You might wonder, what are the possible benefits of business automation that could help your business grow? Let me ask, what is the one thing that’s slowing growth the most? What’s the biggest bottleneck? If you’re running a small business, chances are, it’s your time.
Most small businesses don’t create enough revenue to employ enough staff. That means owners and leaders work long hours. The hours feel unsustainable. But the biggest cost? Not enough time to work on the business.
But businesses can work better. A business can use technology and automation to benefit from better working methods. This frees time for leaders to be able to be at their best. They can work on business areas that add more value. Instead of being a slave to the business, they’re back in control. That means, they can spend more time growing their business.
Unfortunately, for too many, it’s too late. Unchecked and run ragged, there’s an impact to health and relationships. The business suffers, and there’s a steady decline. The business will either fail or need a turn around.
Looking for an in-depth guide on the Business System? Check out Business System: An Essential Guide to Growth. This guide explains what it’s all about, why it’s important to business, and the steps involved.
What is Business Automation?
Business automation uses technology to complete tasks faster and with less effort. This can automate either parts of, or the entire business process. More recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can automate more complex decisions or process complex inputs.
Why Business Process Automation is important?
The main benefit of business automation is to scale the business. That is profitable growth where you grow the business without the needing to hire so many people. Here are five benefits of business automation:
- Time – Automation gives the most precious commodity – time. More time to work on your business. Time to add more value to customers. Or simply time to rest to improve personal performance.
- Profit – Automation reduces cost of labour. In practice labour is a fixed cost. But if you can do more with what you have, it means more output and more profit. It could also avoid the cost of taking on too many people as you grow.
- Happier Customers – Customers get a faster and more consistent service. Building automation using your best practice will result in an accurate and quick service.
- Bigger Contracts – A fast & accurate service builds trust to win bigger contracts. Automation also creates capacity to take on bigger pieces of work.
- Competitive – Increasing speed and reducing cost helps a business to be more competitive.
5 Tips for Small Business Automation
How can a small business gain those business automation benefits? Here’s five tips to start:
- Understand the value created. You don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water. What value does the existing business process create? Will automation enhance or degrade the value created?
- Review better ways of working. Before you automate an existing process, ask yourself, is this the best process? Automating something that’s not delivering the best results wastes time and energy.
- Understand the process. Building an automation based on a vague or undefined process is a recipe for disaster. Be clear.
- Rationalize. Review processes to spot complexity and simplify when possible.
- Really question what can be automated. Every task and every decision has the potential for automation. Test assumptions. Dig into what it would take to automate each step. Keep an open mind.
Finally
KR5 Consulting can help you review your business processes and help you explore better ways of working. With someone from outside the business, you can gain an objective view of your business processes. Fresh input can also help unlock the potential in your business and help you make plans for a better future.
Your Business Deserves an Effective System
Improve Your Business System Performance with KR5 Consulting
If you’d like to discuss this topic, contact me on rhounsell@kr5consulting.com or DM on LinkedIn.