Startup and SMB Growth, Without The Growing Pains
Admin is the biggest tax on growth, costing small businesses 120 hours a year. Discover ways to reduce the bill.
— 5 min read —
The Challenges of Scaling SMBs
If you’ve been running your business for a while, you know that scaling comes with growing pains. At first, it’s manageable—handling a few extra invoices or compliance deadlines. But as growth accelerates, back-office tasks spiral out of control.
On average, SMBs lose about 120 days each year to admin work.
Take a fast-growing e-commerce founder. As her company doubles in size, so does the paperwork, invoicing, and supplier management. She needs to focus on product development and marketing to sustain growth, so admin takes a back seat.
Unpaid invoices pile up, government filings slip through the cracks, and what was once a minor task turns into a major fire—costing her more time and stress than if she had handled it earlier.
Best-case scenario? She spends nights or weekends catching up, leading to burnout. Worst case? Missed deadlines, hurt cash flow and penalty fees. This story, isn’t uncommon.. On average, SMBs spend a significant amount of talent hours and power —about 5% of the total for an average company just on paperwork.
5 Things to Do Differently
Unlike traditional software that boosts productivity, AI services focus on delivering complete outcomes in a time and cost effective way.
Automating Admin Tasks
Manual work leads to burnout, especially as businesses scale. Vera autonomously handles tasks like invoicing, sorting emails, and managing government obligations. Instead of spending hours chasing unpaid invoices, Vera does it for you—just like a person would.
Take our e-commerce founder example: Before Vera, she manually followed up on late payments, leading to cash flow problems and slowing growth.
Maximize Your Team’s Talent
AI handles routine tasks so your team can focus on high-value work—strategy, creativity, and customer engagement.
AI can handle routine tasks to free people to focus on strategic thinking, creativity, and critical analysis.
And when you do have resources for new hires, you can bring in talent to drive growth, not do paperwork.
24/7 Operations
Admin tasks don’t pause, and neither does Vera. AI-powered services run around the clock, managing backlogs and ensuring no deadlines or invoices slip through the cracks—even when your team is offline. With Vera’s business memory, gaps are filled automatically.
Confident Compliance
As businesses grow, compliance becomes more complex. Vera tracks deadlines, sends proactive reminders, and ensures you stay compliant—so you never get caught off guard.
One early user didn’t realize how many compliance deadlines he was missing until fines hit. With Vera, that won’t happen.
Scaling Without Hiring
Growing businesses often face a choice: hire more staff for admin or invest in strategic hires. AI services like Vera eliminate that trade-off by automating repetitive tasks, reducing payroll costs while keeping operations smooth.
Plus, AI services don't need onboarding. They deliver value immediately—integrating with your existing back-office software, securely analyzing data for context.
AI + People = Smarter Growth
Vera doesn’t replace people—it amplifies them. By handling admin, AI frees teams to focus on what truly matters: strategy, creativity, and critical thinking—the irreplaceable human edge.
Summary
As businesses grow, tasks like invoicing and compliance can slow progress. AI services like Vera automate these processes 24/7, handling payments, regulatory deadlines, and more—reducing staffing needs.
Integrating into existing systems, Vera helps SMBs scale faster, cut costs, and operate efficiently—without the growing pains.
