autodialer do the rest. They’ll not only call but they’ll leave a voicemail and text message all on your behalf with your custom message.
  4. Payroll – We all know that accounting, bookkeeping and taxes are essential in any business. The key here is organization. There are two tools that I combine to accomplish this, the first is something called WaveApps. Wave gives you all the functions of Quickbooks plus payment integration through invoices or subscriptions to your clients. Whenever I make a purchase at the local Starbucks using my business card, WaveApps puts the transaction into various categories making it easier for my accountant to add or subtract various deductions. Wave also places all company expenses, Profit and Loss Statements, Assets, Liabilities, Balance Sheets and much more automatically. All you or your bookkeeper have to do is verify. The second tool that I use is PayPal. After all, so many people trust PayPal, it’s the process of less friction when it comes to charging a customer. The cool thing with WaveApps, is that it literally integrates with everything.
  5. Last but not least, I can’t forget about marketing right? So I suggest a very active autoresponder. And if you’re in need for something super easy to use and is cost-effective, then use Sendlane or Drip for email marketing platforms. Drip is free until you reach 100 contacts. You can’t beat a free account.

Leland Baptist is a Digital Marketing Manager at Launch Consulting Company.

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