Written by guest blogger — Amy Collett
Entrepreneurs face a wide range of challenges in the span of a single business day. Ongoing management tasks can eat up all of your time and make it nearly impossible to focus on anything other than keeping your business alive. How can you ever find time to pursue new ideas and grow your business?
When all of your time is caught up in routine tasks, meetings, and endless messages, it’s easy to lose sight of your passion and wonder whether entrepreneurship is the right path for you at all. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way! You can designate systems and processes that enable your business to run smoothly without you—or at least with very little work on your end. It’s all about outsourcing, automating, and smart scheduling. Here’s what you need to know, courtesy of the experienced self-employed community members at the Free Agent Collective.
Outsource Time-Consuming Tasks
Outsourcing is key to growing your business. Thanks to the widespread availability of freelancers and service-based agencies, you should have no problem finding professional help at a price you can afford.
Start by outlining all of the time-consuming tasks that someone else could take on relatively seamlessly. For example, if you’re spending a lot of time chasing down late-paying clients and collecting past-due receivables, outsource this task to a debt collection agency. This will not only save you time but ensure you receive the income that is rightfully yours.
Think about which other daily tasks you could outsource to free up time on your calendar. HackerNoon suggests outsourcing database management, blogging, human resources, social media management, customer support, and payroll distribution. Any tasks where your presence is not mandatory can be easily outsourced to freelancers or firms.
Hire a Virtual Assistant
Besides hiring specialized professionals to tackle ongoing business tasks, consider having a virtual assistant (VA) on call for one-off projects. Virtual assistants can handle anything from managing your email to scheduling client meetings. Whether you need to make travel arrangements, research a new product idea, resolve an issue with a supplier, or set up a new business-facing software solution, hand the project off to your VA and be on your way! This will free up a significant amount of your time and mental energy for big-picture projects.
Use Advanced Accounting Software
Most entrepreneurs struggle with financial management. Keeping track of finances, paying taxes, managing payroll, billing clients, and ensuring compliance is a full-time job. So why are you trying to do it all yourself? Relying on excel spreadsheets is a thing of the past. Instead, take advantage of modern tools to automate your company’s accounting! Creating an automated accounting system will reduce human errors and make getting paid less painful.
There are a number of high-quality accounting tools out there, but you could also design custom software specifically for your unique business needs. Design a software solution that will streamline payroll, client invoicing, and customer sales tracking. Be sure to take advantage of financial API products to save time and money during the development of your custom software. Using APIs means your developers won’t have to write as much code from scratch.
Consult a Professional Accountant
Of course, you won’t be able to automate every accounting task. Your business can still benefit from the judgment of a professional accountant. A professional accountant can help you set up systems to automate daily processes. They can also provide advice on tax filing and legal compliance to help you avoid fines and penalties. This will result in happier employees, better decision-making, fewer errors, and less stress for you.
Automate Inventory Management
You don’t have to run a big business to automate your inventory management process. Fit Small Business explains that many inventory management tools exist for small businesses, including Zoho Inventory, Orderhive, and Katana. Many of these tools offer different pricing tiers to accommodate businesses of varying sizes, so you only pay for the support you need. With the help of a solid inventory management system, you’ll spend less time updating spreadsheets and guessing at reorder quantities.
Make a Plan to Reduce Chargebacks
Dealing with credit card chargebacks is no fun. While chargebacks are intended as a form of consumer protection against dishonest and deceptive sellers, online shoppers can abuse the system and hurt your bottom line. Unfortunately, every business that accepts credit cards is at risk of chargebacks.
Take proactive steps to reduce chargebacks so you can spend less time navigating credit card disputes. Make sure your merchant name is recognizable to your customers, add your phone number to credit card transactions to encourage customers to call you with questions and provide proof of delivery to avoid chargebacks due to claims of non-receipt.
Leave Space in Your Schedule for Disruptions
Entrepreneurs often overestimate what they can get done in a day. As a result, they often pack their schedules full with tasks, scheduling their entire day right down to the minute. But a single disruption will throw everything off. Instead, try to leave room in your schedule for flexibility. If you finish tasks early, great! But if something comes up and you need to step away from your business to-do list for a little while, you’ll still be able to get everything done. For example, try leaving a 30-minute buffer between meetings and delegating tasks that don’t fit into your existing schedule.
Stop spending all of your time on daily business management tasks. Look for ways to streamline, automate, and delegate day-to-day projects so you can focus on bigger things, like landing new leads and exploring new sales channels. With the right resources and experts on your side, you can finally stop struggling with everyday tasks and direct your focus where it matters.
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