Solopreneurs at the moment are in a position to embody what I name a “hunter mentality” and focus their efforts on duties that instantly affect their progress.
The lifetime of an entrepreneur could be robust.
The lifetime of a solopreneur, i.e. somebody with a one-person enterprise, could be even harder.
I do know what that’s like. I used to be a solopreneur myself lengthy earlier than I began Jotform.
Doing every part by your self could be extraordinarily demanding and mentally exhausting. And it usually leaves you brief on time for the issues that actually matter in life.
I’d be keen to guess that the time funding concerned is an enormous cause why would-be solopreneurs haven’t taken the leap but. However right here’s the excellent news. In recent times, the complete solopreneurship panorama has modified, with increasingly individuals keen to embark — or a minimum of toy with the concept of embarking — on this one-person hero’s journey.
Based on one report, the variety of unbiased freelancers within the US who’re contemplating solopreneurship doubled from 38.2 million in 2020 to 64.6 million in 2022.
In one other current examine of the economies of 32 international locations, 19 had an uptick in one-person companies between 2019 and 2022.
How is all this taking place? I’ll exit on a limb and say that a whole lot of it comes down to at least one phrase: automation.
Due to automation, solopreneurs can now leverage the ability of expertise to deal with quite a few routine and mundane duties that might in any other case be accomplished by — you guessed it — them.
Solopreneurs at the moment are in a position to embody what I name a “hunter mentality” and focus their efforts on duties that instantly affect their progress.
The period of busywork is over. And on a regular basis individuals such as you and me now really feel extra assured about beginning, operating, and rising their very own companies whereas flying solo.
It might be truthful to say that I do know a factor or two about automation — I imply, I wrote the ebook, Automate Your Busywork, on it. Actually.
So let’s discover the way it may help you in your corporation.
Automation means that you can do much less, obtain extra, and save your mind for the large stuff. However let’s dig a bit of deeper. Listed below are a number of massive advantages to which I can personally attest.
1. It saves you time
As a solopreneur, each minute counts.
In case you saved simply quarter-hour a day, you’d save your self two weeks of labor over the course of a yr. Two weeks! Think about what you can do with that point — arising with new merchandise and methods, executing progress methods, writing significant content material… heck, you can recharge your batteries on a seashore someplace.
And I’d be keen to guess that you could save your self much more than quarter-hour per day.
2. It will increase your productiveness
Based on a 2021 Zapier examine accomplished on automation in small and medium-sized companies (SMBs), 67% of staff mentioned that automation made them extra productive at work. And positive, that’s staff of SMBs, not solopreneurs, however the level stands.
By automating routine and repetitive duties, these staff have been in a position to spend much less time on trivialities and extra time on high-impact, high-value duties. And if that doesn’t make you extra productive, I don’t know what is going to.
3. It eliminates human errors
We’re all human.
Regardless of how good we’re, we’re liable to error — a minimum of each every so often.
And in case you’re a solopreneur making an attempt to place out fires whereas juggling 101 make-or-break duties, properly, you see the place I’m going. You’re going to make errors. It’s a “when”; not an “if”.
Automation takes human error — that’s you — out of the equation. Assuming you set it up proper, that’s. Extra on that later.
4. It ensures compliance with trade guidelines and laws
Right here’s one that you simply may not have thought-about. Each enterprise should be compliant with numerous trade guidelines and regs — and automation may help.
Let’s take the Normal Knowledge Safety Regulation (GDPR) for example.
This regulation says that you could solely maintain buyer data so long as you really want it. So in case you’re not utilizing somebody’s private information anymore, you have to take away it fully.
Manually monitoring each single client and their data is prohibitively time-consuming. However with the assistance of automation, you possibly can arrange a workflow that can routinely take away a buyer’s data after a sure time frame of disuse. And identical to that, you’re GDPR compliant.
5. It permits your corporation to work even whenever you aren’t working
Profitable solopreneur, Justin Welsh, put it properly:
“Solopreneurs can’t depend on work ethic… Motivation finally falters. Techniques not often do.”
Automate your techniques. That means they’ll maintain going even whenever you take much-needed day off.
There’s one thing stunning about your techniques working when you sleep.
6. It reduces the possibilities of burnout
I’ll wrap up the advantages with my favourite: It reduces your likelihood of burnout.
Solopreneurship can very, very simply result in burnout. And that’s one thing you don’t need.
Fortunately, with automation, it doesn’t should go down like that. In any case, in case you’ve received extra time and also you’re being simpler, meaning you’ve received extra time for some R&R, proper? And in case you’ve learn my stuff earlier than, you realize I’m an enormous fan of doing nothing.
I might go on, however I believe you get it: Automation is nice information. So with that, let’s get to the good things.
What steps can you are taking proper now to start out automating your corporation?
1. Resolve which duties have to be automated
The very first step is to determine which particular duties have to be automated. Sounds easy sufficient, proper?
It may not be fairly so simple.
There are many duties that you simply can automate, however there are fewer that you simply ought to automate.
Which means you have to establish which duties fall into the class of “busywork” versus the class of “significant work”.
So what kind of duties must you automate?
Electronic mail advertising and marketing and administration:
- Replies to “Contact Us” requests in your web site
- Welcome emails to new leads captured in your e mail lists
- Welcome emails to new consumers who simply bought your product
- Observe-up e mail sequences to nurture leads and new customers
- Particular e mail campaigns to advertise particular merchandise, occasions, and so forth.
Social media scheduling and monitoring:
- Scheduling of every day social media posts
- Scheduling of particular promotional posts for brand spanking new upcoming merchandise, occasions, and so forth.
