128. 5 Tasks Every Service Provider Should Stop Doing Manually

You started your business to have more freedom so why does client onboarding, follow-up emails, and scheduling eat up the hours you actually have to work?

If you're running your business in 20 hours a week or less, you cannot afford to spend those hours on tasks a system could handle while you're making lunch. In this episode, I break down the five tasks service providers need to stop doing manually like, yesterday.

You'll learn:

• Why automated client onboarding is the single fastest time-saver in your business (and how tools like Dubsado make it a zero-minute process)
• How inconsistent follow-up is quietly costing you clients and the simple fix
• The scheduling back-and-forth that's stealing 20+ hours a year from you
• How to actually see your pipeline so you can make smarter CEO decisions
• Why an automated checkout isn't a luxury — it's how you get paid while you sleep

Automation isn't about removing the human touch from your business. It's about protecting your time so the human touch you do give is intentional, energized, and sustainable.

Resources mentioned:
Dubsado
TidyCal
Airtable
Kit
ThriveCart

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

You started your business to have more freedom. So why does it feel like you're working a second full-time job just to keep up with your own client? Let's talk about it. Welcome to the Sustainable CEO Mom Podcast, the show for service-based moms who are done with hustle culture and ready to build profitable businesses that actually fit their lives. I'm Jenny Sundison, business strategist, podcast mentor, and the founder of Moms Make Money Collective. Let's build something sustainable. Can I tell you about a season of my business that I don't miss? It was a Tuesday afternoon. My son was finally down for a nap. I had exactly 45 minutes to work, and I spent 40 of those minutes copying and pasting a client's information from an inquiry form into a spreadsheet, then manually typing out a welcome email, then going back in my calendar app to block off their boarding call, and then realizing I forgot to send the contract, and then my childer ended up waking up early. I didn't really get anything done that day. And the wild part is that I thought that was just what running a business looked like. I thought that I had to do all of that. And no one told me that I was basically volunteering for a part-time admin job inside my own business. So today we are fixing that. So hey, hey, and welcome back to the Sustainable CEO Mom podcast. I'm your host, Jenny. And today we are talking about the five tasks that you as the service provider need to stop doing manually like yesterday. Because if you're running your business in 20 hours a week or less, you cannot afford to spend those hours on tasks that a system can do for you while you're making lunch or watching your kids' soccer game. That is not sustainable. And that is not CUL level thinking. And we're done with that. So let's get into the episode. So first up, and this is the one that will save you the most time the fastest is client onboarding. So I want you to think about everything that happens at the moment that someone says, yes, I'm into working with you. You send a contract, you send an invoice, you send a welcome email, you schedule a kickoff call, you share a welcome guide or some sort of questionnaire, you add them to your project management system. How many of those steps are you doing manually, one by one, every single time? If the answer to that question is all of them, then I need you to hear me. There is a much better way, and it is called Dubsotto. So if you're not familiar with Dobsato, Dubsato is a client management system that lets you build workflows so that immediately when a client signed a contract, they get that invoice immediately. The invoice goes out automatically after that contract is signed. And then when the invoice is paid, then they get the welcome email automatically. You can build an entire onboarding sequence that runs without you having to touch a single thing. I'm talking contract, invoice, welcome email, questionnaire, scheduler link, all triggered automatically, one after the other. Your client feels like they're working with an incredibly organized high-touch business and you're sitting at the park with your kids. That is the sustainable CEO move. The manual version of onboarding used to cost me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour per client every single time, sometimes even more. But with the workflow in place, it takes me approximately zero minutes because the system does it for me. So if you're not using a CRM like Depsado or Honeybook or any of those other ones out there, then this is your sign to do that. Number two is follow-up emails. And specifically the follow-up emails that happen after someone inquires, after someone downloads your freebie, after a discovery call, and after a purchase. These are the emails that are supposed to nurture people towards a yes. And I see so many service providers either not sending them at all because it feels like too much to manage manually, or they're sending them manually one by one, which is exhausting and inconsistent. And here's the truth inconsistent follow-up costs you clients, full stop. If someone inquires with you and they don't hear back for four days because life happened and you forgot, then they've probably moved on and found someone else. And that's a sale you lost, not because of your offer or your pricing, but because of a gap in your processes. The fix is setting up a workflow within Dipesado or some other CRM for potential client follow-ups. You set it up once, and then every person who inquires or books a discovery call gets a consistent, warm, well-timed follow-up sequence that sounds like you because you wrote it. Or another example, say someone downloads your freebie. Then they automatically get a welcome email that day, a value email two days later, and an invitation to work with you on day five. You wrote it once in an afternoon and it has been running and converting ever since. That is your email list working for you while you're while you're busy doing literally anything else. You set it up once, you let it run, and it allows you to stop chasing people manually. Okay, so number three is going to be one that feels very duh when I say it, but I still see so many people doing it manually all the time, and that is scheduling. So if you're still doing the does Tuesday work, or how about Wednesday at two, oh, you're busy, what about Thursday email? Back and forth, then