Part 3: Automation
Automation isn’t about robots.
It’s about getting your Tuesdays, or your Wednesdays, or your Thursdays back.
But I get that automation can be a lot. Trying to wade through all the information and options out there may feel impossible.
It’s not even just figuring out what would be helpful; it’s researching the tools, deciding which ones actually make sense for your business, and then learning how to implement them.
And like many business owners, you just don’t have time.
This is what I call the barely keeping your head above water approach.
It works fine…for now. You’re still there going strong. The work is getting done.
- But what happens when you start to burn out from too much to do and not enough time to do it?
- What happens when you add another 20 clients, or launch another offer?
- What will you do when the demands of running a business feel like more than you can handle?
Taking the time to set up automations now is a HUGE time saver in the long run.
And frankly, it’s surprising to me how many companies are still holding out. According to the 2026 Digital Adoption Report, only 69% of businesses have implemented at least one automation.
That means almost a third of businesses are still doing EVERYTHING manually.
That’s a lot, considering how many options are out there, and how much even a few simple automations can speed things up.
But before I go any further…
What IS Automation?
Ok, you don’t need me to explain this to you at length.
Automation is simply the use of technology to complete a task or part of a process that a person would otherwise have to do manually.
Imagine a new client signs your contract. Instead of manually going through all the steps involved in onboarding them, it’s done automatically.
No one has to remember all the steps. No one has to retype the same welcome email for the 10th time this month at 4:55 pm on a Friday.
This doesn’t just save a few clicks. It removes work from your business.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
It’s a cliché for a reason. And that’s because the lesson behind it never grows old.
Automation has many benefits in addition to just making better use of your time. It streamlines your process, reduces human error, creates consistency, and lets you grow without piling more admin onto your shoulders.
Here’s the part I DON’T want you to forget:
Automation should remove the mechanics. It shouldn’t remove judgment.
If a task requires experience, context, empathy, strategy, creativity, or involves a decision with serious consequences, I’m certainly not advocating for the use of automation. Quite the opposite, actually. An algorithm doesn’t get a seat at the leadership table.
When Should You Automate?
Here’s where I see business owners go wrong.
They discover a shiny new tool and immediately start looking for ways to use it. Like the software subscription you signed up for at 11 pm after a webinar.
That’s doing things backwards. Don’t start with the tool.
Start with the problem.
Look at the work you and your team are doing repeatedly and ask these five questions:
- Is it repetitive? Does someone perform the same task over and over?
- Does it follow predictable rules? If X happens, does Y always follow?
- Does it happen often enough to matter? Saving two minutes on something you do once a year or even once a month probably isn’t worth your time. But if you’re spending 30+ minutes on something every day, then this may be a good opportunity.
- Does it involve copying or moving information between systems? This is one of my FAVORITE places to look for automation opportunities. If someone is taking information from an email and putting it into a CRM, then taking that same information and putting it into your project management platform, then creating a folder somewhere else…there is probably a better way. Can mistakes be caught or reversed without serious consequences? Not every process should occur without a human checkpoint. The greater the stakes, the more oversight is needed.
Pro tip: If you answered yes to #5, and two others, start there.
What Should You Automate?
Think of this as a menu, not a to-do list.
Pro tip: Many of the programs you own already have built-in automations you may not be using.
| Area of Your Business | What You Can Automate | Tools to Look At |
Getting & Keeping Clients | ||
| Scheduling & Booking | Book appointments, send confirmations and reminders, and add events to your calendar automatically | Calendly, Acuity, Microsoft Bookings |
| Lead Capture & Sales | Capture new leads, assign them to a team member, update records, and trigger follow-ups when a deal moves forward | HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce |
| Client Onboarding | Once a client says yes: set up their record, create their project and shared folders, send a welcome email, and assign first tasks | Zapier, Make (or the automations built into your CRM) |
| Marketing | Email sequences, lead nurturing, social scheduling, abandoned-cart emails, and campaign reports | HubSpot, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign |
| Customer Support | Route requests, create tickets, answer routine questions, escalate issues, and send status updates | Freshdesk, Help Scout, Zendesk, Intercom |
Running the Business | ||
| Meeting Notes & Follow-Up | Record and transcribe meetings, summarize them, pull out action items, and send them to your CRM or task tool | Fathom, Otter, Fireflies |
| Tasks, Reminders & Approvals | Deadline reminders, overdue-task alerts, approval requests, and recurring reminders | Asana, Monday, Zapier, Power Automate |
| Contracts & E-Signature | Send documents for signature, track who has signed, auto-remind signers, save signed copies, and start the next step | DocuSign, PandaDoc, Dropbox Sign |
| Documents & Data Entry | Fill in templates, create PDFs and contracts, and move form responses into spreadsheets or databases | Zapier, Make, Power Automate |
| File Organization | Automatically name, sort, copy, archive, or route files to the right folder | Google Drive, SharePoint, OneDrive + Zapier or Make |
Money & People | ||
| Invoicing & Bookkeeping | Recurring invoices, payment reminders, expense sorting, receipt capture, bank reconciliation, and financial reports | QuickBooks, BILL, Ramp, Expensify |
| Payroll | Calculate pay and taxes, run payroll on schedule, pay by direct deposit, generate pay stubs, file payroll taxes, and pull in hours from time tracking | Gusto, ADP, Rippling, QuickBooks Payroll |
| Hiring & Team Onboarding | Collect applications, schedule interviews, update candidates, create new-hire accounts and folders, and assign onboarding tasks | BambooHR, Rippling, Zapier |
Connecting It All Together | ||
| Connecting Your Apps | Move information between apps automatically, e.g., form submission → CRM → task → Slack/Teams alert | Zapier, Make, Power Automate |
Feeling overwhelmed looking at that list? Don’t be. I am absolutely NOT suggesting you run out and automate all of these tomorrow.
In fact…Please don’t.
Automation Comes AFTER the Process
Remember Part 1 of this series? Systems first.
By the way, if reading this list makes you want to close the tab, that’s exactly when a strategist like me is useful!
And Part 2? SOPs.
There’s a reason automation is in part 3. You shouldn’t automate a broken process. If a process is confusing, then adding an automation won’t fix the underlying problem.
This is why you want to get clear on the process first.
How to Actually Start Automating (Without Feeling Overwhelmed)
Start small. You don’t need an elaborate automation ecosystem to see results.
Pick ONE annoying, repetitive task.
You know the one. The one that feels like an absolute time suck. The one you sigh about every night.
Start there. Map the process. Decide which parts require a person. Automate ONE piece. Test it. Then test it again.
After all, the last thing you want is to send out an email that greets your best client with “Hi [FIRST NAME].”
Once you’re confident it’s working then you can move to the next one.
Final Takeaways
Systems create structure. SOPs create consistency. Automation creates capacity.
Put all three together and suddenly your business doesn’t need someone manually pushing every task forward every single day.
And that matters as you grow.
Because if every new client, project, employee, or dollar of revenue also creates another pile of administrative work, then you’ll eventually hit a ceiling.
Scaling shouldn’t mean creating more work for yourself.
It should mean building a business that can handle more without requiring MORE of you.
That’s the freedom we’ve been talking about throughout this entire series.
- Not stepping away and hoping your team remembers everything.
- Not checking Slack from the beach.
- Not creating 47 automations because someone on Instagram told you that AI can run your entire company.
It’s knowing you’ve built the systems, processes, and technology that allow your business to keep moving without you having to move every piece yourself.
And THAT is how you stop being the Chief Everything Officer and start spending your time where it belongs: Running the business.
Ready to stop doing work your business could be doing for you?
Schedule your free discovery call here.