Case study: how a small agency could save 10 hours a week with simple automation

This is an illustrative case study based on common patterns in small service businesses. Names and numbers are examples to show the method.

The situation

A six-person marketing agency was growing, but the team felt busier than ever. Client work was fine; it was the admin around it that was eating their week.

Step 1: Map the repetitive work

For one week, everyone logged any task they did more than twice. The list included:

• Copying enquiry form details into a spreadsheet and CRM (≈2 hrs/week)
• Writing weekly client status emails (≈4 hrs/week)
• Building monthly performance reports from exports (≈5 hrs/week)
• Chasing invoices (≈1.5 hrs/week)

Step 2: Choose what to automate

They scored each task on frequency, time, and risk if it goes wrong. Low-risk, high-frequency tasks went first.

Step 3: Build simple solutions

Step 4: Measure

After a month, the team re-ran the time log. Around 10 hours a week were freed up, mostly re-invested in client strategy work.

Lessons you can apply

1. Measure before you automate; guesses are usually wrong.
2. Keep a human review step for anything client-facing.
3. Start with one workflow, prove it, then expand.