All About Selling

Will Automation Help You Scale Your Business? Let's Find Out

Understand what is business scaling and why is it essential to your business

30/06/2023

Will Automation Help You Scale Your Business? Let's Find Out

Why is Business Scaling Essential?

Thinking about scaling your business? But aren’t sure if it is the right time?

Take a minute. Start by understanding what scaling a business really means. In simple terms, business scaling involves making revenue at a faster rate than taking new costs.

So, when is the right time for business scaling? Look for indicators that can help you identify the ideal time to scale your business. For example, you can consider business scaling when your team is unable to manage the workload generated by new business opportunities or when you have surpassed previous business goals.

Let’s consider this scenario. You have gained INR 50,000 after making an expenditure of INR 5,000 on marketing tools for a wider reach of your business. This represents the perfect example of successfully scaling your business. Scaling is not just about growth. It ensures that your business is able to adjust with changing demands and provide on time delivery in a cost -effective manner. Thus, it is essential for sellers to not merely grow their business but also scale it up at an equal pace. Here are some of the benefits of a scalable business:

It improves your efficiency and allows you to make use of minimal resources for greater outputs. In other words, it ensures that your business generates increased profits even with comparatively lower investment.
Making your business scalable ensures profitability. Since scaling involves efficient use of resources, you can enjoy lower costs while fuelling more growth.
Scalability ensures that your business is resilient to survive in the long run as it makes your business future-ready!
A scalable business is more likely to get ahead of existing competition because of better performance, delivery and meeting the customer expectations at all times.

What is Business Automation?

Business automation is the use of the right technology and tools for executing recurring tasks or processes in business. It serves as a replacement for manual labor not only saving costs and time but also ensuring greater efficiency and accuracy. For example, order management can be tremendously time-consuming. It may involve a lot of data entry. By manually handling this, you are leaving scopes for errors. However, if automation tools are used to complete the same process, it can reduce time, improve transparency and ensure more accurate data recording.

Here are few of the most common types of business automation for you to consider:

Robotic Automation: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) involves using software robots to perform any specific function. These robots can be trained using machine learning to complete high-volume, repetitive tasks like data entry, checking forms etc. at a faster pace than humans. You can use RPA for order management, packaging and communicating shipment status.
Database Automation: Robust Database Management is necessary for accurate storage, easy revival and transfer of data across departments. Database Automation helps to perform tedious tasks like replicating data, performance testing and system monitoring in reduced time and without errors. There are a number of database management tools available in the market such as Amazon RDS for MySQL – a commonly used tool. You can select the one that meets your needs and budget.
Customized Automation: You can only automate departments based on your business needs using customized automation tools. Sellers can consider automating departments like marketing, HR, accounting, warehouse management by implementing such tools. But automation comes at a cost. Therefore, you need to carefully evaluate all of the departments and recognize the ones that will add value if automatized.

Using Automation Technology for Business Scaling

Automation now finds its use in different business processes and all companies irrespective of their size and nature can use automation tools to scale because of the benefits it accrues. Similarly, if used for business scaling, automation can bring these advantages to the companies:

Lowered Costs: As mentioned, automation replaces manual labor with machines and technology tools. This in turn can reduce costs by up to 30%. In fact, research suggests that 45% of current paid activities can be automated and that can save about $2 trillion spent on total annual wages of employees.
Faster Service: Streamlining work processes by automating routine tasks can speed up delivery rates. For instance, generally responding to customer feedback or solving their query was a complicated process and would take hours. Presently with different automation tools like Chatbots, the very same task can be done in seconds. This, in turn, improves customer satisfaction and boosts productivity.
Enhanced Accuracy: Automating your quality testing and control process can reduce chances of human error and provide more accurate and standard results that too in lesser time. This allows you to meet your targets on time as well as maintain quality standards by drastically reducing error rates
Distinctive Insights: Automation, in particular, advanced analytics and machine learning (predictive analytics, website analysis, etc.) can be used to understand customer behavior, buying patterns and needs. This in turn can help you provide better products, help in target advertising, improve user experience and much more.
Increased Flexibility: Automation can make your business more flexible by ensuring that you can seamlessly scale up and down your business based on demand. This is otherwise not easily possible with traditional practices.

