057 | Leveraging Technology for Sustainable Business Growth

Can technology really boost your business growth? 

Today, we are diving into the transformative role of technology in business growth, exploring game-changing tools and innovations that can help you scale your business efficiently. 

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by the tech landscape, or eager to try new tools, this episode is packed with actionable tips, and is your guide to harnessing technology for ultimate business efficiency and growth.

In this episode, I discuss:

• How to maximize your efficiency with automation tools.
• How automation can save you time and streamline your operations.
• How artificial intelligence can help improve your client interactions and boost satisfaction
• Leveraging data analytics to make strategic decisions in your business growth. 

This episode at a glance:

[02:39] Running a business means wearing a million hats, and there never seem to be enough hours in the day.

[04:32] Automation isn't just about saving time. It's about amplifying the impact of every minute you spend on your business.

[06:36] 40 percent of businesses say that customer or client experience is their top motivator for adopting AI.

[10:30] If it's just anecdotal information or your best guess, that opinion can be leading you down a road that is wasting your time, energy, and money.

Resources and Links mentioned in this episode

• Free Range Thinking
• Let’s connect on LinkedIn
• Follow me on Instagram
• Boost AI Strategy Framework
• Book a Consultation CALL with us!

You might also like

• The AI Blueprint Strategy for Female Entrepreneurs
• Expand Your Reach: 8 Strategies for Niche-Bound Businesses
• 4 Must Read Leadership Books

More about the “My Good Woman” podcast

My Good Woman is a podcast for new and future female leaders, hosted by me, Dawn Andrews.

I’m a happily married hockey mom, proud female leader, and founder and CEO of Free Range Thinking, where we turn founders into confident CEOs with strategic consulting and leadership training.

Grab a seat at the table with me each week for candid conversations with culture-shifting, glass ceiling-busting, trailblazing women, who are leading enterprises that are making a change in the world. 

We discuss what makes them tick and how they get it all done. And we share actionable strategies to help you and your team get organized - so you can focus on your company’s growth, profit, and impact. 

If you liked what you heard, don’t forget to follow along, so you never miss an episode. And before

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Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “She's That Founder” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.

Transcript

My Good Woman
057 | Leveraging Technology for Sustainable Business Growth

In the digital age, leveraging the right technology isn't just an advantage, it is essential for sustainable business growth. Can't wait to tell you more. Welcome to the My good woman podcast, where we help female founders break past plateaus and get to the next level of business growth by refining their strategy, building systems and streamlining operations. 

I'm Dawn Andrews, the founder and CEO of free range thinking business strategy consulting. Join me each week for candid conversations with culture shifting, glass ceiling busting, trailblazing women who are leading impactful enterprises and grab their strategies to help your business reach extraordinary levels of growth.

Hey, hey, hey, welcome to my good women business strategy and time management for impactful female leaders. I'm your host, Dawn Andrews, and this podcast is dedicated to female founders becoming confident CEOs and achieving the next level of success and business growth by improving executive leadership, refining their strategy, building systems and amazing teams and streamlining their operations. And I am chilling and casual today, makeup free, just having a nice chat with you. This is a shorty episode about the role of technology in your business. 

So Hello and thanks for chilling with me. Today. We are diving into the transformative role of technology in business growth, and we're going to explore some game changing tools and innovations that can help you scale your service based business efficiently, and whether you're feeling overwhelmed by the tech landscape and especially the world of AI and the tsunami that it has become, or whether you're eager to try new tools, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical tips. 

Today, you are going to learn how to maximize your efficiency with automation tools, so you can discover how automation can save you time and streamline your operations. We are going to talk about enhancing client engagement using AI. So you'll learn how artificial intelligence can help improve your client interactions and boost satisfaction. And we're going to talk about leveraging data analytics for strategic decisions. You'll understand the importance of data driven decision making to grow your business. 

So let's get into it. Shall we? Let's talk about maximizing your efficiency with automation tools. In previous episodes, I've talked about using chat GPT and the myriad of ways that it can actually help you get things done much faster in your business, and save you time and money and stress and so much more. 

Today, we're just going to talk about automation in particular, because, let's face it, running a business means wearing a million hats, and there never seemed to be enough hours in the day. I struggled with this ongoingly. 

But what if I told you that technology could give you back some of that precious time? I would take it right? I've done it myself. Automation tools are your new best friend. They are ready to tackle those repetitive tasks that eat away at your day, and no, you don't need to be a tech wizard to make them work for you. Depends on who you talk to. I say Zapier because it rhymes with rapier, which is a sword, and I think that's cool. It's like the ultimate assistant that connects your apps and automates your workflows. 

