Jared Weiss: Scaling Your Independent Business with Automation

“I’m an automation nut,” Jared Weiss confesses. 

Through his independent business, JaredKCreative, Jared helps clients implement data-driven marketing strategies. But he’s not just setting up Google PPC campaigns or writing blog posts. 

Jared’s approach is to help his clients identify and solve the root problems preventing them from achieving their goals. His toolbelt combines marketing and automation to deliver solutions that scale. 

“I’m a marketer with automation and operations experience who can do both,” he explains. 

Here’s how Jared sets his clients up for long-term success and sustainable growth (and some bonus tips for independent consultants who want to get started with automation). 

Solving the right problem

Jared works primarily with small- to medium-sized businesses that are looking to scale. Often, his client relationships start with a request that conceals the real challenge they need to address in order to grow. 

“Clients will come to me and say Hi, I need Facebook ads,” he says. But when he looks at their campaigns, he sees weaknesses — for example, leads aren’t entered into a customer relationship management (CRM) system, or it takes days to contact each lead — that will lead to wasted ad spend. 

“We need to build a foundation so that when you go spend $2500 or $50,000 on advertising, you have the closed-loop attribution and you can actually know what’s going on in your business,” Jared explains. 

Jared’s two pillars of automation

That foundation rests on what Jared calls the two pillars of automation: data architecture and data integrity. 

Data architecture means that an organization is collecting the data they’ll need to run an automation. “If I want to send an automated email when someone fills out a form, am I asking them for their email?” Jared explains. “If we want to do a follow-up based off of an estimated delivery date, are we getting that data at some point? Is the sales rep asking for it?” 

Data integrity refers to how the data is being collected. For example, if a business is collecting emails, Jared wants to make sure that 1) the data is clean and 2) is getting put into a CRM. While he can help clients bootstrap with Google Sheets or Excel, he typically recommends a CRM that he thinks will be helpful for the client. 

“Once we get that foundation built, then the framework is there,” he says. It’s easy to set up a campaign, push campaign data to the CRM, and generate reports that show how well a campaign is actually performing for the business. 

“Now, when we’re looking at reports, we’re making definitive choices with data,” he explains. “The business owner can really easily see the health of their business and whether we’re actually driving towards the overall objective, which nine times out of ten is to generate revenue.” 

Getting started with automation as an independent consultant

While Jared works with SMBs, he believes that businesses of any size can benefit from automation — especially if you’re a business of one. 

“If anyone should leverage automation, it’s independent consultants,” Jared says. “They can’t do everything all at once.” 

1. Design your data architecture for growth

Even if you don’t plan to use automation in the short term, Jared recommends getting your data architecture and data integrity in place to make it easy to scale when your business takes off. 

“People will set up their business, and if they don’t understand what they need in the future, when they get there, they have to start at square one,” Jared says. 

2. Onboard new tools when you need them

You don’t have to set up a tool for every part of your workflow right off the bat. If you follow Jared’s advice on building your data architecture and integrity pillars, it should be easy to implement new tools when you need them. 

Jared started out with Notion for both project management and CRM. Though he’s since moved onto a purpose-built CRM and ClickUp for project management, he says that starting a practice of capturing data early on set him up to quickly implement automation as he grew his business. 

“I was thinking about automation the entire time and making sure my data was accurate,” he explains. “I’m not putting an email address and a mailing address in the same field. I’m keeping things organized. All of that is so critical when you start, especially if you want to leverage any kind of automation going forward.” 

(P.S. Pollen members get 6 months free on Notion’s Plus plan!) 

3. Be diligent with your data

If you want to achieve the benefits of automation, be ready to put in consistent work. 

“You have to be diligent with your data,” Jared advises. “If somebody emails you and they’re not in your Notion, you need to go put them in your Notion.” 

He jokes that implementing automation is like being a chef who uses ingredients that are already in the kitchen. “The ingredients need to be fresh and in the right place in the refrigerator so we can cook the meals even faster,” he adds. 

Finding freedom through automation

Jared believes that automation is about more than just setting your business up to succeed — it’s about setting yourself up for a sustainable life as a business owner or entrepreneur. 

“Automation allows business owners to have some level of freedom from their business,” he says. “When there’s some automation, they can jump out of their business and everything still runs as it should. They can take a couple of days off.” 

Many of us went independent to find freedom and flexibility. With Jared’s tips for automation, we can step away with confidence that our businesses are running smoothly. 

Pollen members can connect with Jared on the Pollen Community. To join our community of top independent consultants, apply today.