First Turn Operations

Today in "What I'm stewing about while doing farm work":

Why ChatGPT is hella cool but it's still not going to replace an experienced, operations-minded automation builder for your business...

What the baby ducks and I think about business today…

Or

…why you need to think about flexibility when building automations even though that sounds super counterintuitive

Business owners are often given the advice to "hire, hire, hire!" as one of the first things to do as you scale. Here's some ramblings on why I don't always agree with that and why automation can be such a great interim step.

No-code and low-code tools are SO powerful and SO accessible these days that business owners can save a lot of money and a lot of heartache by looking to automate before looking to hire.

The added advantage is that when it comes time to hire (which it will because people like to do business with people and not with robots) your role will be better defined, contain less nonsense, and allow your new team member to focus on their best work and not mindless button-pushing and data entry.

One of the common objections I hear from people about automation - especially in a coaching, consulting, or service-based businesses - is worry they'll lose that personal touch and everyone will think their business is made up of scary, SkyNet-style robots coming to take over the world.

(Ok, not the second part... that's just hyperbole...But totally the first part.)

And this isn't entirely false. Poorly done automation can really take your brand down a notch.

Here's my soapbox about three considerations for designing an automation that feels personal.

1. Use tactically-sound automations that feel as un-automated as possible.

2. Place your automations correctly operationally so you get the maximum benefit and the lowest "risk". Automation is NOT all or nothing (but that's a whole other soapbox...)

3. Strategically, you need to be running a business where people already feel seen and heard. Automation enhances what they already expect of you.