Running your own business is a very liberating and wonderful feeling; it’s nice to be in the flow of what you love and rely only on yourself to get the job done. It can sometimes get overwhelming, especially when you’re doing everything yourself, and you may wonder how to make business easier because working 70 or 80 hours a week is for the birds. Even the most successful entrepreneurs need downtime, to sleep, “Netflix and chill,” or have time to recharge.
Today we will offer ways to make business easier, so you can have more time for life.
Software that Does the Work of an Admin
Choosing the right software program can certainly make business easier, especially if you’re looking for an administrative app that does it all. Think about what you need to run your business and what would make it smoother. You may be tempted to hire an admin. Still, the extra costs scare you away, so you’ll want an app that can do accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, store client info, and send out customer satisfaction surveys when the job is done. Luckily apps like ServiceWorks have been developed with all these facets of running a small business by yourself in mind.
Eliminate Paper Files
Getting rid of random papers and receipts around the home and office is a great way to help make your business smoother. Programs like Quickbooks have a built-in module so you can snap a pic of your business receipts, and then it automatically files them away; how convenient! Apps like Serviceworks keep info stored about clients; the information can be as detailed as you like and eliminates the need for a paper filing system on clients. Less waste and clutter can make for a more zen-like business.
Hire a VA
Being an entrepreneur and spending so much time and energy on accounting, payroll, filing, and following up with clients is challenging. Did you know you can hire a virtual assistant to do these things and more? Why not pay someone else to do menial tasks so you can have more time for the essential things in life like self-care, vacations, and family?
There are plenty of good sites to hire a reliable virtual assistant for long or short-term jobs. Some may wish to be paid hourly, and others may be on a per-project basis. A couple of the more popular ones are Fiverr and Upwork.
Get Down With a System
Having a system or process for repetitive tasks is imperative for efficiency in any business. It saves time, energy, and money. This can be a system for jobs from start to finish. For example, you own a lawn care business, and you have a process from start to finish that is streamlined to make business easier. Operations must be refined and tweaked to keep up with other variable factors, such as societal changes, software updates, and other new business discoveries.
Don’t Procrastinate
Putting off specific tasks that you may consider daunting only makes it, at some point, become an emergency, like bills, taxes, and financial stuff or paperwork. For example, when an invoice for work comes in, maybe schedule it to be paid so you don’t have to think about it later or, worse yet, forget and then become late, or perhaps you procrastinate until the last minute on your taxes, why not get it over with and not have to worry about it until next year?
Look out for Number One
This should go without saying, but there are a lot of business owners out there who aren’t getting adequate rest and exercise and are eating like crap; it’s leading to health issues, dysfunction in the workplace, and more. After all, no one can keep pouring from an empty cup. So the moral of this story is to take care of your basic needs. Sleep, rest, exercise, or move and put yourself first to be at your best in work and life. You could carve an hour out of your day every morning for yourself sans phone. See what a difference it will make in your frame of mind when you have this time of reflection to yourself.
With some work and setup, your business will run like clockwork, a well-oiled machine.
- The ways we talked about making business easier today were:
- Taking care of yourself first
- Don’t put off important tasks like taxes or bills
- Develop a system of operations, so your business runs like clockwork
- Hire a Virtual Assistant to take care of menial tasks like accounting, social media posting, and more
- Eliminate the Paper Filing System
- Use software that makes administrative tasks automatic, like ServiceWorks. ServiceWorks even offers a risk-free 14-day trial, so you can check it out and know that it’s automatic! How cool is that?