Imagine your emails getting sorted, tasks getting assigned and data getting updated, all without you lifting a finger. I know it sounds too good to be true. I totally get it, but Zapier has the possibility to make that a reality. 

Another great automation tool is Calendly. I actually use once hub, but both of these tools take the hassle out of scheduling meetings. It syncs with your calendar and allows clients to book appointments without the endless back and forth emails. Maybe you might say to me, I have a chief of staff for that, or I have a dedicated assistant for that. 

What if you could use those tools to help your assistant or your chief of staff more easily get your schedule handled, so that they could turn their attention to higher level tasks on your behalf? Take a look at Calendly, oneshub Zapier, see what you can do to start automating some of those repeatable tasks that are shaving time out of your day. Because Wouldn't you like to go spend that time somewhere else? It's a lot more fun. I'd like to use it to go for a long run. Maybe you want to use it to kick your feet up and binge a little Netflix. I don't know you, do you, but it's important to try and shave some of those minutes because they turned into hours and days over the course of a month. 

Little quote to help scooch you along, automation is to time. What compound interest is to money. Isn't that a gem? Automation isn't just about saving time. It's about amplifying the impact of every minute you spend on your business. So let me share a story about Sarah, who's a female founder. She runs a boutique consulting firm and is drowning in administrative tasks by integrating automation tools like ones hub or Calendly, she reclaimed hours every week. She spends that time focused on strategic growth, and her business has never been better. Automation tools aren't just for tech savvy people. They're designed to be user.

Friendly and to make your life easier. So dive in, automate and watch your efficiency soar. And I'll do a deeper dive episode on this soon. But for now, just check out those two tools and see what happens for you. Let's talk about enhancing client engagement with AI. 

I don't know where you are with AI. In fact, send me a message. I'm on LinkedIn at free range thinking, I'm on Instagram at free range thinking, send me a message and let me know where you are with AI. Are you completely unaware? Are you just getting started? Are you using it a fair amount, or are you an AI Pro? Because I know that AI can sound really intimidating. 

Using AI and chat, GPT or other tools may seem like a lot to integrate into your business, depending upon where you are with it right now and whether or not you have a person that you can dedicate to it. But it is not just for Silicon Valley giants or large corporations. AI can revolutionize client engagement for small businesses too. And you don't need a computer science degree to benefit from Ai. You just need to know where to look and what to do with it, consider chat GPT, which, you know, I love, and shout out to a couple of my girls out there. 

You know, I love Claude, too. It's neck and neck for me. Claude and GPT are tools that I use daily, multiple times a day, but they are both AI tools that can handle client inquiries around the clock and provide instant responses that make your clients feel valued and heard and connected. Or you can even switch to a platform like HubSpot, which is an all in one marketing platform that uses AI to personalize your communications and ensure that your messages hit the mark every time. 

Did you know that 40% of businesses say that customer or client experience is their top motivator for adopting AI. That's according to a study by Adobe, AI helps you understand your clients better and interact with them in a more meaningful way. And if 40% of businesses say that that's their top motivator for moving AI into their business, that's very telling. 

First of all, it tells me that they care about their clients, but also that caring about their clients takes a lot of their time, and they're looking for ways to make that ways to make that easier, and that's just scratching the surface on all that AI can do for your business. Let's put it in a scenario. Imagine that you are a wellness coach, and you implement an AI powered chat bot on your website that would reduce response times and increase client satisfaction if people are reaching out to find out about your programs or services. 

If they have questions about their health, you can set up your chatbot to answer frequently asked questions. It can help schedule appointments and make the appointment scheduling process a little more of a personal interaction instead of just click the button here and there's really no conversation, but it can allow you, as the business owner to focus on what you do best, which is health and wellness coaching. 

So remember, as I mentioned before, you don't need to be a tech guru to use these tools. Most of them, like many chat, are tools that are designed to be intuitive so that you can enhance your client experience without breaking this sweat. Let's talk about the third way to leverage technology in your business to make running and being in your business a little easier. 

How can you leverage data analytics for strategic decisions? This is such a good one, and one that I think many small business owners avoid in the many hats that you are wearing, stopping to look at your data can be overwhelming, putting together those reports, figuring out how to interpret them. What numbers do you need? How often do you look at it? 

