Scale Your Business with Automation

May 3, 2021

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4 Must Have Automated Systems

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I only share about companies that I truly believe in.

New business, new you! It can be very exciting when you are starting out as a new business owner, a solopreneur! You are finally doing the things that you love and you have the best clients in the world! But one thing people didn’t tell you about this new fancy new venture, is that you need actual systems in place to help you run it. I am going to let you in on 4 major systems that you need in place to help you scale your business and I share the exact tools that I use to do so. Once you have the right systems and tools in place, your shiny new business will run like a well oiled machine and you will be able to scale more proficiently!

When you’re just getting started you really are everything in your business the boss, the secretary, the whole team. But as your business grows, it becomes painfully obvious that trying to do everything is only going to lead to:

Frustration (when critical tasks don’t get done and deadlines are missed)
Burn out (when you’re working yet another 12-hour day)
Overwhelm (when your to-do list is longer at the end of the day than it was at the beginning)

There are many ways to combat this business-growth hurdle, but one of the best is automation. Imagine a completely hands-off system that works for you even when you’re hiking on a remote mountain or lounging at a luxury spa.

But here’s an even better reason to automate: it lets you scale your business. Think about it, the less manual work you have to do, the more time you have to do the money-making tasks such as networking, marketing, and client support.

There comes a time in every entrepreneurial venture where you realize you simply cannot do it all yourself. I learned this very early on. I had the goal of setting up all of my automations prior to even launching my business, but I felt I just needed to get out there. And I am certainly happy that I did, but the need to have the correct tools and automations in place became even more apparent.

So what can you automate? Almost everything, but start with:

1. Paid Traffic

Organic traffic can be frustrating as it does not deliver instant results. It is for the long game and while it may result in better conversions over time, you may want to see more immediate results. You spend a lot of your time creating content for your blog, other people’s blogs, YouTube, social media, and other web properties. All that content creation leaves you little time to actually work with the clients you’re trying to attract.

Instead, it may be helpful to invest in some quality paid traffic, and get off the endless content creation train. You’ll be glad you did.

From a digital marketer stand point, if you are new to advertisements I would suggest starting with Pinterest Promotion Pins or even Facebook Ads. Pinterest Promoted Pins are the best option when you want to generate traffic from a search engine, especially since Pinterest is in fact a visual search engine.

You are already using Pinterest to generate traffic to your business so just go ahead and add Promoted Pins into your current Pinterest strategy; and if you are not using Pinterest to generate traffic; WHY NOT?! Pinterest Promoted Pins are helpful in this instance as people are already searching for the services and products that you offer on Pinterest. So when they come across your ad it would not be as random as the ads that appear on Google, which often causes them to be just ignored. They appear in the home feeds like other pins, so they are not spammy like other ad channels.

Ready to revamp your Pinterest Strategy and add Promoted Pins? Click here.

2. Email Funnels

What happens when a new subscriber joins your mailing list or someone buys a product? Do they just sit in waiting on your list until you have time to send an email?

While broadcast emails have their place—especially in time-sensitive promotions—be sure to also set up an autoresponder series to:

Welcome new subscribers and help them find their way around your site (and your offers)
Nurture buyers so they know they’re in the right place
Make additional offers based on what someone has already purchased or shown an interest in

And the best thing? Once your autoresponder is set up, it will continue to work even when you’re not. You can even create your Email Newsletters and continuously add them to the autoresponder so when new subscribers join your list they can receive all your previous newsletters in a sequence.

Email Newsletters are a great way to build a relationship with your leads and potential clients. They allow you to build a community and build trust amongst your readers. Provide them with valuable content and by showcasing your expertise you become their go to person when they are ready to make a purchase.

But creating email newsletters and Welcome Email Series are not your thing, let us do it for you! How does monthly or weekly newsletters using your content, formatted, professionally designed, and your customers/clients receive them consistently sound? Your customers will never know that you did not write them! Get started here.

3. Social Media Management

Yes, it’s important to be personable and engaging on social media. But that doesn’t mean you have to log in to Facebook just to post a link to your latest blog or YouTube video. Automate that kind of update and save yourself hours of time each and every month. Not only that, but you won’t have to worry about missing an update, either!

There are so many automation services that you can choose from. Not all social media platforms will be the best fit for your business so the investment in choosing the perfect scheduling tool may be in your budget even if you are just starting your business!

Here at Sonay & Co. for social media automation our go to tools are:

For scheduling curated content that matches our niche on Pinterest, we use Tailwind. Tailwind is basically the industry standard when it comes to Pinterest Scheduling. It is affordable and it helps pick the best times to post based on the engagement with your pins.
For manual scheduling of pins on Pinterest we use the Pinterest Scheduler. This is included in your Pinterest Business account and it allows you to schedule your pins that you created only to your boards.
For Instagram posts, we use Canva’s content scheduler. It allows you to design your post and then automatically schedule them out. This is included in a Canva Pro account. If you are not already using Canva Pro get it here. We use Canva for so many things in our business so the investment will be worth it.

4. Calendar Management

If you have clients, partners, a team, or are often asked for interviews, then an automated calendar is a must. Rather than endless back-and-forth emails trying to find a mutually available time slot, simply send your calendar link and let your client, project manager, JV partner or anyone else choose a time that works for them. Your appointment will automatically appear on your calendar, and you’ll even get reminders (if your calendar supports that).

There are many great tools out there for scheduling such as Calendly that you can use to stay on track with all of your appointments. I prefer to use the HoneyBook scheduler. I use this to schedule all of my consultations and it easily syncs with my Google Calendar so I never miss a beat or a meeting!

Bonus: HoneyBook is a bonus tool to help with automations! In addition to helping with calendar management, HoneyBook allows for even more automation in your business that will save you even more time. It is a client relationship management (CRM) tool that allows you to do all of your bookings, payments, and you can even set up workflows that further allows your business to almost run on auto-pilot. I set up workflows for almost every step in my client’s journey. It allows me to save time by creating repeating tasks and it helps in the overall client experience. They receive all their next steps in a timely and professional manner without ever realizing that I am still a solopreneur!

There are dozens of options for automating every aspect of your small business. As you grow, you’ll find new and better tools to make everything run more smoothly. For now, though, implementing these four ideas alone will save you hours of time every month. The more time you save with automations the more time you get to spend doing the things that you actually love in your business!

Want to check out other tools we recommend? Here you go!

Need your Pinterest Management and Email Marketing done for you? Check out our services here!