Automation is your best friend.

It's -12F here in Minnesota as i write this. Nobody in their right mind wants to be outside on a day like today. This is the kind of day where you just sit inside and get things done around the house and try to stay warm.

Or if you're like me, your headed to the rink where it's not much warmer inside 'cuz you got a championship game happening this afternoon. Hockey families are just a different species. Cold weather means fast ice!

So anyway...

Today I wanted to talk about building your business with automation in mind. For anyone with a day job, family responsibilities, hobbies, and a business to juggle, automation is going to be your best friend.

I have built several businesses in the past while still holding down a day job and most of them required a significant amount of manual work to be done.

For example, my PC repair business was service based so the only way I made money was when I did actual work. Building a family, going to school, and holding down a full time job along with running that business was nearly impossible. I burned myself out in a matter of months. I had zero automation in my business and it almost wrecked me.

Fast forward to today. I built Fez Prints with automation in mind for the beginning. I have learned my lessons over the years about how important it is to have a business that can run and make money without a ton of manual effort.

The entire ordering, printing, packaging, shipping, and notification system is completely automated. All I'm doing is going outside, taking the most amazing photos I can, and turning them into premium prints people can't find anywhere else. I love doing that part of the work. I automated everything else so I can focus on the high impact stuff.

Running this business while working a full time job, coaching hockey, writing a book, building the next project, and enjoying time with family would not be possible without automation. If I had to process every order I would eventually burn out and it would all come crashing down. I know from experience with the PC repair business.

The challenge for most people is finding a business model that supports automation. This is why online businesses are so popular for building a personal business while having a day job. A lot can be automated with an online business. But it takes a lot of thought and proper planning to build that successfully.

A lot of the most obvious options for starting a solo business are all service based. Use your skills and provide those as a service to others. It's the most basic and obvious thing to do. But it's also the most demanding on your time. Not sustainable over a long period of time.

Even a lot of online businesses are service based. Copywriting, coaching, training, website building, writing, SEO services, etc. All require providing some kind of service. If you don't spend the time providing the service, you don't make money. If you don't make money, you have no business.

There's only so much time in a day and that job of yours is taking 8-10, sleep is taking at least 6-8, and family needs some love. Be careful if you choose a service based time of business. You need to have a success plan that clearly lays out how you can maintain your sanity and safely exit your day job into your service-based business when the time comes.

You will not be able to have both going full tilt for very long without total collapse. Make sure you automate as much as possible and have a very clear path to exit the day job if you go this route. Absolutely critical before you even get started.

I chose a business model that allows me to automate the majority of the operations precisely because of the challenges above with service-based businesses. That business model is not a fit for me right now.

So as you go about building your business, make sure you choose a path that will allow you to succeed without causing a complete crash out. Automation is going to be your best friend here and you need to build something that allows for that.

Happy building (and automating)!

-John