There is no better time than now that this advice from her really resonates with me and comes in handy as the changes occurring during this COVID-19 pandemic. I recently created a website for my business Pezu Smith Consulting, and automated a lot of the processes my organisation will be doing- from scheduling appointments with me, to sales and responses to emails. How easy does doing a business get when the automation can free you up to think of other things? Just a click on my website gets you to register for my online courses and the code is generated to lead you to the any of your desired courses even while I am asleep.
A few years ago, a boss of mine gave me a piece of advice that I just recalled this afternoon. She said to me then, “Nancy, everyone needs to learn to be flexible in life and move with the times.”
There is no better time than now that this advice from her really resonates with me and comes in handy as the changes occurring during this COVID-19 pandemic. I recently created a website for my business Pezu Smith Consulting, and automated a lot of the processes my organisation will be doing- from scheduling appointments with me, to sales and responses to emails. How easy does doing a business get when the automation can free you up to think of other things? Just a click on my website gets you to register for my online courses and the code is generated to lead you to the any of your desired courses even while I am asleep.
Then, it occurred to me that there are still some businesses that operate a purely manual operation in 2020! Like seriously?
I can’t help wondering.
How do they intend to cope with all the changes going on?
What happens after the COVID-19 pandemic is over?
Will it be business as usual?
Now, listen up! Business automation is no longer the sole preserve of big or extremely large corporations. It has actually become a lot easier than you think. So, even as a new, small or medium enterprise, you need to automate your business operation system, as this will allow you time to focus on growing the business. Automation is leveling things for the big and small businesses. Even a side hustle business can be automated. That’s how easy it is now.
We are all aware how time-consuming and cumbersome manual operations could be. This is definitely not the time to hold on to this way of things! Automate!
What things should you automate?
Your marketing and sales can easily be automated. Thanks to email marketing platforms, life has become a lot easier. From a range of choices such as Constant Contact (I just got to know of this one today when I received a ail from a church), to Mail chimp and Sendfox, the list is almost endless. You can set up your prospect inquiries with automated emails which respond once a prospect sends a note to you. It may be as simple as telling the prospect a think you, and informing them that someone will get in touch with them shortly.
You can also schedule your appointments to make it easier to keep your appointments. I currently use Calendly and even when a client called to book a coaching session this evening, I simply referred her to my scheduling app, so that I have everything in one place.
Your sales and accounting records can so easily be done for you by accounting apps such as Zoho, Wave or Paystack. Some software receive payments, generate receipts and invoices and even notify your customers when their bills are due for payment. This takes the burden off you and also increases accuracy (especially for those of us who do not particularly enjoy dealing with figures).
Tasks such as collecting data from your clients can also be automated and the good thing is that the tools help you to analyze them. I can readily think of Google Doc here.
And by now, I am assuming your business, no matter how small, has a website as this is no longer negotiable. Please contact me at pezusmithconsulting@gmail.com or nancy@nancyekpezu.com if you need my organisation to build a really cute, handy and very pocket-friendly website for your business.
And what about all the changes you can bring to how you organize your meetings? Have you considered Zoom, Google Hangout or Slack? You do not need to have physical meetings anymore even when the pandemic is over.
Are you still thinking you do not need to automate your small business or step up on technology? Let me hear your thoughts on this.
Nancy Ekpezu is a professional administrator and life coach. She works as the lead Consultant and Trainer at Pezu Smith Consulting, and may be contacted at www.nancyekpezu.com or +234-803-5880-367.