What should you automate first in a small business?

A practical way to find the work worth removing before you buy another tool.

The first thing to automate is rarely the biggest process in the company. It is the repeatable one with a clear trigger, a clear finish and very few decisions in the middle.

Start with time, frequency and clarity

Write down the tasks that interrupt your week. Estimate how often they happen and how many minutes each one takes. Then separate rules from judgement. A system is a good first candidate when the rules are stable and the exceptions are easy to spot.

Automate the work with no decision in it before you automate the work that makes the business special.

Make the first system boring

A useful automation is observable, reversible and owned by the business. It logs what happened, sends uncertain cases to a person and can be paused without bringing the company down.