9 Reasons to Automate Your Business Right Now

Increasing the efficiency of your team and your business can lead to improved productivity and better profit margins. However, figuring out what to automate and implementing these solutions can be challenging.

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of software that can help you automate repetitive or routine tasks, from sales and marketing to finance and project management.

In this post, we’re sharing nine reasons why you should automate your business.

What are the benefits of business automation?

Automation helps you make routine, redundant tasks more automatic, so you and your team can focus on other business tasks. Here are nine benefits of automation for your business.

1. Reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks

Did you know that knowledge workers spend an average of 3.8 hours each day doing busywork? Many of these tasks are repetitive and could be eliminated with more streamlined and automated workflows.

For example, most managers, people ops, and finance teams spend a ton of time approving everything from new software purchases to invoices and time-off requests. Instead of dealing with these requests as one-off Slack and email messages that also need to be logged in various business applications, you can use a combination of software or automated workflows to manage the entire process.

Here are some of the tools that can help you automate the approval process:

• Use Zapier to cut down on some of the manual and repetitive tasks. For example, when you approve a time-off request via email, you could create a new zap to record this in Gusto.
• Set up a Monday.com board (or a board in your project management software of choice) with automations to handle all approvals.
• Use JotForm Approvals to manage the entire process.

2. Minimize human errors

Manually entering data increases the chance of errors. Plus, it’s time-consuming. Establishing automated data management and accounting processes can ensure your information is correct. Automation can also help ensure confidential data is secure.

3. Improve customer satisfaction

From self-service tools and chatbots to partially automated customer onboarding workflows and automated NPS surveys, automation can help you support your customers at any time regardless of time zone.

4. Scale your business

Streamlining your workflows and eliminating excess time spent on repetitive tasks frees you and your employees to work on creative tasks that can help you scale your business faster.

For example, if your sales team is no longer spending a couple of hours per day wrangling your CRM and doing data entry, that’s two more hours they could be spending prospecting, making sales calls, and closing more deals.

5. Save time

An automated process removes repetitive, time-consuming tasks from your employees’ schedules.

For example, finding a time when everyone can meet for a call often results in a chain of emails. Instead of the time-consuming process of replying to these emails, use scheduling software to eliminate back-and-forth replies. Most scheduling tools also include automated reminders, which reduce the risk of no-shows.

6. Be more consistent with your social media marketing

Social media marketing can be time-consuming. Your business needs to create content regularly, monitor the channels, and respond to comments.

Fortunately, you can automate some of these tasks — like scheduling posts — to reduce how much time you’re spending on social media without sacrificing quality.

7. Save money

As we alluded to earlier, the average knowledge worker spends several hours each day on busy work. That is not only lost time but lost money. Effective automation can reduce busy work, minimize the cost of your operations, and lead to increased profit margins.

For example, one simple way to get started is to use project management software. This allows you to track progress, assign tasks to key stakeholders, set deadlines, and make it easy to communicate with your team in one place instead of through long email and Slack threads.

8. Stay compliant with critical documentation

All businesses generate various documentation, from vendor payments, payroll, and employee benefits documentation, just to name a few. Noncompliance with industry and legal regulations can be costly.

Instead of managing these processes as one-offs or, worse, with pen and paper, you can automate a lot of these workflows with the help of software. For example, your HR manager can use a tool like Gusto to manage payroll and benefits for your team.

This not only establishes a paperless record of your documentation but makes it easier to maintain compliance with any governing agency or reporting needed in the event of an audit.

9. Increase employee morale

Automation can minimize tedious, repetitive tasks so your employees can focus on the work they enjoy. Automation can also speed up processes and check-ins with supervisors, saving them time. As a result, employees can feel more empowered and in control of their time, leading to increased morale.

Final thoughts

Whether you’re starting a new business or have an established one, automation can help you streamline and improve your processes. You’ll be able to find the extra time you and your team need to focus on the high-level tasks that you enjoy and that will help your business continue to grow and thrive.