Tools and Automation

4 Signs You Need Automation in Your Solo Business

When tasks feel out of control.

Anna Burgess Yang

18 Dec 2025 — 5 min read

Image created via Midjourney

I first started automating work when I was a product manager at a small software company. I was overwhelmed by the number of tasks I had to complete and thought, "There has to be an easier way to do this."

Turns out, there was. I taught myself how to use an automation tool (Zapier [affiliate link*]). The more I learned, the more I automated. It freed up so much time in my day.

Fast forward about ten years, and automation keeps my solo business running smoothly. When I started my solo business years ago, automation was one of the first things I added to my solopreneur tech stack. I knew that by automating repetitive tasks, I could spend more time on client work.

If you're feeling overwhelmed, always behind, or like your business is running you, you likely need solo business automation. Here are some of the clearest signs and examples.

You have a lot of manual tasks

Most solopreneurs don't realize how many tiny tasks they complete every week. Preparing invoices. Scheduling social media posts. Adding people to a CRM. Uploading documents to client folders.

None of these tasks feels heavy on its own. They only take a few minutes here and there. But add them up over the course of a week (or a month) and they end up taking precious hours away from you.

If you're repeating the same actions over and over, you have a manual workflow problem. Repetitive tasks are exactly what automation is designed for. They're consistent, predictable, and don't require your creativity or strategic brainpower.

You have fragmented systems

I'm a big advocate for choosing the best app or tool for the job, versus picking an all-in-one tool. So you might choose one tool to collect signatures on your contracts, another to send invoices, and another to schedule meetings.

But now you've got a bunch of separate tools that don't automatically work together.

Fragmented systems create duplicate work because you’re manually moving data around, like copying emails into your CRM, updating spreadsheets, or creating tasks after someone buys a product. You risk things falling through the cracks or mistakes because you rely on memory instead of reliable workflows.

Some tools have direct integration. Within the tool itself, you can connect to other tools. For example, Kit connects to Gumroad, Teachable, Stripe, and other platforms — passing information back and forth automatically.

If a tool doesn't have direct integration with another tool you use, Zapier can make the connection. It follows consistent patterns, like "If Action A happens in Tool A, then perform Action B in Tool B."

You shouldn't be the human bridge between your tools.

Your onboarding process has a lot of steps

Write down every single step of your client onboarding. How many do you have?

For me, I have to:

Add the client and primary contact to my Airtable [affiliate link*] database
Add the client to Quickbooks
Add seven client folders to my Google Drive
Put the signed contract in a client folder
Email the client and ask for some information, like a style guide and other resources

Even with templates, onboarding can end up being a lot of clicking and a lot of chances to miss something.

Onboarding is one of the easiest things to automate. Automation tools can create folders, send emails, create task lists, or upload files to your Google Drive. With automation, you can make sure that your onboarding is always consistent.

You feel like work is out of control

When you’re constantly jumping between tools, tasks, and tabs, it’s usually a systems problem — not a you problem.

Disorganization often comes from processes that rely too heavily on your memory. If you have to remember to update a spreadsheet, or remember to add a task, or remember to send a follow-up, you’ll always feel a step behind. And as your business grows or gets more complex, the never-ending list of tasks feels almost impossible to handle.

Automation creates structure. It makes your tools "talk to each other" so you can prioritize real work instead of busywork. More than 1,000 tasks are automatically completed for me every month. It's worth paying for tools because of how much time they save me.

When the tedious parts run on their own, you free up a lot of mental energy. You finally have the headspace to think strategically instead of reacting all day long.

If everything feels chaotic, automating just a few key workflows can buy back time in your day — instantly.

Getting started with automation

If you’ve never automated anything before, it can feel intimidating. Like you need a big plan or fancy setup.

That's not the case. Yes, you need to learn how automation tools work, but many automation tasks are very straightforward.

Start small. Pick one tiny thing. Something you do all the time.

A great example: automatically creating a follow-up item in your to-do list app when someone books a meeting with you. It’s not complex, but it will save you time and prevent dropped balls.

Once you see something simple running in the background without your involvement, a lightbulb turns on. You start spotting automation opportunities everywhere.

Solo business automation isn’t about doing everything at once. It’s about business operations improvement, one workflow at a time. And the sooner you start, the sooner you get time back in your day.