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Marhardt Consulting
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Back to The Journey

Series · 8 parts

The Automation Playbook

  1. The 5-Minute Rule: Why Lead Response Time Makes or Breaks Local BusinessesAnswer a quote request in five minutes and you are far more likely to win it. What the MIT and Harvard research says about speed to lead, and practical fixes for owners who are busy doing the work.August 28, 2026
  2. The Real Cost of Missed Calls for Small Businesses (and the Fix)Most calls to small businesses go unanswered, and most callers never try again. The conservative math on what that costs you, and the three fixes that catch the work you never knew you missed.September 1, 2026
  3. Phone Tag Is Costing You Customers: The Case for Online BookingAround 40% of online appointments get booked outside business hours, while most calls to small businesses go unanswered. Why online booking wins customers you never hear about, and how to add it without losing control of your calendar.September 3, 2026
  4. Getting Paid Faster: Invoicing Habits That Fix Small Business Cash FlowMost small businesses are waiting on money they have already earned. Five invoicing habits, from same day billing to polite automated reminders, that shorten the gap between finishing the work and getting paid.September 3, 2026
  5. What Is a CRM, and Does a 5-Person Business Actually Need One?A CRM is a shared memory of every customer and conversation. Here is the honest answer on when a small business needs one, when a notebook still works, and what the ROI numbers really say.September 4, 2026
  6. Email Follow-Up Automation: The Channel Small Businesses Leave on the TableFollow-up, not newsletters. Five short email automations that recover stalled quotes, earn reviews, and bring quiet customers back, each written once and running forever.September 4, 2026
  7. The 10 Tasks Your Small Business Should Automate FirstTen tasks worth automating before anything else, ranked by payoff. Each comes with a simple trigger: if you do it by hand more than three times a week, it qualifies.September 5, 2026
  8. You've Outgrown Your Spreadsheets: 7 Signs Your Shop Needs Real SystemsSpreadsheets run more small shops than any software ever built. Here are the seven signs yours have quietly become the bottleneck, and what real systems actually look like at small-shop scale.August 17, 2026