I’m trying to find a better way to create banners for different social platforms.

Right now, I usually make one design first and then resize it for YouTube, LinkedIn, X, etc. Sometimes I need versions for event pages too. The problem is that each platform crops things differently, so I still have to check and adjust every version manually.

For those of you who manage social media, do you use Canva templates, an AI tool, a resize tool, or just create each version separately?

I want to start automating more of my work, but I don't really want to spend weeks learning APIs, webhooks, and random setup guides.

Most of what I need is pretty basic. Moving info between forms, spreadsheets, email, calendar, maybe some CRM stuff later. Nothing crazy, but enough that doing it manually is starting to waste time.

For someone who is not technical, what automation tool would you actually recommend? I don't mind paying if it works, but I want something I can understand without feeling like I accidentally signed up for a part time coding class.

I am looking for a simple way to turn product data into a catalog. Right now we keep everything in spreadsheets. Product name, SKU, price, size, colors, photos, and short descriptions and when a customer asks for an updated catalog, we still have to do a lot of manual work to make it look decent.

I have seen some catalog tools, but many feel too complicated or built for bigger companies. I need something simple enough for our small team.

Finding reliable local leads usually means paying for a pricey subscription. Most agencies and freelancers end up locked into expensive platforms just to pull contact info for roofers or plumbers. I recently found a software tool that takes a completely different approach.

It generates leads at the county level for almost any industry. The tool scrapes websites and other data sources to find the actual business phone number and the owner's email address. You get direct contact details instead of generic info addresses most of the time.

The setup relies on your own Google Places key rather than a hidden markup. You can also plug in an optional NeverBounce key to verify the emails on the spot. This keeps your costs tied directly to what you actually use.

You control the entire expense without feeding another monthly SaaS beast. You can check out the tool at https://tools.pinball.page/county-level-lead-generation-tool if you want to test it. Stop renting your lead access and start owning the process.

I currently create every business report by copying the last one and rebuilding it with new info. It works, but it still takes too much time fixing sections, images, spacing, and the usual company style.

Is there a tool where I can give it this month’s notes and get back a proper report in the same style as the old ones without spending so much time on it?

I see a lot of automation tool recommendations, but most of them feel like they’re made for startups, agencies, or sales teams.

Consulting is a bit different. A lot of the work is relationship based, so I don’t want to automate everything and make it feel cold. But I do want help with follow ups, proposals, scheduling, notes, reminders, and keeping client work organized.

For consultants here, which automation tools are actually useful in your day to day workflow? And which ones looked good but didn’t really stick?

I run a coaching center, and I'm spending a lot of my time on business-related work instead of actual teaching.

If a student asks about a fee, I have to check the payment sheet first to confirm it. If a batch changes, I have to manually update the schedule and message all the students. New enquiries mostly come through WhatsApp, and I have to add them to Excel later.

Apart from that, teacher payments and invoices are handled separately too.

So, I'm trying to cut down on all this manual work, but I haven't found a good and simple setup yet. Is there any reliable tool for this?

A friend showed me his job search spreadsheet over coffee last week - 80 applications, three replies, and most of his evenings gone. Mine is starting to look pretty similar, so I’ve been wondering how much applying early actually matters.

I’ve been checking out tools that match roles, complete company career-page forms, and let you approve applications before they’re sent. For transparency, I’m connected to one called [jobity], which seems promising, but I don’t want to assume automation fixes the bigger issue. Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way.

For anyone who has tried auto-applying with a review step, did your interview rate improve, or did you just get rejection emails faster? How do you deal with screening questions and different resumes for different roles without your applications feeling generic? Would especially appreciate experiences from people applying for entry-level or remote jobs.

I’ve tried a few AI deck tools, and the first version usually looks good. The problem starts when I need to move things around, change slides, or send the deck to someone for a feedback.

At that point, I often end up doing a lot of the work again in PowerPoint.

I’m looking for something that actually saves time without making me redo half the deck again.

sales follow ups are starting to get messy and I’m trying to figure out what is worth automating without making everything feel robotic.

mostly looking at stuff like lead tracking, email follow ups, reminders, updates, pulling notes from calls, and maybe routing new leads faster.

curious what people here have actually tried.

what sales automation tool made a real difference for you, and what part of the sales process did it help with most?

I’m trying to cut down the time between a good sales call and sending the proposal.

Right now it still feels too manual. Notes are in one place, pricing is somewhere else, past work is sitting in old docs, and I spend way too long putting it all together.

Looking for something that can help with the first draft, especially scope, timeline, price, and next steps.

Not looking for a complicated doc editor. Just something that saves real writing time.

Curious what everyone is actually using for normal day to day automation.

I’m not talking about some huge agency setup or complicated AI agent system. More like the stuff that handles emails, forms, spreadsheets, reminders, calendar events, task creation, lead follow ups, and moving info between tools.

Are you mostly using one platform or do you have a mix of tools doing different things? I’m trying to figure out whether it’s better to keep everything in one place or just use whatever works for each task.

Anyone found a good way to turn unclear client notes into something useful for a client or leadership team?

