20 Automations That Save Hours Every Week (And Give You Your Life Back as a Solo Consultant)

Let's be honest - running a fractional consulting business means wearing every hat. CEO, salesperson, marketer, accountant, operations manager... the list goes on. And while you got into this business to leverage your expertise and command premium rates, you're probably spending way too much time on administrative tasks that, frankly, are below your pay grade.

Here's the thing: your time is best spent doing high-value client work and strategic business development. Everything else? That's automation territory.

I'm about to walk you through 20 simple automations that can save you 20+ hours every month. Some take minutes to set up, others require a bit more upfront investment - but all of them will buy your time back so you can focus on what actually moves the needle in your business.

Quick note before we dive in: Don't try to implement all of these at once. As you read through, jot down the 2-3 that would make the biggest impact for you right now. You can always come back and layer in more over time.

Client and Sales Automations

Automation #1: AI-Powered Call Summaries

This is my absolute favorite. I have Fathom (an AI note-taker) join every single call. Within 60 seconds after the call ends, there's a draft follow-up email sitting in my inbox, complete with a summary of what we discussed and action items.

Here's how it works: The automation takes the transcript, sends it to OpenAI with a custom prompt, and drafts the email automatically. All I have to do is give it a quick polish and hit send. No more scrambling to remember what you promised or spending 15 minutes crafting follow-ups.

Automation #2: Automatic Client Prep Pages

Every time someone books a call, an automation creates a Notion page with all their information - name, company, LinkedIn profile, anything they shared in the booking form - and adds it to a database organized by date.

When my calls come up for the day, I just pull up the database, find today's date, and boom - everything I need to know is right there. No more hunting through emails or calendar invites.

Automation #3: Daily Calendar Summary

Each morning, Zapier sends me a Slack message with my calendar events for the day, including all relevant links and the associated Notion prep pages. One glance at Slack and I know exactly what my day looks like and where to find the prep work for each call.

Automation #4: Dead-Simple CRM

I use Airtable as a basic CRM. Every time someone books a sales call, their information gets added automatically, along with the call date. After the call, I update the status, and the system sends me follow-up reminders if they haven't purchased yet. No more losing track of hot leads who said "let me think about it."

Automation #5: Weekly Analytics Dashboard

Every Monday morning, I get an email with a clean dashboard showing my key metrics: website visitors, call bookings, email signups, and new subscriptions. The automation pulls data from Google Analytics and other sources automatically.

I'm not logging into five different platforms or building spreadsheets - I just glance at the dashboard to see what's working and what needs attention.

Bonus: Text Expander

Okay, this one doesn't quite fit the bucket, but it's too good not to mention. I use a Mac app called aText (one-time purchase for $3.99) that expands shortcuts into full text. Type ";zoom" and my Zoom link appears. Type ";lif1" and it populates a polished LinkedIn follow-up message.

I have hundreds of these set up. Any time you're typing the same thing repeatedly - meeting links, common responses, email templates - create a text expander shortcut. It adds up to hours saved.

Content and Marketing Automations

This might be my favorite category because it transforms one piece of content into an entire week's worth of marketing.

The Content Multiplication System:

I have a master Airtable set up where every time I record a podcast (like this one), I create a new row, add the title, and click "go." From there, automations create folders, generate doc links, and the magic begins.

I drop the transcript into a document, and automations automatically transform it into:

• A full blog post
• A newsletter
• Multiple LinkedIn posts
• Tweets/X posts

One piece of content becomes 10+ pieces of marketing material, all without me lifting a finger beyond the initial recording.

For video episodes, the automation emails the link to my podcast producer with everything he needs to edit. He updates the Airtable, which triggers more automations for distribution.

The Sales Call Content Hack:

Here's a clever one: I have an automation that takes transcripts from my side of sales calls and drafts LinkedIn content. Why? Because I'm answering the same questions over and over - which means those answers are valuable content that showcases my expertise. It's already in my voice, conversational, and addresses real pain points my audience has.

You could also set up something where you record voice notes and an automation suggests LinkedIn content drafts. The key is turning what you're already doing into scalable content.

Client Management Automations

These automations ensure nothing falls through the cracks with active clients.

I use another Airtable database that triggers based on client start dates. Here's what happens automatically:

Getting Paid: Seven days before each monthly invoice is due, the automation creates the invoice and drafts the email in my inbox. No more calendar reminders or forgetting to bill clients.

Collecting Feedback: At the 30-day mark, I get a reminder to request feedback with a pre-drafted email and form link. Here's the secret: asking "how am I doing?" in conversation gets you nowhere. People will just say "great!" You need a structured form to get actionable feedback.

Building Case Studies: When a client starts, the automation creates a Google Doc for their case study and sets reminders every 2-4 weeks to update metrics and add context. Imagine having five clients - that's five detailed case studies being built in real-time instead of scrambling to remember details months later.

Renewal Reminders: 45 days before a contract ends, I get an alert to start the renewal conversation. This gives you time to gather feedback, demonstrate value, and expand the engagement instead of hitting the deadline and realizing you forgot to discuss renewal.

Financial Tracking Automation

Set up a monthly financial snapshot that automatically generates and emails you a report showing:

• Revenue this month vs. last month
• Year-to-date tracking
• Expense breakdown
• Forecasted year-end numbers based on current trajectory

You're paying your dues upfront with setup time, but once it's running, you have financial clarity without dedicating hours to spreadsheets every month.

Productivity Automations

The Sunday Reset: Every Sunday at 5 PM, trigger an email with a Notion doc for weekly planning. This is one of the most effective things you can do for your business - review last week's performance and set priorities for the coming week while you're not in execution mode. You can think strategically with a clear mind.

Quarterly Business Reviews: As a solo consultant, you don't have built-in QBRs like corporate employees do. Set up quarterly reminders to evaluate yourself: Where am I excelling? Where could I improve? What should I stop doing? What deserves more focus? These check-ins prevent you from running on autopilot for a year and suddenly wondering where the time went.

Celebration Automations: This one's pure psychology, but it works. I have Slack notifications set up for every positive event in my business - new email subscriber, tool usage, payment received, contract signed. When Bradley Jacobs just paid $X for Y product pops up, it's a reminder that good things are happening. Business is hard enough; celebrating small wins keeps momentum going.

The Bottom Line

You don't need to implement all 20 of these automations. Pick the 5-6 that would save you the most time or cause you the most frustration right now. Set them up properly once, and they'll keep working for you month after month.

Your time is your most valuable asset as a fractional executive. Every hour you claw back from administrative tasks is an hour you can spend on billable work, strategic business development, or - here's a radical idea - actually enjoying your life.

The low-hanging fruit is there. You just need to grab it.

Ready to become a thought leader on LinkedIn and attract high-value clients organically? That's exactly what we built the MyLance LinkedIn Thought Leadership Tool to do - help fractional executives show up with authority and authentic content that actually converts. No spam, no cringe, just genuine expertise that attracts the right clients. Check it out at MyLance.co or shoot me a message on LinkedIn. Let's see if it's a fit for your business.

Mylance

‍This value-added article was written by Mylance. Mylance takes your marketing completely off your hands. We build the marketing machine that your Fractional Business needs, but you don't have time to run. So it operates daily, growing your brand, completely done for you.Instead of dangling numbers in front of you, our approach focuses on precise and thoughtful input: targeted outreach to the right decision makers, compelling messaging that resonates, and content creation that establishes trust and legitimacy.To apply for access, submit an application and we'll evaluate your fit for the service. If you’re not ready for lead generation, we also have a free, vetted community for top fractional talent that includes workshops, a rates database, networking, and a lot of free resources to support your fractional business.