Let’s be honest, when you started your business, you didn’t do it because you wanted to spend countless hours carrying out admin tasks. Nevertheless, here you find yourself with heaps of admin and, like many, little motivation to get it done.
As much as you may find admin tasks boring or less interesting than the rest of your workload, it is vital to keep on top of them for your business to run smoothly.
So here are our top tips on keeping up with your business admin:
1. Schedule time for Admin
Scheduling time in your diary every day will help you to keep on top of everything and stop the work mounting up. Look ahead to daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks and block out time to complete them as they come around.
2. Get organised
Have you ever put off a task because you can’t quite remember where you put that important document and it’s far easier to procrastinate than go and hunt through files on the PC or a dreaded drawer full of paper files that are just in a muddle?
Organising where and how you save your needed files is crucial. It might take you a little bit of time to set it up to begin with, but it will save you a huge amount of time in the long run. Creating clearly named files and folders will help you stay on top of the admin and give you less reason to procrastinate on getting the job done.
3. Find the right software
Following on from the last tip, there is a whole host of purpose-built software out there that could help with keeping you on top of everything. From accountancy software and apps like Xero and Dext, which help with the finance side of things, to project management software where you can schedule and assign tasks ahead of time.
Take some time to review your processes and look to see if there is a way to use software like Zapier to integrate your other software together and automate some of them.
It’s important to periodically review your processes and software to make sure that whatever way you are completing things is the best way for you and your team. Don’t be afraid to trial new ways of doing things, as you don’t want old, slow processes to waste your valuable time.
You may be put off from spending money on various software when you think a good ol’spreadsheet could do the job, but by comparing the time saved to the money spent, you may be surprised at how valuable the investment is.
4. Having the right mindset
It’s easy to feel frustrated at boring tasks when you aren’t focused on why they are important.
Keeping on top of your admin and finance functions is imperative to the success and smooth running of your business. When you change your mindset from the tasks being a chore to viewing them as a key part of running an effective business, it’s way easier to get motivated to complete the necessary tasks.
Take the time to go over each of your processes and how they can help you run your business. Take, for instance, your bookkeeping—understanding the benefits to you and your business of keeping on top of your bookkeeping will help you complete the tasks needed (whether you do your own or if PPF does it for you).
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5. What can you outsource?
Even with the best intentions, there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything! After all, being a business owner means you are always juggling more than one job role. Are there tasks that you can outsource?
There are plenty of companies out there that offer outsourcing services for admin related tasks with teams of experienced professionals.
One that we can highly recommend is ‘Get Ahead’. They have no minimum hours or lengthy tie-ins, so you can design the level of business support entirely around your needs. And if things change – requiring more support, or less – you can change things accordingly. This can be a cost-effective way to get some extra help as and when needed if you’re not ready to take on more permanent help by employing someone.
And of course, getting help with your finance function – having someone take care of your bookkeeping and accounts will take an immense amount of time and pressure off of you.
Remember: if it isn’t a task that is in your skillset, it will take far longer for you to complete the task. Think about how that time could be better spent doing the operations work and generating the income.
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We hope these tips will help you. If you would like to explore ways in which PPF can help your business then head to the ‘Get Started’ page.
