Automation That Saves Time and Money

Hello! Dave here. Last week, I was watching Rob work with a local Yorkshire business owner, and something really interesting happened. The owner was spending hours every day doing the same repetitive tasks - sending emails, creating invoices, updating social media. Rob showed them how to automate these tasks, and suddenly they had 10+ hours back in their week! I couldn't wait to share what I learned.

Start with Email Automation

This is the easiest win! Set up automated emails for new customers, follow-ups, and reminders. You can automate welcome sequences, invoice reminders, and even birthday wishes.

Tools like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or even simple Gmail filters can handle most of this for you. Set it up once, and it runs forever.

Automate Your Social Media

You don't need to be posting every day manually. Use tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Later to schedule your posts in advance. Batch create content once a week, schedule it, and forget about it.

You can even automate responses to common questions or comments. Just make sure they still sound human!

Streamline Your Invoicing

Stop manually creating invoices every month. Use accounting software like Xero, QuickBooks, or FreshBooks to automatically generate recurring invoices and send payment reminders.

You can even set up automatic late payment reminders and thank you emails when payments come in. Your accountant will love you for this.

Automate Customer Support

This one really excited me! Rob explained that you can set up chatbots or automated responses for common questions. "What are your opening hours?" "How much does X cost?" "Can I book an appointment?" - these can all be automated.

This frees up your time for the complex questions that actually need human attention. Plus, customers get instant answers instead of waiting.

Use Zapier for Everything Else

Rob told me about this one, and it blew my mind! Zapier connects different apps together. When someone fills out your contact form, it can automatically add them to your CRM, send them a welcome email, and create a task for you to follow up.

The possibilities are endless. New customer → Add to email list → Send welcome sequence → Create invoice → Schedule follow-up call. All automated.

Start small. Pick one repetitive task and automate it. Once you see how much time it saves, you'll be hooked. Before you know it, you'll have hours back in your day. That's what Rob always tells me, and it makes perfect sense!

Need help setting up automation for your business? give us a bark and let's automate your way to more free time. The team is always happy to chat!