How do businesses actually automate?

Hint:

• You don’t need to spend $10k-$100k a year on enterprise software to start automating.

• You also don’t need to hire a developer at $100k+ per year.

You might even be thinking:

How can I automate my business quickly? 

• Work with an agency that has direct experience in your vertical

• See if they have templates which speed up project timelines while keeping development costs under control

• Try to do it yourself (no-code tools like zapier and make.com)

• If you want a fast fix, there are hundreds of freelancers on freelancer platforms like fiverr and upwork that can start tomorrow

Effectiveness Vs Efficiency: 

The goal of automation is to achieve the same results with fewer resources or to increase your output without using additional resources.

These are two sides of the same coin.

Many people make the mistake of automating simply for efficiency’s sake.

But here’s the key point: it's crucial to assess which tasks or projects are actually worth automating.

Consider the following factors when choosing what to automate next:

• Likelihood of success (0% - 100%)

• Time required (measured in months)

• Average cost per hour saved (e.g., $30/hour for employee wages)

• Total potential time savings over 3 months (estimated hours saved)

• Expected additional revenue (dollar figure)

• Cost to automate (development/software costs)

Remember, the goal is leverage. If 1 unit of resources today equals 1 unit of output, our aim is for that same unit of resources to produce 2 units of output tomorrow.

By approaching it this way, you can create a clear, prioritized "automation roadmap," allowing you to see results more quickly.

One important note on the people side of things: avoid starting with complex changes. 

Begin with something simple, and communicate with your team that automation is being introduced to make their work easier. 

What can you do to implement this?

• I created a free training that shows why it’s important to assess your current state using 'science' instead of gut feeling before automating anything in your business.

  • Here’s the video that will take you step by step through the exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEFzvrn4g3A 

• Here’s a preview of the document that I’ll walk you through in the video:

Stay tuned and good luck automating!

Connor Kaplan