What Should I Stop Doing — hayleybarrett.com.au

Do you feel like you're always busy but not making any progress?

You're not alone. These are the two questions I hear most from small business owners — "Why is money always tight?" and "What should I focus on right now?" In fact, many small business owners are confiding the same thing to AI late at night. Here's who's asking, what tasks they're drowning in, and the real situations that pushed them to finally ask for help.

Based on: BizCover AI Report 2025 · SmallFish Business Coaching · APT Business Services · NextMinute · Kelly Partners · Outsourcing Angel AU · 2025–2026

By business type
Universal tasks they hate
The triggering situations
Tradie / Trade business
Electrician · Plumber · Builder · Painter · Landscaper · Carpenter
Tasks they're doing that they shouldn't be
Quoting & estimating
4–8 hrs/week
Often underpriced
Chasing unpaid invoices
2–4 hrs/week
Emotionally draining
Scheduling & rescheduling
3–5 hrs/week
Constant interruptions
Replying to enquiries
1–3 hrs/week
Slow = lose the job
Bookkeeping & receipts
3–6 hrs/week
Piling up shoebox
Social media & photos
1–2 hrs/week
Inconsistent or ignored
Ordering materials
2–4 hrs/week
On-site, in the van
Complaints & warranty calls
Ad hoc
Disruptive + costly
The prompts they actually type
"I'm a plumber in Brisbane. I spend hours quoting jobs, chasing invoices, and answering enquiries. What should I automate first? I'm on the tools 50 hours a week."
"Act as my business coach. I'm a sparky running a small electrical business. I've got 3 guys working for me, we're booked out 3 weeks but I'm not making money. What's going on and what should I focus on?"
Classic tradie paradox — busy but not profitable
Why automate your service business →
Cleaning business
Domestic · Commercial · End-of-lease · Window
Tasks they're doing that they shouldn't be
Booking & scheduling
5–8 hrs/week
Phone/text back-and-forth
Sending quotes manually
2–4 hrs/week
Often too slow to win job
Chasing recurring clients
2 hrs/week
Should be automatic
Writing client instructions
1–2 hrs/week
Repeated every client
Staff rostering
3–5 hrs/week
Last-minute no-shows
Invoicing after each job
2–4 hrs/week
Delayed = late cash
The prompts they actually type
"I run a cleaning business with 4 casual staff. I spend every morning scheduling and texting clients. What should I automate first so I can focus on getting more clients?"
"Act as my business coach. I started cleaning as a side hustle and now have 12 regular clients. I'm exhausted, my prices are too low, and I don't know if I should hire or stay small. What do I do?"
Why automate your service business →
Freelancer / Digital services
Designer · Copywriter · Social media manager · VA · Web developer · Marketer
Tasks they're doing that they shouldn't be
Writing proposals
3–6 hrs/week
Each one from scratch
Admin & client emails
5–10 hrs/week
The invisible time sink
Chasing invoices
2–3 hrs/week
Awkward + time-wasting
Own social media
2–4 hrs/week
Cobbler's kids syndrome
Onboarding new clients
2–4 hrs/new client
Repeated manually
Time tracking & reporting
1–3 hrs/week
Often forgotten
The prompts they actually type
"I'm a freelance social media manager with 6 clients. I spend all my time doing client work and have no time to market myself or get new clients. What should I automate or systemise first?"
"Act as my business coach. I'm a copywriter making $8k/month but I'm working 60 hours a week. I'm fully booked and can't take more clients but I also can't afford to lose any. I feel stuck. What should I focus on?"
The "golden handcuffs" situation — revenue looks good but freedom is gone
Why automate your service business →
Café / Food / Hospitality
Café · Restaurant · Food truck · Catering · Bakery
Tasks they're doing that they shouldn't be
Staff rostering
4–6 hrs/week
Last-minute changes
Ordering & stock management
3–5 hrs/week
Manual & reactive
Social media content
3–5 hrs/week
No system, inconsistent
Responding to reviews
1–2 hrs/week
Often ignored or late
Payroll & super
2–4 hrs/week
Stressful + error-prone
Event & catering quotes
2–3 hrs/enquiry
Slow response loses bookings
The prompts they actually type
"I run a café in Melbourne. I'm doing the roster, ordering, socials, customer complaints and still working behind the counter 50 hours a week. My costs have doubled. What should I outsource first and what can I automate cheaply?"
"Act as my business coach. My café is packed every day but I'm not making money. My wage bill is high, food costs are up, and I haven't paid myself properly in 6 months. What should I focus on this month?"
The hospitality trap — busy = success is the dangerous illusion
Why automate your service business →
Health / Wellness / Fitness
Physio · Psychologist · Personal trainer · Nutritionist · Massage · Yoga
Tasks they're doing that they shouldn't be
Appointment booking & reminders
3–5 hrs/week
Manual texts, no-shows
Session notes & reports
5–8 hrs/week
Done after hours
Invoicing & following up
2–4 hrs/week
Sensitive with clients
Marketing & content
2–3 hrs/week
Last priority, always dropped
Cancellation management
1–2 hrs/week
