Transformation Success.
I’ll never forget the day I walked into a printing press in Port Harcourt and watched three staff
members flipping through notebooks to track orders. The owner looked at me, frustrated,
and said:
“Sometimes we forget who paid, who hasn’t, and which job is urgent. But “na so we dey do
am”.
That phrase “na so we dey do am” is the enemy of progress.
Whether you’re running a bakery, a small school, or a cleaning agency, if you’re still doing
everything manually from record-keeping to customer service you’re slowing down your own
growth.
Automation isn’t about replacing people. It’s about replacing stress.
Let’s walk through five essential shifts you need to make if you’re serious about transitioning
from manual to automated without the overwhelm.
- From Paper Trails to Digital Records
Let’s be honest, how many times have you misplaced a customer’s number or forgotten a
payment?
Manual record-keeping leads to lost opportunities. Switch to tools like:
=> Google Sheets for sales and expenses
=> Notion or Trello for client/project tracking
=> Zoho Books or Wave for basic accounting
These tools store everything in the cloud, no more flipping through old notebooks in panic
when a customer calls unexpectedly. - From “Call Me” to Self-Service Systems
Are you still asking people to “DM for price”?
That’s 1999 behavior.
Today, you can automate:
=> Product catalogs on WhatsApp Business
=> Pre-filled order forms with Google Forms or Typeform
=> Booking links with Calendly
=> Instant payment via Paystack, Flutterwave, or Selar - From Verbal Instructions to Automated Workflows
If you still remind your staff verbally about every task, you’re doing too much.
Automate task tracking and communication with:
=> Trello or Asana (for projects/tasks)
=> Slack or WhatsApp groups (for team updates)
=> Email templates for repetitive messages - From Memory-Based Marketing to Scheduled Automation
Posting on Instagram “when you remember” is not a strategy.
Switch to:
● Content calendars with Meta Planner or Buffer
● Automated email marketing with Mailchimp or Flowdesk
● Automated responses to DMs using WhatsApp Business tools
Here’s what happens: You stop ghosting your audience. You show up consistently. You stay
top-of-mind.
One baker told me, “The moment I started scheduling my weekly cake promos in advance,
orders doubled because I stayed visible.”
