You want to automate business processes, but where do you start? Start with one job. Pick the one that repeats every day, eats someone's time and follows the same steps each time.
Hand that job off first. Leave the rest for later.
It is easy to get stuck when you look at the whole business. That feels huge. One job is small enough to fix. A small tool for one job is simpler than a big system.
Signs a job is ready to hand off
Look for a job with these three signs.
- The steps are the same each time. If you could write them on a card, a tool can follow them.
- It happens often. A job done every day adds up fast. A job done once a year does not.
- It goes wrong when people rush. A missed step. A typo. A name spelled two ways.
Say you run a cleaning company. Each morning someone copies new bookings into a sheet, then into a roster. Same steps, every day. That is a good first job to hand off.
This is often the same as typing things twice. If your team keys in the same facts in two places, start there.
Jobs to keep human
Not every job should go to a tool. Keep these with your people:
- Anything that needs good judgement.
- Anything where a customer needs a kind word or a real answer.
- Anything new, where the steps are not clear yet.
Even when a tool does the work, a person should still check it. A tool is good at doing the same thing again. A person is good at knowing when something looks wrong.
Our own small story
We had a job we did by hand every day. We found topics. We wrote. We checked our work.
It took time, and it was easy to skip when we were busy. So we built a small tool that now does it for us.
A person still checks the work before anything goes out. The tool does the boring part. We do the part that needs us.
The point is the pattern. A job that repeats, with the same steps, can be handed off. A person stays in charge.
Why one page beats checking five places
Once a job runs by itself, how do you know it worked?
You don't want to open five apps and three sheets. That is just a new chore.
So each morning we look at one page. It shows what got done. It shows what needs us. That is all.
This is a simple page, a kind of business dashboard. It answers one question: where is it up to? You look once, then get on with your day.
If your team chases updates all day, a page like this can help. So can replacing the spreadsheet that holds it all together.
How to automate business processes: pick your first job
Ask these questions about each job you do. Count the yeses.
- Do we do it every day or every week?
- Are the steps the same each time?
- Does it take real time from someone?
- Do mistakes happen when we are rushed?
- Can a person check the result in a minute?
- Is it a job that needs no special judgement?
The job with the most yeses is your first job. Write down the steps. Write down what a good result looks like. Now you have a clear brief.
Where we come in
You don't need to know how to build it. You don't need to learn any tech.
We work like a mortgage broker. You talk to us about the job. We handle the tech. The first chat and the design are free. Then you get one fixed price, agreed up front.
Want to see what it could look like for your business? Get a free estimate, or tell us about your job in a free review.