Automation · Small business · Try Automation Today
Try Automation Today: small business automation starts with the boring work
The best small business automation projects are usually unglamorous. Here's what Try Automation Today builds, and how I decide what to automate first.
When people hear "AI automation," they often picture something dramatic. In practice, the projects that pay off for small and mid-sized businesses are almost always boring: a lead that gets acknowledged in a minute instead of a day, an invoice that gets read into the accounting system without retyping, a reminder that goes out so nobody no-shows. Good small business automation is built from those small wins.
Try Automation Today is where I build that kind of thing.
What small business automation covers here
- AI chat and phone assistants that answer common questions from approved information, capture details and hand off to a person.
- Lead follow-up: instant acknowledgment and routing of new inquiries, follow-up sequences that stop as soon as someone replies, and CRM logging.
- Scheduling: self-serve booking, reminders, rescheduling and calendar sync tied to the CRM.
- Documents and data entry: pulling data out of invoices, forms and PDFs into the right system, with a human review step for anything the system isn't sure about.
- CRM and email workflows, reporting, and custom integrations using tools like Zapier, Make and n8n.
How I pick what to automate first
I ask three questions about any task:
You're not late. An Economic Innovation Group analysis of Census Bureau data found that 17.3% of US firms reported using AI in any business function as of November 2025, and about 10% in actual production use as of September 2025.
- How often does it happen? Something done fifty times a week is a better candidate than something done twice a month, even if the rare task is more annoying.
- How clear are the rules? If two people on the team would handle it the same way, it can probably be automated. If it depends on judgment, it probably needs a person in the loop.
- What happens when it goes wrong? A late follow-up email is a small mistake. A wrong refund is not. The higher the stakes, the more I lean toward automation that prepares the work and a person who approves it.
The rules I hold to
Everything is built in the client's own accounts, so nothing disappears if we stop working together. Everything is documented at handover. Consequential decisions stay with a person. And I don't promise specific savings, because the honest answer depends on volumes and processes I can only see after looking closely.
If you're not sure where to start, list the tasks your team repeats every day and circle the ones that make people sigh. That list is usually the roadmap.
Related reading
- Speed-to-lead automation
- makethings.click: automation consulting
- What to automate first (Try Automation Today)
Frequently asked questions
What is small business automation?
Using software to handle repeated tasks, such as replying to leads, entering data and sending reminders, so people spend less time on them.
What should I automate first?
Something that happens often, follows clear rules and is low risk if a step is delayed. Lead follow-up is a common first choice.
Do I need AI for automation?
Often not. Many valuable automations are simple rules. AI helps with reading documents or drafting replies.
How long does a first automation take?
Simple ones can take days. Anything touching several systems takes longer, mostly in testing.
This post is about one of my projects: tryautomation.today. See all of them on the projects page.