Runningg a business is expensive. Rent, equipment, monthly overheads, marketing, retirement plans, even staff birthdays… the costs truly do add up. In a world where many are walking fine lines between profit and cost bases on a monthly base, it can be difficult to say yes to new costs, even those that stand to add monumentally to your business and actually, could increase your profit whilst lowering your overheads. It sounds crazy when you look at it from a long-term perspective, but the irony of automation for many small business owners is that they feel they can’t afford to invest into the development of it – when in reality, they can’t afford not to.

Automation is rarely free. On top of regular subscriptions to automated services, such as CRMs, it can also be expensive to develop and implement in the first place. These costs can put astute business owners off, as they mentally juggle an unknown outcome with a very real upfront investment. Implicated in...

Sometimes, automation gets the short end of the stick. When misinterpreted, people speak of automation with fear – as something negative that will play a part in disrupting economies through the reduction of jobs available for a human workforce. However, this is a short-sighted approach to automation. In fact, when automation is used well, it’s far less about replacing people, and much more about empowering them – removing repetitive manual tasks and allowing them to focus on their core role and on their clients with a refined understanding of their strengths and abilities.

When automation is embraced in a workplace or business, it can significantly increase productivity and profitability.CLICK TO TWEET

Automation can be implemented on scales large and small, but every layer of automation that’s added in a way that complements your business will bring with it marked changes and improvements in the way your team operates.

Beginning to understand how...

For many, the 9-5 work day doesn’t look quite the same as it did for generations past. While many of us still face the dreaded commute in and out of the office each day, a growing amount of us are now working in flexible arrangements. Working from home, working in the office part-time, or working from cafes all around the world – the way we work is changing as technology continues to advance, bringing with it many benefits in cost savings and lifestyle changes for employers and employees alike.

However, there are some down sides to face when you’ve got a team working remotely. For many businesses, brainstorming and creative collaboration are crucial in order to achieve maximum output and results. When you’ve got staff members sitting at desks in offices all over the area, and sometimes the world, it takes more intentionality to achieve this same result.

Video call apps let your remote team members connect in a real time, personal setting.CLICK TO TWEET

Video...

Many advances in the online world can be defined by a desire to replace analog systems with instantaneous and improved solutions. Physical mail = email. Filing cabinets overflowing with documents = cloud-based storage optimised for sharing across multiple users. Old-school telephone calls = VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) solutions.  VOIP alternatives were absent for a long time.

When VOIP was first introduced, it was a revolution. Removing the need for copper-and-wires telephone systems, VOIP allowed for phone calls to be placed and received to and from any number via handsets and numbers connected to the internet. This offered businesses and individuals a cost savings opportunity, as VOIP service providers offered lower rates than standard traditional call rates. This was particularly attractive to companies who relied on consistent and affordable phone calls as an integral part of their business model.

However, as time has progressed, telephone services have continued to...

The way we connect and interact with our customers and clients, both potential and existing, continues to undergo radical changes as social media platforms shape consumer habits on many levels. Brand trust and integrity has extended beyond the ‘four wall’ experience, and now our ability to build ongoing relationships with our customers requires a deeper understanding of their interaction with the online world than ever before. 

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn now offer businesses the ability to curate their customer’s impressions and experience with their brand and product in an online capacity. Many businesses desire for this level of customer engagement to become a subconscious behaviour, by inserting themselves into social feeds alongside images and words shared by friends and family. When harnessed correctly, social media platforms bring huge opportunities to ground and further customer relationships – but...

Owning and maintaining an effective small business comes with many challenges. Small business owners are faced with the non-stop juggle of workload, staffing, cashflow, market conditions and competitor pressures. Although being a small business owner can be highly rewarding, finding creative solutions to the balancing act of these areas, and more, is paramount to success.

Automation offers small businesses many benefits, including the ability to alleviate manual workloads and ensure teams can remain focused on the core outputs required to achieve success. As any business owner knows, consistently delivering powerful marketing messages to your target markets is a critical element of engaging existing clients and introducing yourself to new prospects.

Marketing automation creates the power to streamline customer communications, achieved through replacing repetitive manual tasks with automated workflows. For example, instead of manually sending a potential lead follow-up messages a...

In our current age of online communication, it’s hard to believe that people around the world used to wait patiently by the fax machine as they received important documents, watching faxes print line by noisy line. There were no better alternatives to fax then. Now most of us are used to the immediacy of files shared by email or delivered via the cloud – the thought of a physical experience transmitting data to a clunky machine on the other end is a distant memory. However, for a number of small and medium business enterprises, the simple fax machine remains a party of daily business function. Although we’d like to believe the fax machine is dead with its golden days long behind it, the functionality it provides is still viewed by many as integral.

Here’s the good news: there are faster and smoother alternatives to fax that will positively contribute to your daily workflows. A variety of simple solutions gives you the opportunity to turn that old fax machine...

Imagine if a technology existed that could read your email for you, and use that data to trigger a workflow, or automate something. The good news is that it already exists, and has for some time. It’s called an email parser. The bad news is that it is at best kind-of helpful, and at worst, wildly inaccurate.

Although email is rapidly becoming an outdated tool, it is still widely used and email parsing does have a place in the automation toolbox.

WHAT ARE EMAIL PARSERS?

The way email parsers work is that they use the structure of an email (usually text or HTML) to look for matches to pre-defined fields. The two email parsers I would usually recommend are Zapier Email Parser, and Mailparser.

So, using the Zapier parser as an example, you set up a template by highlighting and naming the data that you want to look for in the email. Then, by some dark magic (actually, some code) the email parser will return the data it has found in usable format (e.g. for...

THE FUTURE OF WORK AND AUTOMATION

As automation and artificial intelligence technologies improve, many people worry about the future of work. If millions of human workers no longer have jobs, the worriers ask, what will people do, how will they provide for themselves and their families, and what changes might occur (or be needed) in order for society to adjust?

Many economists say there is no need to worry. They point to how past major transformations in work tasks and labor markets – specifically the Industrial Revolution during the 18th and 19th centuries – did not lead to major social upheaval or widespread suffering. These economists say that when technology destroys jobs, people find other jobs. As one economist argued:

“Since the dawn of the industrial age, a recurrent fear has been that technological change will spawn mass unemployment. Neoclassical economists predicted that this would not happen, because people would find...