Raise your hand if you have time to waste............... *crickets*

I know I don't and if you're in the process of building your business and/or blog, you absolutely don't either.  There is something that I've been doing for a while that has made life so much easier and it's also something that I recommend to business companions to start utilizing wherever possible!

Automation!

What's so great about automation?  The fact that you can invest time up front setting something up and not have to touch it again unless you're making updates or improvements later on down the line.

Here are three ways that I use automation:

1. Automatically capturing e-mail addresses into my mailing lists.

I use Mail Chimp for my e-mail marketing and I love them.  It does so much for you behind the scenes and integrates with lots of other websites.  This means, for example, when I receive a new order and the customer pays with PayPal, they are automatically added to my e-mail list.  There's nothing that I have to do other than the initial set up of linking my PayPal to Mail Chimp.  So why are these e-mail lists so important?  Because you can communicate with your customers by keeping them up-to-date with new products, promotions, events, etc. and they will possibly purchase from you again if they enjoyed their first experience buying from you.  Sometimes they just need a friendly e-mail reminder that you're still making products that they will love.  You can also send surveys to your customers to get an idea of who they are and what problems you may be able to solve for them.  You can then determine a way to help them out;  win-win for all!  If you don't have an automated mailing list, you are missing out on VALUABLE information my friend!  Stop what you're doing and sign up for a Mail Chimp account RIGHT NOW. 

2. Automatically capturing transaction details into my accounting program.

If you want to save valuable time that can be used creating your beloved products, please look into an accounting program.  If you use a web-based program, your transactions can automatically be entered into your account and into the correct tax category.  I use GoDaddy Bookkeeping and love that every transaction in my PayPal and Stripe accounts are automatically added to my financial sheets.  I can also generate a Schedule C through my account and everything is listed and ready to go for tax season!  Automated bookkeeping software is a must so that you can spend more time doing what you love rather than crunching numbers.

Bonus Tip: If you have a PayPal debit card, every transaction that you make with it will automatically appear in your GoDaddy Bookkeeping account, so you won't even have to add transactions manually when you purchase business items!

3. Automatically scheduling blog posts.

Newsflash!  If you think that bloggers are posting content onto their blogs on a whim, think again!  Scheduling your blog posts saves so much time.  There is definitely an initial investment of time, but when you're done, you're done.  For example, if you set aside two hours a week to work on your blog posts for the week, that will free up more time for you to...say...get a coffee!  Also, you will feel amazing for accomplishing such a huge task and can check it off of your to-do list like a champ!

I hope you consider using automation for your blog/business.  It is definitely a game changer in the business world, and with the laundry list of things to accomplish as a business owner or blogger, scheduling some of your tasks to happen while you're asleep is golden!

These three ways that I've shared with you aren't the only ways that I use automaton in my business.  In fact, I have created a list of 15 ways that you can utilize automation (I use about 10 of these regularly).  Click the button below to receive your FREE copy which is available in the Color Hug Freebie Collection!