How to Free Up 10+ Hours a Week by Automating Your Business
- hello00927
- Jul 10
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 18
If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve wished for a few extra hours in the day. The good news is that you might not need more time - just smarter ways to use the time you have. You don’t need to be a tech expert to automate your small business - there are plenty of user-friendly business automation tools designed for solo entrepreneurs and small teams. These can take care of the repetitive jobs and let you focus on the work that actually grows your business.
To help get you started, here are some ideas of everyday tasks that you could be automating, plus some suggestions for business automation tools.
Automate these areas of your small business today
1. Admin & project management
Many small businesses spend too much time on repetitive admin tasks that can be automated.
Examples of tasks to automate:
Automatically creating and assigning tasks when a client submits a form or makes a request.
Sending reminders for upcoming deadlines or meetings.
Creating recurring tasks in your to-do list, such as weekly reporting or monthly invoicing.
Automating approval workflows, for example, routing documents to the right person for sign-off.
Tools & features: Platforms like Asana or Trello can send automatic notifications when tasks are due or move stages. Integration tools like Zapier or Make can connect your apps-for instance, automatically creating a Trello card from an email or sending Slack alerts when a form is submitted.
2. Finances and bookkeeping
Finance admin is one of many headaches for small business owners. Here are some of the repetitive tasks that could be automated:
Generating and sending invoices automatically when a project milestone is reached.
Importing bank transactions and categorising expenses without manual input.
Sending payment reminders to clients for overdue invoices.
Automating payroll calculations, tax deductions, and payslip distribution.
Tools & features: QuickBooks and Expensify can handle your expenses and automate your invoices each month. Payroll platforms like Gusto or BambooHR take care of salaries and tax filings automatically, reducing human error and saving you time.
3. Marketing & client communication
Great marketing means staying in regular contact with your network to keep you top-of-mind, but this can be time-consuming. Marketing automation helps you keep your contacts engaged without lifting a finger every time.
Examples of tasks to automate:
Sending welcome emails to new subscribers or clients.
Running drip email campaigns to nurture leads over time.
Sending reminder emails to people who abandoned their purchase halfway through.
Scheduling social media posts across multiple platforms in advance.
Tools & features: Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Klaviyo offer email sequences and customer segmentation to send personalised messages. Tools like Buffer or Hootsuite can help with social media scheduling, ensuring that you’re posting consistently without daily effort.
4. CRM & Lead Management
Keeping track of leads and client communication is super important. However, it can get overwhelming as your business grows and it becomes easy for things to slip through the cracks.
Business automation can help by:
Automatically adding new leads from website forms or Facebook ads into your CRM.
Assigning scores to leads based on their likelihood to convert, allowing you to jump straight into closing deals.
Sending follow-up emails to prospects after a sales call.
Moving deals through pipeline stages automatically when certain actions happen.
Tools & features: CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho have built-in automation for lead capture, segmentation, and follow-ups, helping you stay on top of every opportunity without manual tracking.
5. Team management
Consider implementing new tools that can automate your HR and team processes such as:
Automating holiday requests and approvals.
Scheduling performance review reminders and collecting feedback automatically.
Tools & features: BambooHR and Zenefits automate employee onboarding, time-off management, and performance reviews, allowing you to manage your team well but without the admin burden.
How a Virtual Assistant can help you automate your business
If you know that it’s time to automate your small business but you’re not sure where to begin, let me help. I can audit your current processes and highlight where automation could save you the most time. Then I’ll research the best business automation tools within your budget, set them up and create efficient processes.
As a Virtual Assistant, I’ve helped many small business owners streamline their business operations, freeing them up to focus on growth, client relationships, or simply take some well-deserved time off. If you’d like to chat about how automation could work for you, just get in touch.
Even automating a few tasks with the right business automation tools can save you hours every week. Let me help you work smarter, not harder!
Not Sure What to Automate First?
If you’re not sure where your time is really going - or which tasks are slowing you down - start with my Time Drain Audit. It’s a free, fillable checklist that helps you figure out what’s eating into your week, what it’s costing you, and what to stop doing first. It takes less than 10 minutes and gives you instant clarity on where to go next — whether that’s automation, support, or simply doing less.
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