Which job in your business still runs on somebody's hands?

There is a useful distinction here that most people never make.

There is the work itself: making the thing, delivering it, solving the customer's problem. That is what you are paid for and it should take effort.

Then there is the arranging around the work. Copying details from one place to another. Checking whether something was done. Chasing somebody for an approval. Preparing the same figure in a second format because a different person wants it differently.

In most small businesses the second kind takes more hours than the first, and almost nobody has counted it.

How to tell the two apart

Ask one question about any task. If this were done perfectly, would the customer notice?

If yes, it is work. If no, it is arranging, and arranging is where automation belongs.

The test cuts cleanly. The customer notices a good product and a delivery on time. He does not notice that your office entered his address in three places, or that somebody prepared a summary sheet on Friday.

Why this is where to look first

Because nobody defends it. Try to change how the actual work is done and you will meet resistance, correctly, because people know their job better than you do.

Take away the arranging and nobody argues. The person doing it has wanted it gone for years and assumed it was simply part of the job.

And it is usually the cheapest thing to change, because it is mechanical. Mechanical work is exactly what machines are for, and judgement work is exactly what they are not.

Take your own week. How many hours went into the work, and how many into arranging around it?

Separating the work from the arranging, and then removing the arranging, is the core of what we build. Tell us what your week looked like and we will show you which half can go.