What is Business Autopilot?

Est. reading time: 6 min

• 🖥️ What do I mean by autopilot?

• 🔢 The 4 stages of business autopilot

• ☕️ Tip: You have to put a time limit on it

• ❤️‍🔥 Hot finds this week

• 🎙️ Start with just one task

• 💌 Brought to you by beehiiv

🖥️ What do I mean by autopilot?

You know that feeling you get when your business partner or team member sends you a Slack just as you're diving into a good book on the beach? Panic, right? A slight twinge of anxiety? "Is everything okay?"

How would it feel if you could leave for a few weeks and turn off Slack completely?

Your business could run without you, allowing you to escape and rejuvenate. Freedom to truly disconnect, recharge, and return with renewed energy and focus. Freedom to trust your team, knowing they'll handle things while you prioritize yourself.

Let me ask you this: what went through your mind when I asked if this was possible? Yeah right or I wish? How comfortable would you feel leaving your business for a few weeks? Could you let it run on autopilot—or at the very least, in the hands of your employees if you needed (or wanted) to go on vacation?

If the answer is no, stay with me. I’m going to help you create a system to finally organize your business and get it on autopilot.

Why is this important?

You don’t want to be the one doing everything all the time! If you find yourself being the “bottleneck” of your business, that’s not a great place to be.

This isn't just about delegating. It's about creating clear processes that empower your team (don’t worry, Solopreneur, I got you!) to thrive without you micromanaging every step.

🔢 The 4 Stages of Business Autopilot:

Before we go any further, it will help if you know where your business stands on the autopilot scale. Read through the 4 stages and choose the one that resonates the most. One of them will stand out.

Stage 1 | Survival Mode: Your business fails quickly if you stop working in it. You know you’re in survival mode when: you feel stressed more often than not, you don’t feel like you have a complete plan (the feeling of winging it), you find yourself working on random things at random times—you should be getting ready for bed at 11 pm but instead, you’ve hopped back on the computer again to handle something, and all of your teams questions seem to land back on you. You don’t trust your team to run the business or do anything without your approval first.

Stage 2 | Stagnant & Stuck: There is some direction within your team but it still relies on 1 or 2 key team members, making it very person-dependent. Your business is stagnant and will have trouble growing because you—and maybe your closest assistant or operations team member—have all of the knowledge. There still tends to be a bottleneck and questions still fall back on you. If the key team members all left for a couple weeks during spring break, business would suffer.

Stage 3 | Grow & Scale: This sounds like it would be a good place to be, but not quite. Your systems are better at this point and you have places where you keep them. Think Google Drive or some kind of project management software, but they are pieced together and it still feels clunky. There is a process for your team members to find what they need, but it’s not always clear. You constantly find yourself asking “did you check this spot first?”. You could go on vacation for a week and the team would get by, but your business wouldn’t necessarily grow without you (and there might be a bit of chaos but they would never tell you!).

Stage 4 | Business Autopilot: Your system runs like a well-oiled machine. Your business thrives at this stage and it can continue to run and grow without you if you were to take time off. Your team members know exactly what to do and/or where to look if they don’t. Questions to key team members are at a minimum. Your project management systems work well together and knowledge is well documented. At this point, you are able to happily go on a long vacation or sell your business if that is an option that interests you.

This is part of the first lesson in a new email course I’m working on, Business Autopilot. I’m curious to know if this is something you’d be interested in? Answer the poll below. It will be a dripped via email (cause who wants another platform to log into?!) and by the end, you’ll have a greater understanding of how to set up your business systems and processes to empower you and your team to run your business on autopilot. I’ll use it as a free lead magnet when it launches (so you’ll get free access if you’d like it), but after that, I suspect I’ll charge a small fee.

So let me know…

☕️ Tip: You have to put a time limit on it

I know you’ve heard of Parkinson’s Law (work expands to fill the time available) - I want you to apply it whenever you plan a task (or a project). Creating systems and automating projects is usually not fun, so we tend to put it off or extend the amount of time needed to do something. Everything from grocery shopping—if it takes 90 minutes don’t block 4 hours—to writing SOPs. Put a time on it and the more often you do, the better your time estimates will get. Not only that, you’re more likely to finish it.

Instead of saying “I’m going to organize my Google Drive,” get specific e.g. next Tuesday I will organize my finance folder for 60 minutes. You can stop after 60 minutes, but make sure you take note of how close your time estimation was so you can adjust for next time. Then, count the remaining number of folders you need to organize and work backwards, or just give yourself a time limit, like “I’ll finish organizing my Google Drive by March 15, or in time for our next launch.

❤️‍🔥 Hot finds this week

1. How to make affiliate commissions a relevant revenue stream with Manu Muraro of Your Social Team. In this class on February 29, she’s breaking down how she racks in substantial income from affiliate marketing (not talking about $2.73 from random Amazon orders), and how you can make this a part of your regular income stream. This is not a free class, so I recommend checking it out if affiliate marketing will be a part of your business structure.

2. Trending TikTok and Reels Sounds To Use This Week. Need some inspo and some trending sounds? Each week, Plann publishes the trending sounds for Instagram and TikTok. If you’re batch planning your social media (and of course you should be), this is a great way to get some sounds that might help you tick up your views.

3. What do you think of Chris Bailey’s Fake morning commute? It’s an interesting way to start the day when you work from home—fresh air, exercise, and a ‘commute’—but do you think it would work for you? Do you have any morning rituals that help you get into “work mode”? Maybe you get dressed in business attire even though you never leave the house. Or you drive down to the coffee shop to get coffee and then come back home. Let me know yours!

🎙️ Start with just one task

If you aren’t automating your business, you’re doing too much. This episode is about two things. Automating small tasks and personalizing some steps in your business. Both of which could have a huge impact on your customer relationships and your sanity. If this is something you know you’ve been wanting to do, now is the time to get serious, because If there’s one thing I’ve learned, procrastination (and margaritas) is the enemy of progress.

Until next time,

💌 Brought to you by beehiiv

If you are working to build your business, one of the first things you need is somewhere to grow your email list. Check out Beehiiv if you’re in the market for a newsletter platform — it’s specifically optimized for newsletter monetization and growth. Use my link for a 30-day free trial + 20% off your first 3 months!