Creating a business that can run itself is the dream of most business owners. While a good business leader should always stay involved, they should also have the freedom to take a break when they want to. Being able to put your business on autopilot could give you more time to spend with family, go on vacations, recover from sickness or simply dedicate more time to the growth of your business without having to worry about day-to-day admin. Below are just a few tips for putting a business on autopilot.
Empower Your Employees
Empowering employees involves trusting them with tasks and decisions that you would normally handle. Building this trust involves hiring the right people, training them well and providing them with the tools they need to work independently. You may be able to train various employees to cover various jobs for you while you’re absent or you may be able to train up one employee to be a stand-in manager when you’re away. Writing up a handbook could also help.
Outsource Your Admin
Outsourcing admin tasks could be another way to put your business on autopilot if you don’t have employees or need specialist tasks taken care of. You could use the like of Solution Scout to look for virtual accounting services so that you don’t have to handle bookkeeping. You may also be able to outsource third-party services to update social media, answer phone calls and even answer emails for you.
Embrace Automation
There are some tasks that can be automated using software or machinery. This could be another way of enabling your business to run itself. For instance, it’s possible to automate many financial tasks such as calculating tax, paying employees, paying suppliers and sending out customer bills. You may also be able to queue up tasks using automation such as queuing up social media posts and emails to be automatically sent out while you’re away.
Find Ways to Generate a Passive Income
A passive income is a way of generating revenue without having to continuously work for it. If your business regularly experiences dry periods of no work, it can be useful to set up a passive income to support you through these dry periods. This could involve investing money into peer-to-peer lending or stocks, making money through royalties, making money through ad revenue, setting up subscription plans or encouraging installment plans (this could allow you to receive regular small payments instead of one-off large sums). You can discover more passive income ideas here at Entrepreneur.
Invest in Backup Solutions
When something important fails, it can be useful to have a backup solution to fall back on. This reduces the need for you to intervene immediately during an emergency while also reducing periods of downtime. An example could include installing an on-site backup generator to keep electricity running during a power cut or having a spare computer that employees in the office can use if one breaks. By informing your employees about these backup solutions, you can prevent them having to call upon you in an emergency.