Find the Repeatables

The First Step to Scaling Is Letting Go of the Tasks You Shouldn’t Be Doing

If you’re running a retail business, there’s a good chance you’re buried in a blur of recurring tasks:

• Manually entering products

• Sending the same vendor emails

• Chasing tracking numbers

• Updating Shopify

• Building POs line by line

• Explaining the same return policy again

• Updating team spreadsheets that no one reads

At some point, you start to feel like your own assistant.

And here’s the truth: you’re not growing a business—you’re spinning inside it.

🧠 Step One: Identify the Repeatables

Repeatables are any task you:

• Do more than 3x a week

• Could hand off to someone else with minimal context

• Feel like you’re “just keeping things moving” when you do it

If you’ve ever said:

“It only takes 10 minutes.”

Multiply that by how many times a month it comes up.

Now ask yourself:

“Is this really worth my 10 minutes?”

“Is it worth my team’s 10 minutes?”

“Or is this something we should never be doing manually again?”

🛑 Don’t Confuse Output With Impact

You checking off a to-do list isn’t proof that the system works.

It’s proof that the system depends on you—and that’s a liability.

You’re not in business to be the backend.

You’re in business to:

• Spot patterns

• Guide your team

• Take bigger swings

• Create experiences customers remember

And none of that happens when you’re stuck redoing what should’ve been built once and delegated forever.

🪜 Your Job Is to Build the Ladder, Not Be the Rung

That includes your team, too.

When we train retail staff to spend their hours on low-leverage tasks—like manually keying in vendor products or digging for tracking links—we send the message that their value is in data input, not customer experience.

Then we wonder why they don’t upsell.

Or why they don’t take initiative.

Or why we’re always putting out fires alone.

The more repeatables you remove, the more space you create for your team to level up.

Instead of just inputting information, they start interpreting it.

Instead of just answering questions, they start anticipating them.

That’s where great retail happens.

🛠️ What to Do with Your Repeatables

Once you’ve identified them, here’s the playbook:

1. Automate it

If it’s happening inside Shopify or your inbox, there’s probably a better way.

Tools like Inventor-Ease are designed to clean up your repeatable mess:

• Auto-build POs

• Sync vendor data

• Trigger the right emails

• Close the loop without closing your day

2. Template it

If it can’t be automated, at least make it brainless to execute.

That means shared scripts, reusable snippets, standard operating procedures.

3. Delegate it

Most founders try to delegate too early or too late.

The sweet spot is when a task is well-documented, tested, and still clogging your calendar.

Hand it off and don’t look back.

4. Eliminate it

Some tasks only exist because no one questioned them.

If it’s not directly supporting customer experience, revenue, or team clarity—cut it.

🎯 What Retailers Actually Get Paid For

You don’t get paid to “stay on top of things.”

You get paid to design systems that run without you.

And your team? They get paid to be your frontline differentiator, not your backend bandaid.

If you’re constantly rebuilding your wheels, no one’s driving the bus.

So start today.

Find the repeatables.

Offload them.

Then do the real work that moves your business forward.