Using Automation Technology for Business Scaling

Despite its advantages, many challenges are associated with the adoption of business automation. SMBs often fail to successfully automate processes or departments due to various barriers. Some of these barriers include:

Identifying the right business processes/departments to automate: It is important for you to recognize which business processes or departments can be automated to drive return on investment (ROI). Don’t fall prey to the assumption that reducing workforce by automating the manual work done by humans will yield robust ROI. Instead, focus on recognizing the right work to be automatized. This will free your team from repetitive, mechanical tasks and enable them to focus on more higher-value deliverables.
Huge investment: Any business automation requires a huge upfront investment. As a SMB, your profit margins might be comparatively less than major companies. To enable automation, you can consider obtaining funds from banks and other leading institutions. But, the process can be time consuming, complicated and involve high interest rates. And this makes it a non-viable option.
Infrastructure: A reliable infrastructure is needed to implement a profitable and productive automation. Imagine a scenario where you automate a process but do not have continuous power supply or skilled resources to operate the systems. Such factors can negatively impact automation.
Training: When you automate your processes, it is important to train your team and workers. They might not have skills and knowledge needed to handle and control automatized processes. Besides the cost of implementing automation, you will also incur the cost of training your team.

Scaling Business Functions with Automation

When it comes to using business automation for scaling, you can implement different automation tools in business process and marketing. But before that, you need to follow these steps to transform your business with automation:

Select the Processes You Want to Automate: Selecting the right tasks to automate is very important. Start by identifying the processes that are repetitive and time-consuming. These tasks can include sending invoices, data entry, sending emails, and others.
Select Automation Tools: Once you have selected the processes you want to automate, it’s time to select the tools. There are a number of automation tools available in the market. Select the ones that suit your business needs and meet your budgets.
Set Automation Goals: Before investing in automation tools, set specific targets you want to achieve. There is no use in automating processes if they fail to make your business more profitable.

Specific business functions like Marketing can make use of different automation tools to refine your marketing workflow by:

Automating responses sent to customers by triggering a sales call or making use of drip campaigns that have 80% higher open rates and 3 times more click-through rates.
Scheduling marketing campaigns on social media platforms as 54% users use them to research about products.
Using dynamic content for targeted advertising.
Evaluating the success of marketing processes by automatically running A/B tests on promotional campaigns.

This in turn can:

Achieve 50% higher customer conversion rates for B2C marketers.
Help in customer retention by understanding their behavior and predicting their needs. In fact, research suggests that about 69% marketers use marketing automation for getting new clients and 50% use it for retaining them.
Provide 3 times better tracking of marketing strategies.

Scaling Business Functions with Automation

Besides automating marketing you can also practice business process automation for:

Maintaining data security by RPA (Robotic Process Automation) that uses software robots to scan and monitor processes for sending alert notifications. Another good example of this can be SOA (Security Orchestration and Automation) that helps in better threat management by identifying anomalous activities.
Reducing burden on your workers by using automated supplier portals that automates transactions for both buyers and suppliers in your business.
Printing of accurate shipping labels to smoothen delivery process and ensure timely deliveries.
Triggering automated notifications for better inventory management.

Conclusion

Scaling a business can be a complicated task. But depending on your business type, stage and revenue, you can use automation for business scaling. Start by automating different processes and departments. Targeted Business Automation can future-proof your business, improve your customer service, and help achieve higher profit margins.

Disclaimer: Whilst Amazon Seller Services Private Limited ("Amazon") has used reasonable endeavours in compiling the information provided, Amazon provides no assurance as to its accuracy, completeness or usefulness or that such information is error-free. In certain cases, the blog is provided by a third-party seller and is made available on an "as-is" basis. Amazon hereby disclaims any and all liability and assumes no responsibility whatsoever for consequences resulting from use of such information. Information provided may be changed or updated at any time, without any prior notice. You agree to use the information, at your own risk and expressly waive any and all claims, rights of action and/or remedies (under law or otherwise) that you may have against Amazon arising out of or in connection with the use of such information. Any copying, redistribution or republication of the information, or any portion thereof, without prior written consent of Amazon is strictly prohibited.

Try the Amazon Beginners Guide

Learn more on becoming an Amazon Seller