12 Tasks Every Small Business Should Automate
12 tasks every small business should automate
Running a small business often means doing everything yourself - from sales and marketing to customer service, admin, and everything in between. The problem? A lot of these day-to-day tasks are repetitive, time-consuming, and frankly, not the best use of your time.
That's where automation comes in.
With the right tools, you can automate some of the most laborious tasks, saving you hours of time each week - without losing the personal touch that makes small businesses special.
Here are 12 everyday tasks that all small businesses should automate, with tips and tools to help make it happen!
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1. Capturing meeting notes
One of the first tasks every small business should automate is taking meeting notes. Gone are the days of having to manually scribble down minutes - nowadays, AI transcription tools like Transcribe do it for you automatically.
Just upload a recording or connect it to your meetings, and Transcribe delivers an accurate meeting transcript within minutes. You can then edit, summarize, search, and share the notes - saving hours every week and making sure nothing gets missed.
Check out our guide on how to automate transcription for more information.
2. Summarizing long documents
From white papers and research reports to client proposals and contracts, you don't always have time to read long-form content from start to finish. Tools like ChatGPT can help to summarize lengthy documents and pull out key points in whatever format you prefer.
Paste in the text or upload a file, give the tool a few instructions, and voilà - hours of reading time saved in seconds.
3. Sending follow-up emails
Following up after meetings, sales calls, or customer enquiries is crucial, but when you're busy running a small business, it's easy to fall behind. Tools like HubSpot help by automating follow-ups based on triggers like meeting completions, new leads, or customer actions.
Instead of manually following up each time - whether that's with a thank you, to share next steps, or to re-engage a potential customer - you can set up workflows that send timely, personalized emails automatically, without you having to think about it.
4. Answering customer messages
Faster responses = happier customers, but without a dedicated customer support team, customers can end up waiting ages for answers to their questions. AI-powered chatbots like Tidio help you automate replies to FAQs. This means you can provide instant support and keep leads engaged - even when you're off the clock. This automation shrinks your to-do list and means you only need to step in for the more complicated queries.
5. Scheduling social content
Posting consistently on social media is key, but doing it manually can take up a lot of time and require you to work at all sorts of undesirable hours. Scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite allow you to queue up social posts across platforms ahead of time - and some even suggest the best times to post. Once your content is loaded, it's published automatically, so you don't have to think about it anymore.
6. Copy-pasting between tools
Wasting hours of time each week manually moving data from one tool to another? Automation platforms like Zapier sync your apps together, automatically transferring information between them. Example automation include:
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Sending new form submissions to Google Sheets
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Adding new leads from Facebook Ads to your CRM
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Creating tasks in Trello or Asana from customer emails
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Updating customer information between apps
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Exporting meeting transcripts into project folders
No more juggling tabs. No more copy-pasting.
Discover more of the best workflow automation apps to transform how you work.
7. Saving email attachments
If you're constantly digging through emails to find invoices, contracts, or project files, you're not alone - it's one of the most common time-wasting admin tasks for small businesses. But with automation tools like Zapier, you can set up simple workflows that automatically save attachments from specific emails straight into organized folders in Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
For example, every time a supplier sends you an invoice, it can be automatically saved to your "Invoices" folder. The same goes for contracts, receipts, or client files. That means you no longer have to open the email, download the file, and move it manually.
8. Scheduling appointments and meetings
Whether you're booking client appointments or setting up meetings with prospects and partners, scheduling is one of those tasks that often results in endless email back-and-forth. Tools like Calendly automate this for you.
Simply share your booking link, and customers or contacts can pick a slot based on your availability. The system automatically adds it to your calendar, sends confirmations and reminder emails, and even handles rescheduling!
9. Invoicing
As your small business grows, staying on top of invoicing can become challenging. Instead of manually creating and sending each invoice one by one, accounting tools like QuickBooks and Xero automate the process.
You can set up templates and rules so that invoices are generated and sent automatically. These tools also track payments, send gentle reminders for overdue invoices, and update your books - all without you having to lift a finger.
10. Qualifying leads
Sorting through new leads manually - checking their form responses, website activity, or email engagement - can quickly eat up hours. AI-powered tools like HubSpot or Tidio automate this process behind the scenes.
When someone interacts with your business, these tools automatically assess how qualified they are based on rules you set. For example, they might score a lead as "hot" if they booked a demo, or mark them as "cold" if they just downloaded a free guide. This means the most promising leads are automatically flagged, prioritized, and even routed into the right workflows, saving you from sifting through every new contact one by one.
11. Collecting customer feedback
Customer feedback is gold. But manually asking for it? Not so much. Chasing survey responses after every sale or project can feel awkward and time-consuming, which is why it often gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.
With automation tools like Typeform or SurveyMonkey, you can automatically send short, friendly surveys at the right moment. Once set up, the surveys go out automatically, collect responses, and organize the results for you so that you can put the feedback into practice.
12. Analyzing business data
Digging through spreadsheets and reports can be tedious at best, overwhelming at worst. That's where AI-powered dashboards come in. Tools like Polymer can automatically turn raw data (from sales, marketing, customer feedback, or website analytics) into easy-to-read charts and insights. Once connected, these tools update automatically, highlight trends, and spot unusual patterns - so you can make smarter, faster decisions.
Ready to automate your small business?
With today's AI-powered automation tools, it's easier than ever to streamline everyday tasks and free up your time to focus on growing your business. For more practical ways to simplify your workflows and boost productivity, check out our guides on how AI can help your startup succeed and the best AI tools for small businesses.