During the pandemic, people were scrambling for interesting activities to do while being cooped up in quarantine. One such activity that a lot of people turned to was paint by numbers. One website, Just Paint by Number, saw their revenue grow over 1,100% during the pandemic. While a good problem to have, it's still a problem to handle such astronomical growth if you're not prepared for it. We helped turn this business into a valuable passive income stream for it's owner through a combination of building a custom no code automation application and outsourcing. Here's how we did it:

For those that aren't familiar, paint by numbers is an activity where you get a canvas with a numbered outlined shapes printed on it. Each number in the shapes corresponds to a different color of paint. You paint the different shapes, and voila, you have a painted masterpiece! No special skills required. For Just Paint by Number, about 80% of their orders were custom kits. In other words, customers would upload photos that they wanted to have converted into a paint by number kit when they checked out on the e-commerce website (a WooCommerce site in this case). The business would then have to download the photo, send it to their supplier who was located in China. The supplier would then create a proof which the business would send to the customer. Once the customer approved, the business would have to notify the supplier so they could produce and ship the kit. When we timed this process, it took about 5 minutes per order which doesn't sound like a lot. However, over 10,000 orders, this process was taking the business over 750 hours per year. We were able to cut this process down to ZERO.

1. Automated Admin Dashboard

We first, using the no code platforms, Zapier and Bubble.io, we built a custom admin dashboard for the Just Paint by Number team could use. This dashboard automatically imported new order data as well as the image the customer uploaded.

2. Created a Supplier Dashboard

We then created a very similar supplier dashboard where they could see most of the information that was provided on the admin dashboard. From their, their team could directly upload the proof that they created into the dashboard.

3. Automated Customer Notification

As soon as the supplier uploaded the proofs, we would send e-mail and SMS notification to the customer (although we delayed SMS notification until after 9:00 AM to ensure that we did not piss off any customers). They would get a unique link to this proof approval page:

If the customer is informed that if they do not approve within 72 hours, the proof will automatically be approved. They receive reminders before this 72 hours via e-mail and SMS. After 72 hours, the proof is automatically marked as approved. The vendor can see this on their dashboard, and they send the kit to production once they see it is approved.

4. Automated Social Media Posting

If the customer approves the proof, they are given the option to give us permission to share the proof on our social media pages. If they say yes, the proofs are AUTOMATICALLY shared to the business' Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts. Many customers will often share this proof once it is posted. Their Pinterest account gets hundreds of thousands of impressions per month from almost exclusively automatically generated content.

5. Customers LOVE the Process

It is really important to note that not only through this automation did we save this business hundreds of hours, we also improved the customer experience as well. See below for a customer testimonial on the process.

Your business can benefit from custom applications just as Just Paint by Number did. Because we're building time-saving no code tools and because we offer financing, we can deliver these applications at a cost that is extremely affordable cost. if you're interested in seeing how your business can benefit, book a free consultation using the link below where we can understand your current workflows and business processes and identify bottlenecks that can be freed up through a custom no code application to automate your most time consuming tasks!