we need to talk. So a scheduling tool like TidyCow completely eliminates this. You send one link, your client picks a time that works for them, and it automatically adds to both of your calendars, sends a confirmation email, and then sends a reminder before the call. I personally use my scheduler link for everything: discovery calls, client check-in, strategy calls, and coffee chats. And here's the move that makes it even more powerful. You embed your scheduler into your automated workflows. So when someone completes their onboarding questionnaire and upsotto, then the next automated email goes out with your kickoff call scheduler link. There's no manual coordination involved, no back and forth. Your client is able to easily book themselves. And I know this sounds like such a small thing, but the time that you save across a year is genuinely shocking. If you have five clients and you save 20 minutes of scheduling back and forth per client per month, that's almost two hours a month, which is over 20 hours a year just on scheduling back and forth emails. 20 hours. And for a mom building a business in 20 hours a week, that is a full week of work that you could get back just by having a scheduler and sending them the link to the scheduler. Okay, number four is something that sneaks up on you, and that is manually tracking where your leads and clients are in your process. I'm talking about like the sticky note system. The I think I need to follow up with her. Let me check my email type system, the spreadsheet where you're supposed to update the status, but you honestly haven't touched it in three months. This is a real thing that real business owners do, and it is costing you both time and client. The solution here is a proper CRM or client management tool. And for service providers, I use DubSato as my CRM, but I also think Airtable is great for this as well. You can build a custom client tracker that shows you exactly who's in the n-quiry stage, who's in the proposal stage, who's active, who's wrapping up, and who you should be following up with all in one view, updated automatically as your workflow progresses. And here's why this matters beyond just being organized. When you can see your pipeline clearly, then you're able to make better CEO decisions. You know when you have capacity for a new client, you know when your pipeline's looking thin and you need to show up more visibly, and you know which clients are coming up on renewal and when to start that conversation. Flying blind on your business is not sustainable. Visibility into your client status is a CEO level tool, and a tool like Airtable makes it really simple to build. Then we have the final task, which is payment and checkout management. So if you are manually invoicing every single client, manually sending payment reminders, manually handling what happens after someone pays, then I need you to hear this. You're working harder than you need to for your own money. For one-on-one services, your CERM should handle invoicing. That's something like Dubzato, once again. But if you have digital products, courses, templates, or lower ticket offers, you need a checkout system like Thrivecart. ThriveCart lets you set up a checkout page for any offer, take payment automatically, and trigger whatever comes next, whether that's a thank you email, access to a product, a tag in your email system, etc., all without you doing a single thing. And it works around the clock. Someone can buy your template at 11 p.m. on a Friday while you're asleep. They get that thing that they purchased immediately, you get paid, and no one has to do any work. This is what I mean when I talk about building a sustainable business. You're not trading time for every single dollar. Your systems are doing work while you rest, while you parent, and while you live your actual life. If you have any offer that's not currently on an automated checkout, that is money that you're making harder to collect than it needs to be. Okay, so let's do a quick recap because I want this to stick. These are the five tasks that you need to stop doing manually as a service provider. One, client onboarding. So I want you to build a workflow in DeBsado or HoneyBook or whatever CRM you want to use and let the system handle the contract invoice, welcome email, and scheduler awake. The second thing is follow-up emails. Set up sequences in kit or your email provider of choice so that every lead and new subscriber gets a consistent automated nurture experience. Three, scheduling. So send them a link, stop the email back and forth. Four, tracking leads, and clients. Get your pipeline in a tool like Airtable or if your C ARM has a good tool so you have real visibility into your business. And five, payment and checkout. Use something like Thrivecart for digital offers so you can make money without being present. And here's what I want you to walk away knowing. Automation is not about removing the human touch from your business. It's about protecting your time so that the human touch you do give is intentional, energized, and sustainable. You started your business to have more freedom, not to manage a manual to-do list that could be handled by a system. Let the systems do their job so that you can do yours. Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, Jenny, I get it, but where do I actually start? Then I have something just for you. I put together the AI for CEO Mom's toolkit, which is a collection of the exact tools, prompts, and resources I use to run a sustainable service-based business without being glued to my laptop all day. It's built specifically for mom entrepreneurs who want to work smarter, not harder. You can find the link to purchase the toolkit in the show notes. Go grab it and come back here and tell me which one of today's five tasks that you're automating first. I genuinely love to know. And if today's episode was helpful, share it with a mom friend who is still doing all this manually because she needs this information too. All right, that's it. I'll see you in the next episode. If this episode resonated with you, share it with another service-based mom who's building something real. And when you're ready to move from reactive business ownership to sustainable CEO leadership, your next step is waiting for you. You'll find the right path, whether that's the accelerator, the collective, or a deeper intensive, by going to momsmakemoneycollective.com. You're not just building a business, you're building it your way sustainably. With profit, with margin, and with intention. Because hustle is optional, leadership isn't. I'll see you next week.