- Monitoring related social media mentions
Appointment scheduling:
- Reserving of prospects for discovery calls
- Reserving of prospects for a free session/teaching periods
Invoicing and fee processing:
- Creating and sending invoices to clients
- Processing of funds from clients
Customer support (by way of chatbots):
- Responding to easy buyer inquiries, requests, or complaints
- Pointing clients to assets (e.g. FAQs, documentation, and so forth.) that may assist them.
Knowledge evaluation:
- Analyzing and consolidating information throughout web sites, paid adverts, and so forth
As I mentioned, although, not all duties needs to be automated. Listed below are a number of examples:
- Customized buyer interactions: Whereas chatbots could be useful for dealing with easy inquiries or requests, it’s actually essential to keep up a personalised human contact and construct relationships with leads and clients. There’s a maxim amongst solopreneurs: “Do issues that don’t scale.” Responding to emails and assist tickets personally is a type of issues that may be price your time to start with.
- Strategic planning and higher-level decision-making: Whereas information evaluation instruments could be useful for producing reviews, it’s nonetheless essential that you simply take a hands-on strategy with regards to strategic planning and decision-making.
- Branding and messaging: Whereas automated instruments can be utilized for duties like social media scheduling and e mail advertising and marketing, it’s essential that you simply keep management over your model messaging and be sure that it aligns with your corporation technique and values. I’d be cautious of utilizing AI to talk for your corporation an excessive amount of… a minimum of for now.
Creating an automation-first mindset could also be a useful endeavor right here. When one thing is taking on your time, ask your self these three questions:
What can I automate?
What ought to I spend my time on?
What shouldn’t I spend my time on?
Then map out the workflow for the duties that you simply’d wish to automate: What are the steps? What are the necessities for these steps? And which of these steps could be automated whereas assembly the necessities?
2. Outline your automation objectives
Subsequent, determine your objectives for every automation. In case you’re automating your e mail advertising and marketing, what’s your purpose? Are you making an attempt to convey results in the highest of your funnel? Or are you making an attempt to transform them into paid customers? In case you’re automating your customer support, are you making an attempt to enhance retention? Nurture leads? You get the concept.
No matter your objectives are, you have to be sure that they’re particular, measurable, and aligned together with your total enterprise technique and goals.
As a part of the method, you’ll additionally have to arrange key efficiency indicators (KPIs) and the suitable metrics, to trace the success of your automation efforts over time.
For instance, in case you’re automating your social media postings, you would possibly observe metrics like engagement charges or click-through charges. Whereas in case you’re automating your e mail advertising and marketing, you would possibly observe metrics like open charges, click-through charges, and conversion charges
3. Select the appropriate automation software
The following step is to decide on the appropriate automation software for the job.
With so many instruments on the market in the marketplace, it may be actually troublesome to know which one is correct for your corporation, however I’ve received you coated.
Let’s begin with what to look out for when selecting your automation software:
- Compatibility: Be certain that the software you select is suitable with the particular instruments you’re utilizing in your corporation.
- Options: Search for a software that has the particular options wanted to automate your particular activity. In case you’re unsure whether or not the software will fit your wants, communicate with their gross sales or assist group.
- Price: Automation instruments vary from free all the way in which to prohibitively costly. It’s essential to decide what your price range is and search for instruments that match inside that price range.
- Assist: Lastly, search for instruments which have nice buyer assist, particularly on the technical facet. Evaluation websites like G2 and TrustPilot may help with this.
A SWOT evaluation could also be useful when deciding, because it compares strengths, weaknesses, alternatives, and threats concerned in every possibility.
Under are some in style automation instruments that you could try.
Workflow automation between frequent apps and instruments:
Electronic mail advertising and marketing and administration:
Social media scheduling:
Appointment scheduling:
Invoicing and fee processing:
Chatbots:
Knowledge Evaluation:
Professional tip: Some merchandise that you simply’re already utilizing have automation alternatives baked in. Don’t go on the lookout for a brand new software when your present software can deal with it!
4. Arrange the automation and observe its success over time
Now it’s time to arrange the automation itself.
Setup actually relies on the automation instruments that you simply select, however Zapier’s Getting Began Information is an effective start line.
When you set it up, take a look at it and ensure it really works as desired. Then proceed to observe it for issues. In case you discover that the preliminary setup is just not attaining your objectives, optimize it. For instance, in case your automated e mail advertising and marketing campaigns are usually not seeing the specified open or click-through charges, you would possibly want to regulate the content material or timing of your emails.
5. Consider the affect of your automation efforts
As soon as your automation has been operating for a while, consider its affect in your total enterprise.
Look again at your preliminary objectives for automation and decide whether or not or not you managed to realize them. And in case you didn’t obtain these objectives, take the time to establish the the reason why.
Establish areas the place you can also make enhancements to your automation efforts and make the modifications accordingly.
Bear in mind, ongoing optimization is essential right here. Your automation ought to get extra refined with time.
6. Design a life with out busywork
When you’ve automated your corporation, you possibly can automate your life too! I’m speaking about your reminiscence, peace of thoughts, communication, creativity, progress, and even your happiness.
That is out of the scope of this text, however I dive deep into it within the final chapter of my ebook. Suffice it to say that you could and may establish areas of your life that embrace busywork. Then construct and automate techniques to treatment them.
7. Get pleasure from
Relax and revel in some well-earned free time. Or deal with these high-impact duties you’ve been ready to sink your enamel into.
In relation to automation, it’s simpler than you suppose, belief me. And a bit of little bit of time up-front goes a good distance.
After all, automation isn’t a silver bullet that can clear up all of your issues. And there’ll nonetheless be duties that you simply want you didn’t should do. However there’s no higher method to empower your self and uplevel your corporation.
I’d even go so far as to say that it’s a necessity for anybody making an attempt to compete with bigger, extra established companies.