Strategic automation can be a powerful thing for the small business owner. It could even help you compete in the big league. As many as 88% of small business owners say automation lets their company compete with larger companies. And by adding the right automated business ideas, you can double (or triple!) your efforts with a small team.
I get it. Automation is a scary word. What does it even mean in practical terms to automate your business?
What is business automation?
Let’s set the stage. What do I mean by “automation” for your business? We’ve had forms of automation around us for a long time (think ATMs). But artificial intelligence and machine learning take automation to a new level. And with it, businesses are recognizing that they can increase efficiency, drive revenue, and thrive with fewer human resources.
Business automation is a term for the use of technology that performs repetitive tasks to free up employees for higher-value work. This includes business process automation, robotic process automation, and AI-powered automation. As you consider automated business ideas to implement, consider the types of business automation out there. We can think of business automation in three buckets:
Basic automation
Basic automation is taking those simple, repetitive tasks and automating them. Often, this form of basic automation requires little to no coding. RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, is one example of this automation. It helps teams reduce errors and speed up workflows.
Process automation
Process automation automates your business processes to keep things uniform and transparent. It can increase productivity and efficiency. And it delivers valuable insights into your business through analytics. Workflow automation is one example of process automation.
Intelligent automation
As I mentioned already, intelligent automation uses AI to “learn.” Then, it makes decisions based on previous interactions. For example, virtual assistants, like AI chatbots, can support your service team. Chatbots can carry on human-like conversations between customers and human agents, growing smarter over time. Intelligent automation can dramatically improve your customer experience.
With these three buckets in mind, let’s look into specific automated business ideas to support your organization. We’ve compiled a list of 7 automated business ideas that can impact your operational efficiency and bottom line. Let’s dig in.
7 automated business ideas to drive better work
1. Use email automation
Writing and sending just one email can be a huge time suck. In the old days (honestly, not that long ago), every single email had to be manually written, sorted, organized, and sent. But with email automation, you can make your team twice as productive. Email automation helps your small team accomplish far more.
The first of our automated business ideas is to add email automation to your workflow. Seriously. Email automation can sort and prioritize the emails in your inbox. It can even use natural language processing and generative AI to identify and create basic information in each message. Or, you can draft email campaigns and sequences ahead of time. And then, automate them to send as targeted touchpoints along the customer journey.
2. Route new leads to the right sales rep
Automation makes it easy to connect your customers and prospects with the right person on your team. It makes skills-based routing easy. With automation software, you can set up a form for when people reach out. Collect a client or prospect’s contact information and any relevant notes. Then you can program the lead to the correct representative to follow up. You can even automate an intro email or text to spark the conversation.
3. Answer customers immediately
The following automated business idea is a biggie. Automation and AI chatbots can make your customer service so much more successful. With automated customer service, customers can access self-service tools through your knowledge base. Using a chatbot, get customers answers to their questions immediately. Bots can also deflect incoming tickets, queries, and simple requests, freeing your human agents to handle more complex support issues. Give customers immediate attention with AI.
4. Automate payroll
Payroll is one of the most critical and complicated business operations. For most small businesses, one mistake in payroll can significantly impact your employees’ morale. You don’t want to have the reputation of a company that fails to pay its employees on time!
Thankfully, automation can make the payroll process far more manageable and error-free. With payroll automation, you can significantly reduce the time and energy spent on payroll. Eliminate human error and ensure compliance with tax regulations with automated payroll software. These platforms help you calculate employee wages and taxes, manage direct deposits, and keep track of vacation time and sick days. Payroll automation can free HR staff to focus on higher-value work, such as employee development and engagement. This automated business idea can help you improve productivity and protect your reputation.
5. Gather customer feedback with surveys automatically
Gathering customer feedback is one of the most important aspects of any business. You need to know what your customers think to keep them engaged and happy, after all! With automation, you can do this more efficiently and effectively. Automate surveys to collect feedback and insights from your customers automatically.
Send automated surveys after a customer makes a purchase, visits your website, or interacts with your brand in any other way. Automating the survey process allows you to gather data in real-time, analyze customer feedback, and respond quickly to issues. With them, identify trends, preferences, and pain points. These insights help improve your products or services, enhance customer experience, and increase customer loyalty — all so you can get ahead of the competition. Plus, sending surveys is another thing you don’t have to do manually!
6. Speed up your hiring processes with automated candidate vetting
Hiring and recruitment can be a lengthy and time-consuming process. But automation can help expedite this process. AI-powered recruitment software can screen resumes and applications. Save your HR staff hours that would otherwise be spent on manual screening.
This automated business idea also keeps your team from bias in the hiring process. With more automation, you can ensure that only the most qualified candidates move forward. Automation can also help your team with administrative tasks during hiring. Let automation schedule interviews and send reminders. Free your HR staff to focus on higher-value work. Give them back time to improve onboarding, training, development, and employee engagement. When you streamline the hiring process with automation, your small team can make faster and more informed hiring decisions, saving time and money while improving the quality of your workforce.
7. Automate information sharing across your team
Automation makes it much easier to share accurate information among team members. With AI connected to your internal knowledge base or intranet, make information accessible to your team. Help product owners or managers update process documentation faster with automation. Then automate alerts to update everyone else about projects and tasks. Make it so no one will be behind the times – ever! Eliminating manual data entry allows your teams to do more with fewer resources.
These seven automated business ideas are a great starting point for automating processes and improving efficiency in your small business. So don’t wait any longer—start automating your small business today! I promise. With the right automated business ideas in place, you’ll take your team to new heights of success.
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