Bogged down by busywork? Workflow automation for small business has allowed harried business owners and teams to focus on growth, not repetitive microtasks. If you’re drowning in your day-to-day workload, it’s time to break free.
Businesses that automate their operations enjoy supercharged productivity, increased profits, and a happier workforce that can finally focus on the big picture. This guide will show you how you can save time, money, and headaches by integrating automation workflows into your daily business operations, starting today.
Workflow automation deals with single tasks, such as creating an invoice and sending it to a client.
Business process automation (BPA), on the other hand, is more complex; think of it as a holistic, end-to-end automation of entire systems.
In the example of the invoice, integrating that workflow into a BPA might also add the invoice to your accounting software and document managing systems, updating your CRM at the same time. The magic of this is that you can align multiple departments of your business automatically!
We’ve all heard the main benefits of saving time and money, but automation goes beyond this. A 2023 study from HowToRobot laid bare the motivations for businesses of all sizes to start automating – and the human workforce lies at the heart of it.
This might be surprising to some, considering the gloomy prognosis from tech leaders like Elon Musk, who claimed that “probably none of us will have a job” in a future where work is a job more akin to a hobby, thanks to “universal high income” (after all, late-stage capitalist economy cannot thrive when everyone is jobless and living on the breadline!)
While that remains to be seen, the reality behind the headlines is more nuanced. There is one elephant in the room that is worth addressing, simply because it is one of the biggest fears that people in your organization will have when you announce that you’re introducing business process automation to the business.
Yes, many jobs will be swallowed up by this new technology. This is part and parcel of any industrial revolution, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is no different.
What will also happen is the creation of new jobs, many of which are twinkles in programmers’ eyes as I write this. In the United States alone, 73 million jobs could be automated by 2030, but 97 million new jobs will be created by 2023. Notice the dates?
If you think that sounds great, think again, because you’re now running into a crisis that is slowly rising its head. However, it’s one that you can avoid with some careful planning (and automation)!
By 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of 85 million people, no matter how many new jobs are created. Boomers are slowly, but surely leaving the workforce and there aren’t enough people in the younger generations who are ready (read: trained) to take over the vacant highly-skilled jobs. The low birth rate problem has been a millstone around the Japanese economy’s neck for decades, and it is increasingly weighing down on Western nations.
While automation’s ability will soften this blow in Western economies, it can’t make up for the skills gap. The smart money is investing in automation so they can focus on investing in their talent, preparing them for tomorrow’s jobs.
Looking at the bigger picture, it’s not surprising that so many businesses are racing towards automation. 2030 is not far off. What you do as an organization today will have a big impact on your business’ ability to thrive in a complicated future landscape that has more question marks than answers.
But let’s pull back to the present. As a small business, there are plenty of immediate benefits to like about automation. Repetitive and time-consuming tasks that hold back everyone from the more important parts of their job can be given to tireless automations that doesn’t get tired and make careless mistakes.
As a result, efficiency and productivity blossom. You’re saving time, of course – and even better, you’re saving money as you make more money. Whose long-suffering accountant can argue with bottom-line boosters like that?
Automation also fractures into dozens of other nice-to-haves that soon become indispensable. Workflow automations can enhance collaboration and communication between teams with automatic updates, task allocations, and messages. Oh, and don’t forget the ability to add real-time tracking of all your activities. This visibility and control makes it easier to make data-driven decisions that lead to business growth.
All this, and it scales as your business grows, letting you handle more work without frustrating bottlenecks or worrying about staff shortages. With a custom-designed automated workflow in Make.com, this scaling can be as simple as moving your subscription plan to the next tier.
Then there’s customer-facing busywork. Lead nurturing, order processing, help tickets, and more can all be automated at the first point of contact. That means a consistent and highly responsive experience for everyone.
Small wonder so many businesses are rushing toward automation. Adopting workflow automations today makes you an early adopter. Essentially you get a competitive advantage over rivals who prefer to do things the old-fashioned way.
That doesn’t mean that automation is without challenges, but we’ll get to that further down.
We are only at the beginning of this workplace revolution. Automation has been around for decades, but when ChatGPT and other generative AI solutions came along, they unlocked a new world of intelligent automation.
It would be impossible to cover all the different types of workflow automation for small business in just one post, so here, I’ll focus on some of the most popular workflows for businesses today. Don’t forget that these can also serve as functional parts of a broader business automation strategy.
No matter what industry your business is in, these automations will help your business to grow while taking a load off your workforce’s back.
These are just a few examples of workflows for small business that you can start building today using tools like Make and Zapier.
By identifying repetitive, manual tasks – especially time-consuming ones! – small businesses can start to optimize their operations with AI and automation.
While workflow automations can benefit any business from a one-man startup through enterprise, there is no denying that getting started can feel, well, daunting. Where should you start? The easiest way to approach this is with a step-by-step checklist that gets you from A to Z in the most efficient way while covering all bases.
When you’re looking into automation, it’s easy to focus on the tools and technology and forget the people who will be using it.
While you should start with simple workflow automations, take time to think about how these simple automations could evolve and grow into larger business process automations. By starting with simple automations, you can easily scale them into more integrated business automation processes as your business grows.
If you’re not a business owner or executive-level worker, then this step can’t be skipped; you need executive sponsorship to secure resources.
| Best Practice | Why It Matters | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Get the bosses on board | Leadership buy-in is a non-negotiable! | Critical |
| Think big, start small | Show quick wins that build momentum without overwhelming your team(s). | High |
| Plan for growth | Future-proof your automations by picking scalable tools and flexible workflows | Medium |
Every business has a unique human workflow, and your automated workflow design should match it. If you have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), then you’ve won half the battle.
