Every business faces fierce competition in terms of sales, efficiency and effectiveness. That’s why Automation is necessary for your business to survive. The reason: There is so much to do in your business, but time is insufficient. According to Pareto’s 80/20 rule, only 20 percent of your activities have the most effect on your business and the remaining 80 percent is just busywork.
As a freelancer and small business owner, I’ve often found myself time-strapped because I wear so many hats as owner, accountant, chief cook and bottle washer, etc. But automating certain areas of my business has given me invaluable time to strategize and work on my business.
In fact, I was able to increase my productivity by more than 70 percent by automating the following five areas in my business.
1. The hiring process
As your business grows, you might feel the need to hire more (qualified) employees. Unfortunately, the traditional way of posting an ad on job sites and waiting for applications to pour in is not only inefficient but extremely time-consuming.
My business was growing steadily to the point that I needed to hire extra help. The first step I took toward automating this process was to define the candidates I wanted. I did this by asking a series of questions that my ideal candidates would be able to answer:
- What are your goals?
- How do you handle difficult situations?
- What new habit have you formed in the last 30 days?
- What do you do in your free time and why?
Asking these questions gave me an insight about my applicants that I otherwise would not have discovered using the traditional method. I used Google Docs and workable.com to create easy-to-use question forms for prospective applicants to answer…