Automation is often mistakenly viewed as something that only larger companies can do at a big enough scale to make a difference. This, however, could not be further from the truth. Small businesses can win big with automation, and even small things can have an outsized impact. Productivity is about many small things done efficiently every day, adding up to significant time and even cost savings. With that in mind, below are three automation tips small businesses can start implementing today. 

Excel

Since almost every small business uses Excel in some capacity, learning the basics of this almost unfathomably large and capable program is a must if you are serious about automating. There are myriad tips and tricks you can make use of in Excel that help expedite tedious and time-consuming processes and free up more of your time for meaningful, big picture tasks. Things as simple as changing uppercase to lowercase letters, creating barcodes and date auto-fills can add up to significant time savings over time. 

Email 

One of the most underappreciated features of Gmail is the “schedule send” option which allows you to set up emails to be sent at future dates and times of your choosing. This is a particularly useful tool that small business owners can use to get next week’s emails ready the previous Friday or even on the weekend, taking some of Monday morning tedium off your plate.

If you know you are going to have to spend an hour first thing Monday replying to emails you received the previous week, setting them up on Friday afternoon to send Monday can be a big help. Just click on the arrow beside the “send” button, select the date and time on the popup calendar, and hit “schedule send.” You can alter and edit any emails scheduled to be sent any time before the date. 

Social Media 

If you are trying to grow your business using social media, the key is a regular and consistent posting schedule that makes sure your audience is always supplied with new content and material. It can, however, be difficult to make time for all of this regular posting, which may end up falling by the wayside. There is a wide range of social media management tools on the market, including ones with both free and paid versions, to help you better automate your content schedules. You can create and schedule your social media posts for the week or month and let the tool take care of the publishing. 

Conclusion

You don’t need a massive budget and immensely complex operations in order to take advantage of the productivity-boosting effects of simple automation. There are straightforward tips and tricks you can put into place today to save you time and take some of the more tedious tasks off your hands. The common tools you use to run your small business have spectacular automation potential if you know how to use them right. Keep the above automation tips in mind and make sure you spend your time on the highest impact tasks.