Now, if your business is over a million dollars, you're already doing this, and AI can help you with this as well. It can help you crunch the data. We've all heard the phrase knowledge is power, and in business, that knowledge comes from data. And data analytics might sound like something only big corporations do, but it's crucial for small businesses too. 

In fact, in a way, I'd almost argue it's more important, because in larger corporations, though, the mistakes may cost you more, you have more people and resources and potentially time and runway to deal with whatever those mistakes may be, but as a small business owner, you're running a tight ship, and a tiny bit of data, like how well your reels are doing can make a big difference in where you spend your time and energy. 

If they're not performing and you don't know that, then you may be spending time creating content that's really not taking you anywhere, or it's not connecting with the right audience. Analytics give you great insight into where to double down and put more time and energy and stop wasting in other places.

 Again, a little good news for you. You don't need to be a data scientist to use the tools effectively. If you're not connected to Google Analytics, it's a powerful tool to help you understand your web traffic. It shows you where your visitors are coming from, what they're looking at how they're engaging with your site. Tableau, on the other hand, is fantastic for visualizing data and making it easier to spot trends and make informed decisions. And then you can use tools like Claude or like chat GPT to look at a whole survey of data. Molly Mahoney, my mentor that I have talked about, has all of her.

Posts and their performance, all of her Facebook posts and their performance in a spreadsheet, and she's able to use Claude or chat GPT to look at the data and tell her which types of posts performed best in certain times of the year. So she can repeat that content creation process or content tweaking process and confidently know that her messages are landing well. W Edwards Deming says that without data, you're just another person with an opinion. 

As a small business owner, if it's just anecdotal information or your best guess that opinion can be leading you down a road that is wasting your time, energy and money and data takes the guesswork out of those decisions and gives you a solid foundation for your strategies. 

So what if you owned a digital marketing agency and you started using Google Analytics to track your website performance by understanding which pages are most popular and which traffic sources are most effective, you can refine your marketing strategy and improve your ability to bring in leads. Or conversely, you might find that your website really isn't doing that much for your business, and most of your action is on social. 

Either way, using those analytics doesn't mean you're diving into complex algorithms. It just means that you're getting information to help you make smarter decisions based on real insights. Embracing these tools and letting data guide your path will lead you to growth. 

Okay, my powerhouse founders, let's wrap this up with a bang. We have journeyed through the magic of automation. We've talked about the transformative power of AI and the clarity that can come to you as a business owner through data analytics. But now it's time to turn those insights into action steps that will supercharge your business.

My invitation to you is to give yourself one hour and take a deep dive into automation tools like Zapier, Calendly or onehub. Start small, pick one repetitive task and automate it, and you'll be amazed at how much time you can free up next action step, embrace tools like chat, GPT or HubSpot to enhance your customer engagement, even if you use chat GPT to create some snippets for you of conversation to respond to your customers or help you determine what your frequently asked questions are. Don't worry about mastering the tech. The tools are really built to be very user friendly. 

So just open chat GPT, tell it a little bit about your business and ask it to create a list of frequently asked questions and edit it, and then you or your assistant or someone on your team can help put that into a chat bot. And finally, get comfortable with data analytics and use Google or Tableau start by tracking your website's performance or one channel on social and look at where your traffic is coming from and which pages or platforms or types of posts you're getting the most love, and use those insights to fine tune your strategy so that you can watch your growth skyrocket. 

You don't have to be a tech wizard to benefit from the tools. They're designed to make your life easier and your business more efficient. I know we started this whole conversation with you're wearing too many hats, but what I'm trying to do is have you pick up a couple more hats so you can take a whole bunch of them off. Okay, so roll up your sleeves, dive in and harness the power of technology to take your business to the next level. 

And before you go, I have a little Gifty for you, the boost AI business strategy framework, and you can pick it up at dawn andrews.com, forward slash AI strategy framework. It's packed with actionable steps to help you integrate these technologies into your business. It is a great primer for you getting to know and use chat. GPT, you've got this. I know you do. I am cheering you on every step of the way, and I also am following in the same path. So anytime you feel pain, send me a message. Let's talk about it. I'll do another episode about it to help you out. Ask your questions. Let's do this together, and in the meantime, keep shining, keep growing, and may the boost be with you. Stay Fabulous.

If you found today's episode valuable, please share it with fellow business owners who might benefit, and don't forget to subscribe to my good woman for more insights and strategies to help you transform from founder to confident CEO until next time. Keep striving, thriving and staying impactful. I'm Dawn Andrews, and this has been my good woman business strategy and time management for impactful female leaders. See you next time. Dawn.