Are you a small to midsize business? Concern these payroll saving options. Example is customer service with Affixsol.com

1. 10 Tools That Could Save You 10 New Hires
affixsol.com/2016/12/18/10-tools-that-could-save-you-10-new-hires/
Automation is the future of business. These 10 positions you can replace with tools.
Shared by Travis Johnson Founder, Affixsol
Are you social? We are!
The global shift towards automation (and the resulting impact on jobs in the U.S.) became a hot-button issue during
2016’s political season. But whether you’re red, blue, or somewhere in between, you can’t argue with statistics that
show that many segments of our economy are moving towards automated work:
The Boston Consulting Group, for example, estimates that, “by 2025, the operating cost of a robot that does
welding will be less than $2 per hour.”
Within the financial sector, research from Itella Information found that less than 30% of all finance and
accounting processes still include a degree of manual labor, among surveyed companies.
Even mass transit is affected, with Time’s Katy Steinmetz predicting that self-driving trucks are on the way, 1/4

2. Even mass transit is affected, with Time’s Katy Steinmetz predicting that self-driving trucks are on the way,
stating, “It may not yet be clear what the future of automated transport will look like, but the industry’s
innovators want to get there fast.”
Politics aside, automation is a trend that all business owners – big and small – must take seriously, especially as it
pertains to future hiring. Before you make your next new hire, consider whether an automated tool could save you
money in terms of reduced overhead, liability, salary and benefits, while also minimizing turnover and increasing
your operational stability.
1. Marketing Coordinator
There’s marketing automation, and then there’s automated marketing. Marketing automation helps streamline
processes and tasks; for example, by triggering specific email marketing messages to be sent upon the completion
of predetermined actions.
Automated marketing, on the other hand, provides a much more hands-free approach that’s perfect for startups and
small businesses. Take Kit, an AI system that handles tasks like social posting, ad launching, and email campaign
mailing. Sure, you may still need to put some work into reviewing the program’s suggestions, but doing so will be
less expensive than hiring a full-time marketing coordinator.
2. Payroll Processor
Data gathered by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that “in-house systems are more expensive and less strategic
than many buyers may have originally thought. Hidden costs, such as upgrade expenses, IT resources, and non-
payroll department time collection activities drive the average system cost per paycheck to $16 and the average
annual HRIS cost to approximately $500,000.”
No matter what size your company is, the amount of time spent tracking hours, processing paychecks, and dealing
with issues that arise may make an in-house payroll processor seem like a necessity.
3. Customer Service Representative
Unless you’re just starting out or you run limited response hours, one customer service rep is rarely enough. Often,
multiple reps are required to handle volume and schedule… at least, until now.
Smart businesses are reducing their need for in-house customer service representatives with chatbots that can
handle common issues themselves or pass more difficult issues to a live agent, allowing you to run a skeleton crew
for customer service.
Techcrunch contributor Michael Schneider is on board, arguing that, “In the future, “customer service” won’t be
something consumers dread having to call, it will be something that builds powerful relationships with consumers.
The best marketing is great customer service, and chatbots are a great step forward.”
For small to midsize businesses, a great option utilizing both software and live agents is Affixsol.com. They are a
subscription based model with no contracts – cancel anytime offering live real time agents for your business.
4. Social Media Manager
Don’t trust your social posts to an AI bot yet? No worries – you still don’t need to hire a full-time social media
manager.
Instead, look to tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and Quuu to keep content rolling into your social channels without hiring
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3. extra help. String them together by using Hootsuite to get posts out to all channels fast (and to monitor your social
metrics whenever you like), Buffer to schedule curated content, and Quuu to actually curate the content itself.
Once again, for small to midsize businesses the above platforms are great to schedule and publish content but still
requires someone’s time to select and modify the content as well as understanding your customer base.
Affixsol.com live agents functions both as live customer service reps and content / social media creators. We
believe social media and customer service go hand-in-hand.
5. Administrative Assistant
Rather than expanding your staff with a new administrative assistant or overburdening an existing employee with
delegated tasks in order to free up your time, use tools like IFTTTand Zapier to manage consistent, minor tasks that
are tied to your regular activities.
Inbox management is one area in particular that can benefit from these automation platforms. Rather than have an
admin who monitors your email for messages from priority contacts, you can use an IFTTT recipe to be notified
whenever emails arrive from specific addresses. Using Zapier, you can automate the process of turning email
messages into to-do items in programs like Asana. Kelly Hodgkins, writing for Engadget, shares how she uses
Zapier to automatically import email information into a Google Docs spreadsheet, stating: “It is such an elegant and
easy solution to a problem that had been plaguing me for weeks.”
6. Content Marketing Specialist
Content marketing, from blogging to guest posting to article distribution, has become a necessary part of growing a
business. Really, there’s enough involved in the process to warrant hiring a content marketer full-time or setting up a
comprehensive agency contract – but there’s a simpler, cheaper way to manage these needs as well.
Tools like Coschedule can help you track editorial calendars and streamline both publication and social channel
promotions. Others, like Contently, allow you to hire and manage writers within the content marketing platform –
potentially enabling you to outsource your entire creative process.
7. Bookkeeper
Bypass the need for an in-house bookkeeper who’ll spend hours managing accounts, or even a virtual assistant
who’ll track your receipts and do data entry. Instead, use a tool like Shoeboxed to handle all your receipt scanning
and tracking – data entry eliminated.
8. Sales Representative
You probably already know how time-intensive it can be to manually vet leads and handle prospect data entry within
a traditional CRM. But while it costs an average of $65,800 to hire a sales representative , platforms like Infusionsoft
can reduce these costs by automatically labeling hot leads and automating aspects of your SQL/MQL qualification
funnel.
9. Inventory/Order Manager
Thanks to today’s tech tools, there’s no need to hire someone just to monitor and fulfill orders that are generated
online. Instead, use a tool like Shipstation to automatically sync your e-commerce orders, process your shipping
according to preset options, feed tracking data back into your e-commerce platform, and notify customers – all with
a few clicks, and without the need for more staff.
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4. Depending on the e-commerce sales channels you use, investing in an inventory management system like Ordoro
may also help reduce your staffing requirements by automatically tracking kit and item inventory across Amazon,
Ebay, Etsy, and other sales outlets.
10. Training Manager
Training is costly, and typically involves using senior employees to train new hires (at the cost of their time) or
bringing in expensive outside experts to train your team. Rather than hiring others or paying more to train your staff,
look to solutions like Coursera, Udemy, and Lynda that’ll give your team access to massive online training resources
at a fraction of the cost.
Of course, automation tools like these still require some oversight to manage issues that arise. They aren’t complete
solutions for replacing staff members, but they can help minimize your overall employee costs. Give them a look
before you begin your next new hire search.
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