Lost revenue + rescheduling
New client onboarding
1–2 hrs/client
Repeated manually
The prompts they actually type
"I'm a physio running a solo private practice. I spend hours on session notes and admin after hours. What can I automate or outsource to get my evenings back?"
"Act as my business coach. I'm a psychologist in private practice, fully booked, but I haven't raised my rates in 3 years and I'm doing all the admin myself. I'm burnt out. What should I do first?"
Why automate your service business →
Online seller / Ecommerce
Shopify store · Etsy · Amazon · Dropshipper · Product creator
Tasks they're doing that they shouldn't be
Customer service emails
5–10 hrs/week
Same 10 questions, daily
Product descriptions
2–5 hrs/week
Slow to write, easy to automate
Social media content
3–5 hrs/week
Inconsistent, drains time
Packing & dispatch
Scales with orders
First task to outsource at scale
Returns & refund management
1–3 hrs/week
Emotional + repetitive
Ads management
3–6 hrs/week
Often wasted spend
The prompts they actually type
"I run a Shopify store selling [product]. I spend most of my time answering the same customer questions over and over. How do I automate this without it feeling robotic?"
"Act as my business coach. My Shopify store is doing $15k/month but I'm doing everything — ads, emails, packing, customer service. I'm making money but I'm exhausted and it's still just me. What should I hire or automate first?"
Why automate your Shopify store →
Top 10 tasks every business type wants to stop doing — ranked by frequency of AI ask
1Bookkeeping, reconciliation & BAS prep— "I don't touch it until my accountant screams"
2Chasing unpaid invoices— Emotionally awful, chronically delayed
3Replying to repetitive customer enquiries— Same 5–10 questions, every single day
4Scheduling, booking & rescheduling— Constant interruption, zero value creation
5Writing social media content— First dropped when busy, most regretted
6Writing quotes, proposals & estimates— Time-intensive, often underpriced anyway
7Payroll, super & staff admin— Complex, high-stakes, error-prone
8Responding to Google reviews— Known to matter, always deprioritised
9Writing emails & client communications— Hours per week, often procrastinated
10Ordering supplies / inventory management— Reactive, error-prone, done on-site
The time audit reality — what the data shows
Average owner spends 8–20 hrs/week on automatable or outsourceable tasks (LinkedIn Pulse 2025)
Businesses can reclaim 20–30% of time by outsourcing admin tasks (APT Business Services 2025)
46% of AU owners would consider using AI instead of hiring — only 16% actually have (BizCover 2025)
Priority for automation: bookings, invoicing, CRM updates — these three alone can reclaim 10+ hrs/week
🔥 Situation 1: "Booked out but broke"
The most common triggering situation — the business appears to be going well from the outside (fully booked, phone ringing) but the owner isn't paying themselves properly, cash flow is tight, and profit is elusive. More work isn't solving it.
"I'm fully booked 3 weeks out, I've got two staff, but I took home less last month than I did when I was doing it alone. I don't know where the money is going."
Tradies Cleaners with staff Cafés Health & wellness
😤 Situation 2: "I can't stop working in it"
The owner is trapped doing the actual work and can't step back to work on the business. Every hour is reactive. There's no system, no delegation, no planning time. Usually hits between year 1 and year 3.
"I started this to have more freedom but I'm working more hours than when I had a job. I don't have time to even think about what to do differently."
Freelancers Sole traders (all types) Online sellers
📉 Situation 3: "Work has gone quiet"
A sudden or gradual drop in enquiries or bookings triggers panic. The owner had been coasting on referrals and now the pipeline is empty. This is the moment they search for help — reactive rather than proactive growth.
"I've always relied on word of mouth and it's dried up. I have a quiet week coming up and I don't know how to get work in fast."
Tradies Service businesses Seasonal businesses
💸 Situation 4: "Costs have gone up, prices haven't"
Inflation, wage increases, insurance, materials — costs have risen 20–40% but pricing hasn't kept pace. The business is generating similar or more revenue but the owner is earning less. Fear of losing clients keeps prices frozen.
"My costs have gone up massively in the last 2 years but I'm scared to raise my prices in case I lose clients. I don't know how to do it."
All service businesses Hospitality Retail
🧠 Situation 5: "I'm burning out and I can't see the way out"
The most emotionally vulnerable prompt type. The owner is exhausted, questioning why they started, and feels trapped. Often typed late at night. AI is the first "person" they tell because there's no judgment, no cost, and no appointment needed.
"I feel like I'm always busy but never making progress. I'm tired all the time. I'm not sure if I should keep going or if there's something fundamentally wrong with my business."
All types — late stage overwhelm Solo operators Women in business Year 2–4 businesses

