DIGITAL STARTUP SOCIETY BLOG

When thinking of automation, you may forget that the work you do in your office is also a place that you can start automating. Yes, you want to automate as much as you can outside the office, too but one of the first places you can streamline your efforts is via office automation. There is more to office automation than going paperless. It’s about removing the human component or at least your need to act to get something done.   Design Your Workflow – For every project, you do in your office, there is a process that ensures successful completion....

One of the best things to start automating as soon as you can is your marketing. Automating is a lot easier and less expensive than it was just five years ago. Today, even a one-person business can implement marketing automation that assists in exploding their business and taking it to new heights never considered in the past.    These tools and tips will help you get marketing automation right: Understand Your Sales Process – You should easily be able to describe the journey your customer takes from awareness through to delight. Because when you know what your customer's intent is,...

When you decide to outsource to others using contractors, you must understand how to find good ones and keep them before you get started. Nothing is worse than finally deciding to pay someone else to do something and making a bad choice.   Know What You Want – If you don’t know exactly what you need, it’ll be hard to hire the right person or team to help you. If you cannot write a detailed job or project description highlighting the expected deliverables and timetable, and budget, you are not ready to find a contractor.  One Thing Per Contractor –...

No automation plan is complete without an outsourcing plan. Outsourcing means that you find other experts to do tasks for you. If you outsource to a contractor, they are not employees because you can only make requirements on the deliverables but not on how they use their time creating and making the deliverables. Combined with automation, outsourcing is very powerful.    Your Network – When you want to work with someone, the first thing you should do is survey your network to find out if you already know someone who is an expert, uses experts or knows who you can...

Being productive is an essential element in any business owner's life. Business owners are busy and need to use every moment given to them as fruitfully as possible. Most business owners continually research ideas that will boost their productivity. They research organizing so that they can be more productive, but the truth is the ultimate boost in productivity will come from a combination of automation and outsourcing.    Inexpensive – Automation is very inexpensive, and outsourcing is less expensive than hiring someone in house to do the same thing. Using automation where you can, and outsourcing everywhere else is inexpensive...