3 Automations Every Solopreneur Should Use in Their Business (from Easy to Hard)

From Streamlined Solopreneur: Tips to Help Small Business Owners Grow Without Burnout Joe Casabona, Productivity & Tech Coach for Solopreneurs

You’ve probably seen Rube Goldberg machines — those ridiculous setups where a marble rolls down a track, flips a switch, lights a match, and somehow makes toast. They’re fun to watch… but terrible for actually getting anything done.

That’s how most automations feel when you’re first starting out: over-engineered, fragile, and hard to maintain. But real business-saving automations? They don’t need to be complicated. In fact, some of the ones that save me the most time are stupidly simple.

In this episode, I walk through three automations I actually use — starting with a single-app setup inside Notion, moving to a form-to-database connection, and ending with a wild (but wonderful) workflow that ties together a whole bunch of tools. And yes, that last one does feel like a Rube Goldberg machine… but it works beautifully.

If you want to see how these work or grab templates, head to casabona.org/automation.

Top Takeaways

Start with simple, single-app automations. You’ll reduce points of failure and make it easier to trust your systems.
The best automations evolve. I’ve been tweaking some of mine for years.
Don’t build for complexity. Build for clarity, reliability, and ease.

Show Notes

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps solopreneurs decide what to use and what to build, so they can stop spinning their wheels and get their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without having to make another decision, hire employees, or sell your soul to AI.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it (so YOU don't need to make another decision). https://streamlined.fm/quiz

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/