I work only 20 hours per week! Because of my favourite tools for automation.​

Sometimes less.

Yup, that’s the truth  and it’s very rare that I go over that, because after burning myself out running my practice back in the day, I promised myself I would never work ridiculously long hours again.

It’s not good for me. It’s not good for my clients. It certainly wasn’t any good for that business – especially when I closed it down exhausted and sick.

So, I’ve kept that promise to myself. All these years.  But it didn’t happen without a little help along the way. Burnout, chronic illness and my love of spending time outside the office in my garden with my dogs means that my business has to be automated, I don’t have time to be creating new contracts, following up on welcome kits, or posting content ad hoc.

And you don’t either!

It doesn’t really matter if you want to work 15 hours a week or 50 (I mean, I don’t suggest the second) but the concept is the same: automate everything that can be and buy yourself some time back.

Now, when  I’m working, it’s to work on my business vs working in it.

Another very important reason my business is automated, is it allows me to have no limits on earning potential.

When you are automated, you can sell your products and services on an evergreen basis instead of  having to show up and constantly be available to do the selling. It’s a pretty great feeling waking up in the morning to see that you’ve made sales and helped clients and customers from all over the world.

Automation doesn’t have to be hard, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on it, and you don’t need an entire IT department to help set up a custom website for you.

So what are my favourite automation solutions?

Active Campaign

When I started out in online business I knew it was worth investing in the systems you use in your business, but I didn’t realise that a big price tag didn’t mean the best system. I invested in a big priced email system and it was the worst business decision, possibly still the worst to date! It was confusing and I actually had to hire someone to help me to use the whole thing..

Then I was introduced to Active Campaign, it had all the same features as a big expensive system (that shall not be named) it was just less than 1/10th of the price. Active Campaign is a game changer, you get all the best automation features, tagging, segmentation, and deliverability without having the extras added on.

Active Campaign Pricing:

Grab your 14 Days Free Trial using this link

Plans start from $15.00AUD per month including all automation, segmentation and tagging

Dubsado

Remember when  I said I don’t have time to be setting up new contracts, writing onboarding emails, and sending offboarding sequences? This is what automation does for me.

I introduced Dubsado into my business in 2018 when I decided I either needed a full-time assistant or I needed to automate. I’m pretty techy, but I didn’t know much about how Dubsado so I went looking for someone to help and that is where I came across Rae from Productive Co and there I was able to find all the lessons I need to set up and implement my Dubsado workflows and automation.

Dubsado has allowed me to automate all the pieces of client management that I would either spend 2 hours a day working on or need to hire an assistant to help me – every day. It’s been a game changer because new ideal clients onboard themselves, get all the answers they have to questions, and schedule to work with me often while I’m picking yummy veggies from my garden!

Dubsado Pricing:

Use this link to get 20% Off the First Month or Year

Monthly plan is $35.00 per month or the annual plan for $350 annually

ThriveCart

This is the best investment I’ve made in my business, even when I write this I still get excited because ThriveCart is just awesome!

ThriveCart is how I receive money! It’s more than a carting system because it allows me to create sales funnels, upsells, downsells, and subscriptions, and manage all my affiliates in one place. It’s been one of the easiest systems to set up and integrated into my business and the part I love about this the most.

It has a lifetime license available!!!!!!

That means I’ve invested in this product once about 5 years ago and I’ve never paid for another license upgrade, subscription or, well, anything. This doesn’t mean their support has disappeared, they still have super quick access to support and everytime there is a system upgrade I get the benefit of this.

ThriveCart Pricing:

Use this link to get your lifetime license for ThriveCart, I recommend the Pro Upgrade as this includes all I mentioned above.

Tailwind

Pinterest is more than a place to pin your dream kitchen or bathroom, although I do love to do this too!

It’s a search engine which means it’s the perfect place to be pinning your latest blogs, freebies, podcasts, IG posts, FB posts, really anything! This will then open it up to being found by your new favourite client or customer.

What put me off using Pinterest in my business for quite some time is that it’s recommended that you pin up to 15 pins a day. I don’t know about you but I don’t have that much time each day to sit on Pinterest. This is where Tailwind has changed everything, rather than trying to pin each day we create a batch of pins and then schedule them to post, Tailwind does it all by doing all the pinning and scheduling when to pin! It’s a very simple to use interface and I love being able to upload a number of graphics at once and then schedule them separately.

Tailwind Pricing:

Sign up to the Forever Free Plan here and pin up to 20 pins per month for free

Paid plans start from just $9.99 per month for up to 100 pins

Planoly

I don’t know about you but I don’t like to post to social media directly from my phone, I want to be able to use a Desktop interface so that when I’m batch creating I can do it from the comfort of my office. Planoly also allows me to be able to visually organise my post so that I can make sure my feeds are looking swish!

One final benefit that I love about Planoly is the ability to be able to add a first comment to the schedule. What this does is allows me to add relevant hashtags without messing up the content I’ve written and making it too long to post.

Planoly Pricing:

Use this link to get 50% off your first month of Planoly.

Forever Free plan available, and paid plans start at just $7 per month

Business shouldn’t mean being tied to your laptop every hour of the day. There are veggies to grow and dogs to walk, instead (or whatever brings you joy in your day!)

So, it’s over to you. What systems do you love for automation or what’s the first thing from this list you might look at implementing? Send me a DM, I love to hear about any new systems and people doing the things!