Why work with me

You don't need another tool. You need someone who knows exactly what works for a business like yours.

I only work with small businesses
No enterprise bloat. No generic playbooks built for a business ten times your size. Every tool, every system, every recommendation is tailored to what will actually move the needle for a business like yours, and nothing that won't.
Proven ROI
Most clients see 10 to 30 hours saved per week and a 20 to 40% reduction in operational costs within the first three months. That's not a promise, that's what happens when you stop doing the wrong things and start running the right systems.
10–30 hrs saved/week · 20–40% cost reduction in 90 days
Driven by your success
I'm not just here to build you a website and disappear. I genuinely care about what you're building and why, because I know that behind every small business is a person who decided to back themselves. My job is to make sure that pays off, in revenue and in life.
Dedicated partner
This isn't a one-off project. Both packages are subscription-based, which means I'm actively working on your business every single month. Things evolve, problems come up, and opportunities appear. You need someone in your corner who's already across everything, not starting from scratch every time.

Set your business up for success

Stop paying for tools that don't talk to each other. Set your business up for results.

Designed specifically for small businesses, built to take the hard work out of running your business. A brand that connects with customers, a website or Shopify store that converts visitors into customers and automations that give you back your time.

For Ecommerce Businesses
The Factory Floor

A store engineered to convert, backed by branding that builds instant trust and automations that handle orders, follow-ups and restocks while you're off the clock.

See The Factory Floor pricing →

Common questions

What people ask before they get started

Straight answers to what business owners on this page usually want to know.

I don't know where to start. Which task should I automate first?
That's exactly what Leverage is built to uncover, not a generic checklist.
Leverage is a strategic discovery call where we dig into your business together: the bottlenecks, the tools quietly leaking time and money, your goals, and what you're actually trying to build. There's no generic checklist here, because the right starting point is different for every business. Once we're working together, that same strategic thinking continues every month, so knowing what to focus on next never becomes a guessing game.
My business doesn't fit neatly into one of the categories above. Does this still apply to me?
Yes. The categories are examples, not a checklist you need to match.
The underlying problems, admin eating your week, no time to grow, cash flow that doesn't match how busy you are, show up across almost every small business, regardless of industry. If you don't see your exact business type listed, the same principles still apply.
I've tried automation tools before and they didn't work. What's different here?
Most tools fail because you're left to pick and configure them yourself.
Most automation tools fail because the business owner is left to figure out which tool fits, then configure it themselves, usually without knowing what their business actually needs first. The result is either the wrong tool for the job, or the right tool set up generically instead of around how the business actually runs. Here, that guesswork is removed. I work out exactly what your business needs, then choose and configure the specific tools suited to it, built around your workflow rather than a generic setup you're left to manage on your own.
Do you work with businesses of any size, or just certain ones?
Only small businesses, solo operators and small teams. Not enterprise.
That means the systems built for you are proportional to your business, not scaled-down versions of something built for a much bigger company. Everything is sized and priced for how a small business actually operates.
How do I know if I need The Engine Room or The Factory Floor?
It comes down to how you make money: service or product.
If you provide a service, book jobs, take clients, or run appointments, The Engine Room is what you need: a brand, website, and automations built specifically to answer enquiries fast, follow up on quotes, chase invoices, and turn interest into confirmed bookings, so nothing sits waiting on you. If you sell a product, The Factory Floor is what you need: a brand, Shopify store, and automations built to recover abandoned carts, generate reviews, and bring customers back after their first purchase, so traffic actually turns into revenue instead of leaking away at checkout.
Will this actually fix the "busy but broke" feeling, or just add more admin?
The admin gets taken off your plate, not added to it.
The whole point is it's not left to you to decide what to build, set it up, or manage afterwards. An expert takes all that off your plate, implements it properly, and stays on it every month so it keeps working. You're not handed another tool to configure, learn, and maintain on top of everything else you're already doing.

Ready?

You're losing hours every week to tasks an automated system could be doing for you.

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