Hello!
Let's be honest. When you started your business in the Netherlands, you were dreaming of something wonderful. Maybe you wanted to brew the best coffee in Utrecht, create amazing flower arrangements in your own shop, or sell unique handmade goods online. You definitely weren't dreaming about drowning in repetitive tasks and working late into the night, sorting through paperwork.
But what does a typical day for an entrepreneur often look like? You spend hours at your computer, answering the same customer questions over and over again. "What are your opening hours?" "How do I make a return?" "Do you deliver to Groningen?" You manually copy information about a new order from an email into an Excel spreadsheet. You open the folder of unpaid invoices, sigh, and then politely remind clients to pay. Every day, it's the same thing. It can feel like your business isn't a flight of fancy and freedom, but an endless mountain of small, boring chores that drain all your energy.
Does this sound familiar? Now, imagine you had an invisible helper. This helper doesn't ask for a salary, never gets tired, never gets sick, and works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It answers standard questions on its own, moves data from your email to a spreadsheet for you, and politely reminds clients about payments. It works while you sleep.
This kind of helper is real, and it's called automation.
"Oh, that sounds complicated, for programmers and big companies," you probably thought. This is the single biggest and most damaging misunderstanding that is stealing your time, your money, and most importantly, the joy from your business! Let's take a deep dive and bust the three main myths that stop entrepreneurs just like you from taking a deep breath and starting to grow.
Myth #1: "Automation is for giants like Philips or ASML. I just have a small coffee shop / store / workshop."
Many people think automation means huge robots in factories or complex software that costs millions of euros. In reality, for a small business, it's much simpler, more accessible, and most importantly—more necessary.
Why? A huge corporation has an entire finance department to handle invoices. They have a call center staff to answer emails. You have only yourself, and maybe a couple of helpers. Your time is the most valuable and limited resource you have. When you spend an hour manually creating invoices, you can't use that hour to invent a new dish for your menu, find a better supplier, or simply chat with a regular customer to strengthen your relationship.
📸 Let's use a simple example. Imagine a photographer.
A large photo studio: They have assistants who carry equipment. They have a manager who schedules shoots. They have an accountant who sends invoices. That's a team of people.
You, as a solo photographer: You are the photographer, the manager, and the accountant all in one. You can't hire 10 people. But you can get yourself some "digital assistants." One "assistant" can automatically schedule the photoshoot time with the client. A second one can automatically send the invoice after the shoot is done. A third one can send an email a week later asking for a review.
That is what automation for a small business looks like. It's not industrial robots. It's your personal team of digital helpers that takes care of dozens of small, predictable tasks. They don't replace you—they free up your hands and your mind for the truly important, creative, and strategic work.
Myth #2: "This is incredibly expensive. I don't have extra money for technology."
This myth is stuck far in the past, somewhere in the early 2000s. Today, you can get started for free, or for an amount comparable to a couple of cappuccinos per month.
There are special online services created for regular people, not for IT corporations. The most famous of them are Zapier and Make. They have free plans that are more than enough for you to try them out and set up your first 2-3 automations. You risk absolutely nothing.
💰 Let's calculate the value on our fingers
Imagine you spend just 5 hours a week on routine tasks: transferring customer data from email to a spreadsheet, creating folders for new projects, sending standard invoices. Let's say you value your time at €50 per hour.
- Per week, you are losing on this routine: 5 hours × €50 = €250
- Per month, you are losing: €250 × 4 weeks = €1000!
Now, you find a service that takes care of half of that work and costs €20 per month. You now spend 2.5 hours on those tasks instead of 5. You save 2.5 hours per week, or 10 hours per month.
- Your savings in money: 10 hours × €50 = €500 per month
- Your net profit: €500 (saved) - €20 (spent) = €480 per month
So you see, you are not spending €20. You are investing it to get back €480 worth of your own free time, which you can spend on growing the business or relaxing with your family. This is not an expense; it is one of the most profitable investments available to a small business.
Myth #3: "I don't understand any of this. It's for techies; you need to know how to code."
If you can use a smartphone, send an email, or build furniture from IKEA using the instructions, you can definitely handle basic automation.
Modern automation services work like a children's LEGO set. You only have two types of bricks:
🧱 The Two Building Blocks of Automation
The Trigger Brick (If...): This is the event that starts everything. It can be anything: "If a new email arrives with the subject 'Request from website'...", "If a meeting in my calendar is about to start...", "If a new order is placed in my online store...".
The Action Brick (Then...): This is what should happen after the trigger. For example: "...then create a new task in my to-do list," "...then send me an SMS reminder," "...then add the order information to a spreadsheet."
You don't need to write a single line of code. You just log into the service, choose the first brick from a list (the app and the event), and then the second brick (another app and the action). You connect them with your mouse. That's it! Your first automation is ready. It's no more difficult than creating a playlist of your favorite music on Spotify.
How to Start Right Now: A Step-by-Step Plan with Three Simple Ideas
Don't try to automate everything at once. That's a sure path to frustration. Choose one, very simple and very boring task that you're sick of. Here are three examples.
💡 Idea 1: Stop playing "email ping-pong" to schedule meetings
The Problem: You waste so much time exchanging emails: "Are you free on Tuesday at 2:00 PM?", "No, how about Wednesday at 11:00 AM?", "Ah, I'm busy then..."
The Solution: Sign up for a free service like Calendly. Connect your work calendar to it. The service will automatically see when you are free. You will get a personal link (e.g., calendly.com/your-name). Now, you just send this link to your client and say, "Feel free to pick any time that works for you." They choose a time, and the meeting automatically appears in both of your calendars.
📧 Idea 2: Automatically answer frequently asked questions
The Problem: You get the same questions every day: "What are your opening hours?" "Do you have parking?"
The Solution: In Gmail, there's a feature called "Templates" (formerly Canned Responses). Create a perfect, detailed answer for each of these questions once. Now, when you get that email, you don't type the answer again. You insert the ready-made template with a single click. This is a simple automation that will save you a ton of time.
⭐ Idea 3: Collect customer reviews without any effort
The Problem: You forget to ask clients for reviews, even though you know they are vital for your business.
The Solution: Create a simple automation: If you mark an order in your spreadsheet as "Completed," then after 3 days, automatically send a polite email to the client: "Thank you for your order! We would be very grateful if you could leave us a review."
🚀 The Bottom Line
Automation isn't about the future or complex technology. It's about your present. It's about taking back control of your time so you can start enjoying your business again, not just the routine.
Now it's your turn.
Think about it: what is one small but very annoying task in your business? What would you happily give to your "digital helper" today?