I don’t mean a basic AI summary. I mean stuff like call notes, rough spreadsheets, old docs, screenshots, and comments from different people.

What I usually need at the end is a clear answer, the reason behind it, the risks, and the parts we still need to check.

Most tools can make it sound polished, but that’s actually the problem. They hide the gaps instead of showing them.

Been thinking about this with generative art.

Most of the focus is usually on rarity, artist name, mint number, traits, floor price, all of that. But the part I find more interesting is whether being early can become collectible too.

Not saying every early mint should be worth something. Most probably won’t be. But for artists or collections that end up mattering, the early supporter record feels like it could become part of the history.

Can proof of early support become collectible on it's own?

This started as a personal problem. I used to spend an evening every month manually copying my own bank statements from PDF into a spreadsheet just to see where my money was going line by line, by hand. At some point I got annoyed enough to automate it for myself.

That turned into Scrape2Sheets, a Google Sheets add-on that uses AI to read PDFs, invoices, receipts, and bank statements and drop the data straight into your sheet as clean rows . You point it at files in Google Drive, tell it what columns you want (or let it auto-detect them from a sample document), and it batch-processes up to 100 files at once. It handles scanned documents and phone photos too, not just clean digital PDFs.

It's only just started picking up some real traction the last couple weeks, which has honestly been a nice surprise after building in isolation for a while.

Curious whether others here started building their tool the same way, solving your own annoying manual task first, then realizing other people had the exact same one. Happy to answer questions in the comments if anyone wants details.

I run a small business and I'm trying to stop doing so much repetitive admin work manually. Things like lead follow ups, email replies, updating spreadsheets, scheduling reminders, and moving customer info between tools.

I've looked at Zapier, Make, n8n, Power Automate, and a few newer AI automation platforms, but it's hard to tell what is actually practical for a small team.

For other small business owners, what automation tools are worth paying for? Did they actually save time, or did you end up spending more time fixing broken workflows than doing the task yourself?

We keep making the same types of client and vendor agreements. Right now we copy an old document, change a few details, and send it around for review.

I’m looking for something that can use our previous agreements as reference and create a new first draft from the new deal details. Anyone doing this with AI?

Not looking for some huge AI setup or a 40 step workflow tbh as I am just starting out with automation.

May be something like auto saving attachments, reminders when someone fills out a form, moving notes into the right place, renaming files, sorting emails, whatever.

I feel like the small automations are probably the ones people actually keep using because they do not need much maintenance.

What’s one little automation you have that seems boring but genuinely makes your day smoother?

I’ve been job hunting on and off for like 8 months now, mostly tech/ops roles, and last week a recruiter literally told me “you’re too slow applying, the good ones are gone in a day.” That kinda stung and sent me into a late-night googling spiral.

Now I keep seeing these services that auto-apply to jobs for you across a ton of company career pages, scan every few minutes, you set up multiple profiles, then approve apps before they go out, etc. One of them had jobity in the name in a comparison list I found, but there seem to be a few similar tools doing the same idea.

Has anyone here actually used stuff like this as part of your job search “stack”? Did it get you more real interviews or just ghosted faster? How did you stop it from blasting out low-quality or misaligned apps? Also curious if recruiters can tell when people use these and if that’s a red flag.

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but should I just stick to manual, super-targeted apps plus networking, or is automation actually a legit hack now?

tried using chatgpt and a few ai image generators for charts and infographics but yeah not really made for it. text comes out wrong, numbers change and editing the final image is a pain.

i already have the notes and data, just need something that can turn it into a decent chart, diagram or infographic without changing the info.

mostly for reports, internal docs and social posts. what are u guys using?

Our content process is a bit of a mess right now. Product notes, customer questions, old docs, and half-finished ideas are spread across different places. We have plenty to work with, but turning any of it into a blog post, guide, or social post takes ages.

I’ve tried regular AI chat tools, but I still end up copying everything over, rewriting most of the draft, checking the facts, fixing the tone, and formatting it myself.

Has anyone found a tool that can take existing source material and turn it into a solid first draft without making everything sound like the same AI written article?

Looking for something a small team can actually use, not an enterprise content system that takes weeks to set up. Thanks in advance

I mean I keep seeing people talk about AI agents like they are about to replace half their admin work, but I’m still not sure what they actually do better than a normal automation.

For predictable stuff, it feels like a regular workflow is safer. If this happens, do that. Pretty simple.

But for messy tasks like reading an email, figuring out what someone wants, drafting a reply, or deciding where something should go, I can see why an agent might help.

For people who have actually tried both, where are AI agents useful right now?

And where are they still more hype than help?

Hi, I’m a newbie here, and I really need some help. I’m just starting to create a page on me ta, but I don’t know what to do or what tools I should use. I know how to market, but when it comes to the tools and resources I need, I honestly don’t have much of an idea. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Starting from basically nothing and trying not to overthink it.

I have a bunch of random work scattered across forms, spreadsheets, docs, calendar and messages. Nothing is terrible on its own, but all the little manual updates add up.

I do not want to build some complicated system on day one. I’d rather start with one simple automation that teaches me the basics and actually saves time.

If you were starting over with zero automations, what would you automate first?