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EP 06AI
Which Parts of Your Business Are Actually Worth Automating?
Hosted by Kevin Kasaei
In this episode
Not every task is worth automating. Here’s how to find the ones that pay off, and skip the ones that quietly cost you more.
Kevin walks through how to list every repeat task in a business, score each one on time, cost and risk, and pick the two or three worth handing to software first. The rest stay with people, on purpose.
What to measure
- Hours
- Time the task takes each week, across everyone who does it.
- Errors
- What one mistake costs when the task goes wrong.
- Payback
- Weeks until the time saved covers the setup cost.
The steps
- 01List every task your team repeats at least once a week.
- 02Score each one on hours, the cost of a mistake, and how much judgment it needs.
- 03Automate the top two, measure for a month, then pick the next.
What it costs you
- What it cost
- Setup time, a monthly subscription, and someone checking the output for the first few weeks.
- Where it falls short
- Tasks that change every week, or need a judgment call on every case, rarely pay back.
- The alternatives
- A simpler process, a checklist or a part-time hire can beat software for low-volume work.
Your turn
Block one afternoon. List the tasks, score them in the scorecard, and pick one to automate this month. Write down the hours it takes before you start, and check them again in four weeks.
On this episode
Kevin KasaeiHost
The playbook for this episode / No. 01
Decide what to automate first, and what to leave alone
Read the playbook
Free template
Automation scorecard (sheet)
A ranked list of tasks worth automating, with the payback for each.
Get the template