If you haven’t, then start making them. An automated mess will deliver messy results that serve nobody, so don’t skimp on planning and preparation!
| Best Practice | Why It Matters | Level of Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Involve people who matter | Design workflows that help, not hinder your teams by involving them in workflow design | High |
| Get your data in order | Automations thrive on accurate, clean, and well-integrated data | Critical |
| Keep an eye on the numbers | Monitoring your KPIs makes it easier to identify bottlenecks and optimize your BPAs | Medium |
Automation fundamentally changes how we work. This can be a blessing… or it can be an unmitigated disaster, especially if you don’t manage the human side.
No matter what, make sure that your team has the support that they need and are fully involved in the design and creation of your automation processes. This will help them to get comfortable with automation, as well as soothe any fears they have about job security.
| Best Practice | Why It Matters | Level of Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Help people adjust | Automation shifts how things get done – make sure your team is supported | High |
| Set ground rules | Set clear roles, responsibilities, and access controls to ensure compliance and security | Critical |
| Improve continuously | Keep refining your workflows based on feedback and evolving business needs | Medium |
Finally, please remember that you don’t have to do everything by yourself! There is a world of expertise out there that you can tap into when you get stuck with your tools or ideas.
Partnering with experts is a great way to fast-track your success with automation. This is especially true when you’re setting everything up for the first time or if your initial automations are turning into a messy sprawl. All too quickly, you realize that your simple automation may not be as simple as it first seemed.
This usually means that your workflow automation is becoming a business process automation.
As great as workflow automation is for businesses, it isn’t a magic bullet. There are some things to watch out for when you start to use workflow automations in your business. The combination of AI and workflow automation is a new technology, and it comes with unique challenges.
One of the biggest is people.
There’s no point sugarcoating it: when it comes to jobs, people are nervous about AI and automation. YouGov surveys asking Americans how they feel about automation reveal concern across all age groups.
Of the groups surveyed, though, 77% admit they don’t know anyone (including themselves) who has lost their job or seen their salary cut as a result of AI. In contrast, The Pew Research Center reveals that 32% of people in the most exposed industries, like IT, are more likely to believe that AI will help them.
People fear the unknown – but once they realize that AI and automation work with them, not instead of them, they generally become a lot more positive.
Make it one of your priorities to educate your teams and involve them in your first automations.
You can automate a lot, but that doesn’t mean you need to try to automate everything. Automation works best with tasks that are:
Things like data entry and invoicing are incredibly repetitive and prone to human error – and you don’t need me to remind you how much time they take to do.
In contrast, tasks where skills like emotional intelligence are best left to people. Another task that shouldn’t be automated is working with unstructured data. Yes, AI can do it, but it might not do it right – when you’re cleaning and organizing your data to feed into your automations, let a human with sound judgment do it instead.
Automations make everything look simple, but only with careful planning, process mapping, and technical expertise. All of this costs in money, time, and resources.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is something you can knock out of the park over a long weekend. Building the actual automation is the final act of a lot of hard work.
Skip the prep work, and you’ll end up with blown budgets, missed deadlines, and a lot of frustration. Don’t do this to yourself!
How do you know if your automation efforts are succeeding? How do you prove to the more skeptical members of your small business that automation is making their job easier?
You set clear objectives and performance metrics to track your progress. Nobody can argue with statistics. More importantly, tracking progress will help you to identify areas of improvement so you can tweak and improve your automations over time.
And yes, you can automate your tracking. Data-driven decision-making has never been easier than it is today!
Automation is a wonderful thing that will give your business a much-needed productivity boost, but you can have too much of a good thing!
There will always be situations where humans are just better. We’re creative and love innovating, two skills that give us a significant edge over AI when it comes to problem-solving.
Try to strike a balance; adaptability and flexibility will go a long way. Don’t forget that automation works best with the jobs that stop people from flourishing in their roles.
While workflow automations are set-and-forget in the sense that they’ll do a lot with minimal human intervention, that doesn’t mean you should turn it on and then forget about it.
It’s technology.
New and better technologies will emerge as your once-shiny automation will become obsolete. In between there will be plenty of updates, optimizations, and other fiddly things to do.
In short, keep an eye on your automated processes. Don’t let them stagnate, since this will only reduce all the benefits that automation brings to the table.
And that’s it for this article! You are now well-equipped to start thinking seriously about how you can deploy AI and automation in your workplace.
Workflow automation is one of the most powerful tools that a small business can start using today. The list of benefits is long; who doesn’t like saving time and money and reducing their boring administrative workload?
What small business wouldn’t benefit from freeing up their talented workforce to focus on higher-value activities like innovation, customer service, and business development?
AI and automation aren’t perfect, but with a little planning and preparation, you can take full advantage of this new technology while sidestepping some of the more common issues that come with it.
If you’re a small business owner mulling over whether automation is for you or not, it’s time to take action. AI and automation are increasingly a necessity rather than a luxury for small businesses. Starting today will set you up for greater long-term success.
Slashrepeat is a human-first AI automation agency that helps businesses like yours to build a more productive future. We can help you identify which processes are ripe for automation then build and implement those automations for you.
Don’t wait for the future! Start automating today and schedule a free 30-minute consultation with us for a free business assessment to find out how we can help!
Book your consultation now. It’s free and friendly, with no pushy sales tactics. We can start your project as early as tomorrow!
