How to choose your first automation project

Once a business owner accepts that automation is worth doing, the next instinct is usually to try to fix everything at once. That's understandable, and it's almost always the wrong move. The businesses that get real value out of automation tend to start with one project, learn from it, and expand from there. Not the other way around.

Prioritize by pattern, not by ambition

It's tempting to start with whatever feels most impressive to fix. A better filter is much less exciting: how often does this happen, and how identical are the steps every time? A task you do fifteen times a week, the exact same way, beats a task you do twice a month with three special cases. Even if the second one sounds more interesting to solve.

A simple test

Try writing out the steps of the process as a numbered list. If you can do it without a single "it depends" or "well, usually, but sometimes," that's a strong candidate. If almost every step has an exception, either the process needs to be simplified first, or it's not the right place to start.

Time cost matters more than how it feels

The task that quietly eats the most hours across a week is usually not the one that feels the most urgent, urgent problems get attention by definition. Look for the process that's easy to ignore precisely because everyone's already used to doing it manually.

Start narrow, on purpose

Automating one process well, end to end, with the edge cases actually handled. Teaches you far more than automating five processes halfway. That first project also tends to reveal things about how your business actually runs that inform everything you automate afterward.

Keep reading

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• Small business consulting in Massachusetts