What should a solo consultant automate first?

The short answer. Automate the jobs that start because something happened, need no judgement, and happen every week. Leave everything that needs you. And do not automate anything until you have written down how you actually do it today.

Write the week down first

Automating a process you have not settled yet means building the wrong thing faster. So before you open a single tool, write down what happens in your practice in an ordinary week. How a client finds you. How a call gets booked. What you do before the call, and after it. How you send an invoice and how you know it was paid.

You will find that the same handful of jobs comes round every week, done by hand, in roughly the same way. That list is where the work is.

One question sorts every job

For each job on the list, ask: does this need judgement, does it follow a procedure, or does it start on a trigger?

Judgement is yours. Deciding who your practice is for, what a client actually needs, what to charge. AI can prepare you for these. It does not make them.
A procedure is something done the same way every time, like turning call notes into a follow-up in your voice. This is where a skill helps.
A trigger is a job that starts because something happened. Somebody books a call. Somebody pays. This is where an automation helps, because it runs when you are not there.

Start with the trigger jobs

The trigger jobs are the easiest to hand over and the ones you notice most when they stop landing on you. My own call process is the example I show: from somebody booking to me opening a call that is already prepared. You can watch it on the AI Deep Dive page.

Pick one. Get it working properly. Then pick the next.

What not to start with

Anything a client sees before you have checked it. Anything you have not done the same way twice. And any tool you are buying to feel like you are making progress. Buy it when the same job has annoyed you three times.

If you already run a practice with clients

Writing the week down is easier with somebody asking the questions. That is what the AI Deep Dive is for: CHF 750, ninety minutes, one to one, on how you run your practice today. You leave with a written, personalised strategy for where AI can take work off you, and your options for doing it.

Questions people ask