Let's face it, business and administrative tasks are challenging to manage as a small business. These manual tasks are often highly repetitive and waste valuable time, which you would much rather apply to client acquisition and building your business.

Yet, complex tasks and administrative duties are necessary costs of doing business, whether it's client follow-ups or accounts receivables. So, you can't ignore them, but there is a solution: automation.

Task automation ensures a smooth flow of operations without any additional effort on your part. It's a set-it-and-forget-it approach that helps small businesses like yours experience real growth. 

Are you ready to automate more parts of your business? Here are six tasks you can automate to refocus yourself on what you do best — serve clients.

6 administrative tasks every small business should automate

1. New client intake and client management

For most professionals, client intake is a lengthy but necessary process. It usually starts with data entry and a client intake form that collects all the relevant details you need before an initial consultation. You diligently collect these and then spend countless hours manually updating Excel files or sales trackers. Or, worse, you keep them in a physical file folder.

With B12, you can quickly generate branded intake forms for your website to collect all the information you need. Once completed, intake forms feed into the contact manager (and your professional email) so you can easily keep up with new leads. Stored centrally through the contact manager, it makes it easy to quickly scan submissions and take the appropriate steps to land them as a client.

With the completed forms, you can start providing services sooner without needing follow-up clarification emails or phone calls. It's a win-win for everyone.

2. Invoicing and reminders

Talk to any service provider, and you'll hear similar complaints about the invoicing process. Of course, you need to get paid for your services, but does it always have to involve chasing down payments? Do you always have to struggle with cash flow because of a delayed invoicing process? No, there are simple ways to tackle this issue.

For many, even the simple task of invoice creation holds up payments, especially if you or a team member are tasked with this on top of all your other work. You’re not the only one who doesn't have the resources necessary to keep up with account receivables.

Like intake forms, B12 offers powerful automated invoicing, including creation, sending, and follow-ups. You can create and customize invoices in seconds that automatically match your branding for a consistent experience. 

Then, we make it easy to follow up on overdue payments with helpful time-saving features like automatic payment reminders and past-due balances on new invoices. Start using automated tasks to reduce time spent tracking down late payments while improving turnaround times and increasing cash flow.

3. Review and referral requests

A whopping 93% of customers read reviews online before making a purchasing decision. This means soliciting online reviews needs to be a foundational part of your digital marketing strategy. 

But asking for reviews can be uncomfortable or intimidating. And sometimes, you simply forget to ask. That’s why you need an easy process for review requests, like scheduling an automated email to clients after a designated period of time, asking them for a review. Automating review requests ensures only have to draft the email once and you never forget to send it.

The same goes for referrals. As detailed by AnnexCloud, referrals have a 37% higher retention rate than other clients and are 18% more loyal to your business. Yet, manually managing a referral program among existing clients is a nightmare. Use a program that allows you to create unique links for your clients, then keep track of how many referrals each client brings in.

4. Capturing new leads

Part of the ongoing sales process for any service provider is to capture new leads and then follow up. And just like invoicing and referrals, there’s a way to automate a significant part of that process.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software has been around for years and comes in many shapes and sizes. The ultimate goal of these solutions is to save time and easily automate the most routine aspects of that process.

B12 integrates CRM capabilities into your website to automate new lead capture and contact management. Any website inquiry from a pop-up or intake form automatically gets logged in the contact manager. 

You can also set automated workflows for lead prospects through the conversion funnel, like scheduling a consultation, submitting a form, or making a purchase. Need to check on past interactions? See your client interaction history in the B12 contact manager.

5. Client emails

Despite being the default communication channel for client interactions, email routinely takes up too much time for business owners. In fact, 28% of work time is spent on email. But what if there were certain emails that you could take off your plate?

If you look at the types of emails you frequently send, chances are many of these are repetitive. For example, as each prospect moves through your sales funnel, you always send a welcome email and later, a follow-up. When clients schedule meetings or make a payment, you also send confirmation emails and reminders. 

These are all boilerplate emails and there’s no need to do them manually.

B12 not only centralizes your client communications in one location, but it also helps you automate tasks like appointment notifications, payment reminders, form submission confirmations, and signed contract copies. Imagine how much time you'd save every day if you weren't bogged down by these repetitive emails. 

6. Online scheduling and availability

Online scheduling is a tool that many clients appreciate and have come to expect it when they book a service. As a business owner, online booking removes a significant barrier to entry and also ensures you don't waste any time emailing back and forth on availability.

An online scheduling tool like B12 eliminates all kinds of scheduling headaches for both business owners and prospects. You set your availability, then clients book accordingly.

B12 scheduling makes it easy for clients to reschedule or cancel without taking up your time to do so. You'll receive an instant notification with any schedule updates, plus have a centralized space to review your daily meetings, all tagged with the necessary client information.

Grow your small business with task automation tools

If you sat down to consider how much time you spend scheduling client appointments, following up on invoices, and onboarding new clients, the result would probably surprise you.

Especially if you run your business alone or with a small team, the power of automation means you can eliminate or delegate many of these routine tasks to get them off your plate. From collecting client data to sending invoices, AI handles repetitive tasks faster, more consistently, and more affordably than people can.

With B12 on your side, you no longer have to sacrifice yourself to the daily grind of invoice reminders and client follow-ups. Instead, you'll have time for higher-value work that benefits your clients and helps scale your firm.

Learn more about launching an online presence with B12, full of powerful automations and client workflows. Or, get started launching your site by seeing a free preview in only 60 seconds.