In today's Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, we're excited to introduce Camilo Henao, the visionary founder of Catalytics Automation. Camilo's journey from a Program Manager at H1 Insights to a trailblazing entrepreneur highlights his deep understanding of automation and AI's transformative potential. At Catalytics Automation, Camilo and his team are dedicated to helping small to medium-sized businesses optimize their operations and maximize efficiency through tailored automation solutions. By automating sales, marketing, HR, operations, product, and finance processes, Catalytics Automation empowers businesses to save time, reduce costs, and boost revenue.
Hi, Camilo! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?
Catalytics Automation is an automation and AI agency, and we help businesses build measurable growth with tailored automation solutions for each client. We help businesses build growth by building two types of systems: 1) Systems designed to cut costs and manual work by streamlining and automating processes, and 2) systems designed to generate incremental revenue by increasing efficiency and allowing team members to focus on higher value work.
We serve small to medium-sized businesses in all industries. Every business, no matter their industry has team members that could be optimizing their daily operations with the use of AI and automation.
We help automate sales, marketing, HR, operations, product, and finance teams to improve their efficiency and daily output. Time is everyone's most valuable resource, and if every person in a business is properly allocating their time to the highest value tasks, the business as a whole will benefit immensely. However, time is not the only impact. Hours spent by an employee can be equated to dollars spent.
Quick Math:
- Assuming you have 100 employees
- 94% of employees report that they engage in 3 hours of manual and repetitive work each day
- In the US the average salary is ~61K and with 2,080 working hours per year on an hourly basis that's $29 per hour.
- 3 hours/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks = 780 hours/year.
- 780 hours x $29 = $22,955 per employee.
- For 94% of your workforce, this totals nearly $2.16 million annually.
That is only hours to dollars saved, without accounting for the incremental revenue that your organization would generate due to the increased efficiency.
Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.
I come from a long line of entrepreneurs in my family, so it's always been something I've wanted to do, but I never had a business or service that I felt compelled to drop everything and take the leap.
It wasn't until I started working at H1 Insights that I took that leap.
At H1 Insights I worked as a Program Manager in charge of a large team of data engineers. The team was tasked with implementing automation across our complex data pipeline system. That's where I saw the impact that automation could have on a business. I saw how much time and money the business was saving by implementing and optimizing its data operations.
Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.
I can't say too much more that I haven't said in my previous answer. It was my time at H1, that I finally had my Aha moment. I saw the impact of automation and how it could help so many small to medium-sized businesses that didn't have access to that level of skills or tech.
Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?
Make.com and Zapier. I walk the talk. I implement the same automation workflows that I implement for my customers in my own business. The benefits are real, and Catalytics Automation is benefiting from the same benefits I sell to my clients. That is how we are able to stay lean and grow without having to take on outside capital or large headcounts to grow.
We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.
Failure is just as important as success, and you can't grow and become successful without failure. An example of failure is having potential customers consistently reject your offer or service. There are lessons in everything, and for me, that lesson was understanding who exactly would benefit from my service. Rejections in aggregate allowed me to fine-tune my ideal customer profile and my messaging.
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?
Follow up! I wouldn't necessarily say that it's unconventional, but it's so important for every business and seller out there to keep in mind. Here is a fascinating stat a CEO of a consulting company shared with me:
2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% on the second contact
5% on the third contact
10% on the fourth contact
80% on the fifth to twelfth contact
What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?
Provide as much value to your customer as soon as possible. The more value you provide the longer you will be alive in the market, and the more success you will see. Push yourself to think "How can I provide more value faster?"
Want to go deeper into Camilo's work? Visit the links below:
- Visit Catalytics Automation's Website catalyticsautomation.com
- Connect with Camilo on LinkedIn: Camilo Henao
- Follow Catalytics Automation on LinkedIn
