How to Automate Your Small Business

The logistics of running a small business can eat up a lot of your time. Seemingly simple tasks, like tracking mileage and invoicing, can often keep you working late into the night and on weekends. That’s time you could be spending focusing on your clients or customers, being with your family, or just taking a break.

If you find yourself in this boat, don’t fret. Help is already here. A number of mundane tasks can be made simpler and easier by automating them. Here are a number of resources you can use to automate processes and save time for what you really want to be doing.

Business Travel

• Trip Planning – Make travel easier with the free Tripit You simply forward email confirmations for any travel you’ve planned, and Tripit organizes it automatically and syncs it with your calendar on your smartphone or tablet. For a small annual fee, Tripit Pro adds a number of additional features to make your travel experience even better.
• Mileage Tracking – If you track mileage for your business, you might find value in MileIQ, which automatically tracks your mileage on any drive. To classify the drive on your smartphone, you simply swipe right for business trips and left for personal trips. Then you can print out accurate reports in a snap.

Marketing

• Social Media Posts – Consolidate your marketing efforts by using a social media scheduler to queue up posts for optimal times. Both Buffer and CoSchedule allow you to schedule social media posts, track performance, and share access with your team.
• Graphics Design – For quick and reasonably priced graphics design services, try Design Pickle, which offers you unlimited access for a flat monthly rate, or Fiverr, which offer pay-by-project services.

Employee Concerns

• Job Postings – Looking to hire employees? Get maximum exposure with ZipRecruiter, which allows you to post your job opening on more than 100 employment sites with a single click.
• Training Manuals – If all your business knowledge is now stored in your head, consider committing it to an electronic source. Trainual captures all that knowledge in one place, organizes your processes, and automates your new employee intro and training.
• Payroll – 1-800Accountant offers full-service payroll solutions using a combination of dedicated payroll specialists and automation that gives you peace of mind and frees up your time to focus on important business matters.

Keeping the Books

• Invoicing and Collections – To simplify your invoicing and collections process and get paid on time, try 1-800Accountant’s bookkeeping services.
• Accounting – 1-800Accountant is changing the way businesses connect with their accounting and taxes. Through the use of an innovative and easy-to-use technology platform that combines proactive, year-round advice and planning from a team of accounting professionals, 1-800Accountant delivers accounting services both seamlessly and more affordably than ever before. Schedule a consultation today with a 1-800Accountant Specialist.