TLDR: This is the fourth and final part of a series of articles. Moving from outsourcing manual work to automating it. Check out part 1 here. I go into more detail on the maths below.
A lot of service-based business owners haven’t calculated what their time actually costs. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.
In this series. I discuss a real-world example of two co-founders managing a remote team.
The goal was to take a lot of tasks off their plate.
It did, but they still spent a lot of time managing the remote staff.
It was at least 5 hours a week. At a conservative hourly rate, that’s not only lost time every year. It costs their business £39.000 year per founder.
And that’s on top of the costs of paying the outsourcing company.
What’s the solution?
AI-Driven automation.
But how do you get up and running?
A Quick Self-Audit
This is a framework I’ve developed over a decade of working with business leaders. Trying to figure out where to focus resources so that software and automation can take over.
I won’t go into massive detail in this article. If you’d like to learn more about my 2 frameworks. Check out this short video course: What To Automate First (Or Next) Inside Your Business.
Here’s a simple 4-step framework.
Step 1: List every repeatable task your team does each week. Same steps every time.
Don’t forget to include what you do as well. Are you spending 3 evenings a week reviewing documents or creating a report? If so, include them.
Step 2: Estimate the total hours per week that all these tasks take.
Including your time to brief, review, and quality-check.
What if your team is always asking questions or needing your time?
Make sure you factor it in.
Step 3: Multiply by your hourly value. As well as work out an hourly rate for your entire team.
Be honest.
Don’t under-value both you and your team’s time.
Now work out what the monetary value of all this time is for yourself each week.
Then do the same for your team.
These tasks will be costing you far more than you think.
Step 4: Ask — if those tasks ran themselves, what would I/we do with that time?
For you, would it mean more strategy, project work? Or building relationships with new and existing clients.
Will it allow your team to serve your clients to an ever-increasing higher standard?
Can you all leave the office at 5 PM, like you’re supposed to?
Most founders who do this exercise come out with a number that surprises them.
Not because the tasks are expensive — but because there are so many of them, and they never stop.
What an Automation Audit Actually Looks Like
Now you’ve got this list. The manual work you and your team are doing.
And an idea of what tasks are costing you both in time and money.
Here’s what the next steps could be.
Discovery Call
We tend to have a 30-minute discovery call with business owners who are looking into AI and automation.
It’s free, I ask about your business — what you do, who does what, where the friction is
Then see if we would be a good fit to work together.
I’ll be honest with you, I want to become the automation/technology partner for businesses. So we can work together long term.
Automation Health Check – An Audit
If we are a good fit. The next step is to book an Automation Health Check.
It’s a 1-hour call, conducted online. Together, we map 2–3 areas where automation would make an immediate difference.
We ask you to complete a pre-call questionnaire. The call is also recorded and transcribed.
After the call, we will create what I call an Automation Opportunities Report. We document between 3 and 12 smaller automation projects. Each one can be delivered on its own, but they can stack on top of each other.
The report will recommend which 3 to focus on first, and that the delivery time would take around 90-days. As well as the costs and the ROI that you’ll get.
Who This Is Right For
So, how do you know if this is right for you?
If:
Your business turns over £500K or more.
You have a team handling repeatable operational tasks.
You’re spending more than 3 hours a week reviewing or managing that manual work.
You’ve thought about automation before, but never known where to start.
Then we can certainly help.
A lot of businesses we are working with also have a lot of SOPs and documentation in place.
This makes the whole process easier.
If you’ve already put these in place, you’ve already done a lot of the grunt work.
The Guarantee: Manual Work To Automated Processes
If we chat about your business in that 30-minute call, and I can’t identify at least 3 workflows worth automating. I’ll tell you that.
No charge, no follow-up, no awkwardness.
I’ve been building automation since 2007. From early-stage fast-growing businesses to larger corporations.
I know what’s worth automating and what isn’t.
I’ll tell you either way.
Conclusion: Automating Manual Work
Is your team doing work that a system should be doing?
Are you working 60+ hours a week?
More hours now, you’ve got a team and a thriving business.
And it’s more hours than when you first started, which is crazy if you think about it.
It’s not your fault. We’re sold that hustle culture and grinding is the only way to succeed.
You’ve built something impressive, an amazing business. No one has given you any credit for it.
A business built on your blood, sweat and tears. Now it’s time to get the business to work for you (not the other way round).
If you are interested in seeing how automation can help save you time and money. You can book a discovery call here. It doesn’t cost anything.
Thanks for reading.
