How To Put Your Business On Autopilot
It’s a nice idea to think that you can cruise at 36,000 feet, seat reclined – preferably in business or first class – sipping on your complimentary champagne, focusing solely on your destination and not having to worry much about how to get there. Welcome to the idea of autopilot. If you’ve got your business online then there’s no doubt that the 5 ways we want to share with you are going to give your small business the push it needs to be close to becoming a successful one!
Want to implement this into your own business to achieve nothing but success? Then let’s get started!
What we’ll be discussing:
- What it means to put your business on autopilot
- The benefits of putting your business on autopilot
- How to put your business on autopilot
4 WAYS TO PUT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS ON AUTOPILOT
- Automate Your Email Marketing
- Outsource Your Accounting
- Automate Your Social Media
- Automate Customer Service
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PUT YOUR BUSINESS ON AUTOPILOT
Essentially, having your business running on autopilot is automating your business to do the repetitive tasks that would take up too much time if you were to do them all on your own. Having a business automation strategy makes sure that you don’t have to worry about certain tasks as they are done for you. Check out an article we wrote about Business Process Automation where we focus on automating your email marketing and social media strategies.
By implementing different systems into your business you’re able to sit back and let these systems do this work for you. It’s such an advantage to get to a point of running a small creative business where it can work for you instead of the other way around. This is where you can really hone in on what you’re selling, making it the best product/ service out there! If you want to know what Business Tools we’d recommend for putting your business on autopilot then download our FREE guide, it also features a bunch of other tools that we love as well! Having an online business automation strategy will let your business flourish all while you get to do less of the not-so-glamorous work!
BENEFITS OF PUTTING YOUR BUSINESS ON AUTOPILOT
There are so many benefits to putting your business on autopilot that it should become a no-brainer to do so. You can save money in the long run if you were to put your business on autopilot, by having systems implemented to take care of repetitive tasks, this means that you no longer have to do them, nor do you need to hire someone to do them either. Most of the time you’ll have to pay for any systems that automate your business but think of it as an investment.
You can also save so… much… time! Because you no longer have to take care of these admin-like menial tasks, you’ve got so much more free time to do other things! You can focus on other parts of your small business that may need more time, such as the actual products, or planning your strategies, or you can use this extra free time for your personal life! Spend more time with your family, yourself, or Netflix, it’s all up to you, that’s the best part.
If you want to have a read about even more benefits of automating your business then check out our article. It’s such a great idea to apply these systems as they are proven to work and will let you watch your small businesses grow!
HOW TO PUT YOUR BUSINESS ON AUTOPILOT
Here are the 4 ways we recommend when wanting to put your business on autopilot. Once you’ve implemented these autopilot business ideas you’ll be not one, but several steps closer to achieving your dream of having a successful business!
AUTOMATE YOUR EMAIL MARKETING
We’re going to start off with one of, if not our favorite way you can work toward putting your business on autopilot. By automating your email marketing you are giving yourself so much free time to play with. Having effective email marketing is so important when it comes to running a successful small business but it can get quite hectic and overwhelming especially once you get hundreds of subscribers (which is an amazing achievement!) So why not make it easier on yourself by implementing an automated email marketing system. You can then organize your subscribers into different groups, sending specific email workflows depending on their demographics and interests, building your relationships with them to get them to turn in loyal customers. All this can be achieved and done so without putting in that much effort on your part after you’ve set everything up.
If you’d like to know more about email workflows, the different kinds that exist, and why you need them for your business, then check out our article here. We’ve also got an article about getting started with email marketing, if it’s something new to you, and how to make money from it. So make sure to give that a read too! Once you’ve done your research and come to the conclusion that you need to automate your email marketing – spoiler alert! You do – then have a look at ActiveCampaign’s FREE Trial where you can see if it’s the right software for you!
OUTSOURCE YOUR ACCOUNTING
Accounting is such an important part of your business because if it isn’t done right it can cost you, literally… If you’re going to outsource anything at all it’s best to start with your accounting. Getting someone who knows their stuff will be a great benefit to your company as you don’t have to worry about not doing your taxes properly or misstepping any legal boundaries resulting in having to pay any fines. Plus, if someone else is taking care of things it’s off your plate and you don’t have to worry about it at all!
If you don’t want to spend money on hiring an accountant then you could also check out Xero which is accounting software that can help you automate invoices, help with filing your end-or-year tax returns and track all your business’ finances. Either way, it’s a good idea to look into managing your accounting so that you not only have things set up and automated but to ensure that everything is done properly when it comes to the law.
AUTOMATE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
This is an easy way to work towards putting your business on autopilot as it’s simple and cheap as there are multiple free options available when it comes to software. We love Planoly which is a software that allows you to schedule posts to both Instagram and Pinterest. This means that once you’ve approved posts and captions you can add them to your calendar and schedule them to go live at a certain time on a certain date. This means that as long as you have your content created in bulk, you can schedule them all to go out over the month and you don’t have to worry at all about forgetting to post, or posting at the wrong time as it’s taken care of for you!
If you’re in the process of starting your creative business, in photography specifically, and aren’t sure whether to start an Instagram or a Pinterest account then have a read of our article where we discuss the pros and cons of both for photographers.
By having software to organize and automate your social media you’ll never miss a post again! And… you’ll have more free time to do other things that may be more pressing! You can also download our FREE guide featuring 10 Business Tools to Help Streamline Your Business for more!
AUTOMATE CUSTOMER SERVICE
This is so beneficial to your small business as there are all sorts of ways to automate your customer service. You can implement a chatbot to respond to customers quickly and efficiently and can even solve easy/ small problems. Just by having something weed out and completing issues means that you don’t have to spend time on them and can focus on bigger problems that may need resolving. You can also use a software called Zendesk where you can log and forward customer service tickets to the teams that need them, but this is more for when you’ve got a larger team but is very helpful!
All in all, not only will this take things off of your plate, but you can rest easy knowing something is working 24/7 and responding immediately to customers making them happy as well! Of course for bigger problems, they may have to wait a bit longer for your personal response, but for small issues and queries, customers will be very happy to have something resolved so quickly!
Well, there you go! Our top 4 ways to have an auto-run business! Now that you’ve got the ways to do so, you can autopilot your business in no time! So what’s holding you back? You really won’t regret implementing these top tips – you might regret it if you don’t!
We at Startupbusinessbureau really hope you found this article useful! We have lots of other useful articles on our blog so feel free to check them out. We also share lots of marketing tips across our social media so be sure to follow us!