Small and medium business owners are forced to work for a long period of time. Some entrepreneurs even work at weekends. To reduce emergency workloads, it is advisable to use automation of various routine processes and actions. But there are some operations that are best performed independently, so as not to encounter losses.
Features and advantages of automation
Small business often needs it, as entrepreneurs and employees often have to carry out routine and completely useless actions. The pluses include the fact that you do not have to spend a lot of time and effort on simple and routine actions that can be carried out automatically.
The freed time can be used to establish contacts with contractors, communicate with relatives or perform other important tasks that cannot be automated. Therefore, we can distinguish several business processes that should be automated.
1. Responses to emails
Each company has an e-mail, and often it receives a lot of different letters from partners, customers or just private customers. About 25% of the time a business owner spends checking email and writing responses.
At the same time, it is possible to speed up this process, for which templates are used. This is not a complete automation, but you can reduce the amount of time that you have to spend writing texts.
2. Filling Invoices
Accounting is a complex and time-consuming process. Usually, an experienced accountant is engaged in it, but often, beginning entrepreneurs simply do not have the financial capabilities to hire a specialist. Therefore, they have to independently prepare many documents, which include the same type of invoice.
For their compilation, it is desirable to use special computer programs, which allows you to change only the basic information, leaving the other information unchanged.
3. Payroll
Their compilation is a tedious job, which must be performed monthly, since every month a salary is given to the employees of the company. It is difficult to automate the preparation of payrolls if many employees in the company still receive their salaries in cash.
Therefore, it is advisable to transfer all employees to receive salaries in non-cash form. For this, banks are selected that offer optimal conditions for opening deposit and payroll cards. Under such conditions, in an automatic mode, funds will be transferred to the accounts of employees, so you do not have to deal with compiling statements.
4. Task management
About 70% of the entrepreneur’s time is spent on managing various tasks within his business. To save time and effort, it is advisable to use specialized software. With it, you can coordinate actions between different tasks, get rid of repetitive actions, and also constantly adjust the digital to-do list.
Such programs remind of certain actions that must be performed by an entrepreneur in a specific period of time. Therefore, you do not have to worry about the fact that the owner of the company for various reasons will forget about certain tasks.
5. Reports and declarations
Each businessman pays taxes on the basis of a previously selected tax system. To report to the Federal Tax Service, it is necessary to prepare and submit tax returns or other documents in a timely manner. To do this, you need to be well versed in accounting.
Even this process can be automated. The tax service offers the entrepreneur the opportunity to download special programs from the official website of the Federal Tax Service. Only information on the results of the company’s activity is entered into these programs, after which the calculations are performed automatically. Due to this software, you can significantly reduce the amount of time and effort that you have to spend on compiling official documentation.
What tasks cannot be automated?
Although automation has many advantages, there are still some actions that must be implemented personally by the entrepreneur. Otherwise, the businessman may not take into account many important points, which will lead to company losses.
1. Customer problems
Customer and customer dissatisfaction can occur at any time for various reasons. Dealing with such difficulties in automatic mode is simply impossible, so the entrepreneur must take part in this process. He must fix the problem so that the dissatisfied client does not leave a complaint on the Internet.
When solving such problems, it is important to focus on personal communication. Do not use emails or telephone messages, so it is advisable to make an appointment and change the mind of the client.
2. Adaptation of customers
New customers who are not sure of the advisability of cooperation are constantly entering the business. Therefore, it is important to use certain business processes aimed at its quick adaptation.
At the early stage of interaction, a businessman cannot rely on automation, since it is likely to lose a large client. Therefore, personal attention is required to establish a strong relationship.
3. Recognition of employees
Company employees are a valuable resource for any entrepreneur. Therefore, if a businessman wants to constantly learn about the various achievements of specialists, then he will have to deal with assessment and analysis on his own. It is impossible to automate this process, because otherwise workers begin to feel more freely, which often leads to a decrease in labor productivity.
If any specialist reaches heights in his career, then the entrepreneur should celebrate his success by giving awards or prizes.
4. Creative processes
Although automation improves productivity, it cannot replace the creative work that people do. Programs cannot reproduce the human brain, therefore, the implementation and creation of creative ideas require the involvement of experienced and talented hired professionals.
Therefore, creative jobs are still in demand and highly paid. To address important issues, the employee must have critical thinking and innovative skills.
5. Building strong relationships with colleagues and customers
This is possible only through personal communication of the entrepreneur with representatives of other companies or employees. You should not trust automation, so it is advisable to abandon the constant use of emails or other systems.
For employees, you need to use different gifts or handwritten letters of thanks. If there is any dissatisfaction on the part of customers, you need to conduct personal conversations.
Therefore, even when using modern technologies, some processes cannot be automated.
Conclusion
Automation can save time and effort of an entrepreneur, so it is advisable to implement it in the work of the company when performing some routine operations.But there are some business processes that require personal attention from a businessman.