Organising – A Waste of Time and Money?

In the ‘office’ side of my job, I come across many small business owners who struggle to keep on top of many simple day-to-day tasks. Maybe it’s due to lack of training on how to use a system properly, infrequency of doing a particular task, or that familiar ‘too much to do and not enough time’ scenario. Sometimes it’s because they want to stick with the ‘same old system’ and don’t consider change, so thought is rarely given as to how things are being done and if improvements can be made.

The result? A lot of precious time and money wasted doing things in a way that’s simply inefficient.

How much time do you spend each day looking for things you should have to hand easily, or completing tasks manually?

Here are just a few tips that could help you organise your office and business, so ultimately you’ll have more money in your pocket at the end of each month;

• Email invoices to your Clients. Your payment period kicks in immediately and you’ll save on printing costs, envelopes, postage and the time having to walk to the post box!
• Educate your Clients to follow your preferred payment method.  If you incur bank charges every time you have to bank a cheque, move to a BACS system instead. Time & effort saved by not having to go to the bank each day/week and funds will be available sooner.
• Maintain your email accounts. A business who ‘forgets’ to renew their mail hosting accounts will be locked out of receiving emails. If you’ve more than one email address, check that one too! You could be missing out on enquiries and new business!
• Update & sync your calendars regularly to avoid missed appointments or reminders. Plan in 10 minutes a couple of times each week to run any necessary applications. Set it to update, then go and make yourself a cup of tea. When you’ve had your short break you’ll have everything updated across your devices.
• Keep your business receipts and invoices in one place. There are few benefits to updating your accounts every single day, so find a dedicated place to throw all of your receipts – be it a folder, tub, tin or basket – and schedule time in your diary to go through and update your system/paper records on a regular basis. Or outsource to someone who’l do this quickly & efficiently for you instead, so you can focus on the money-making activities for your business.

Consider these and other situations in your own office – perhaps multiplied a few times over – and the mounting costs to your business. What simple changes could you make? Dedicate time to giving your business a regular ‘healthcheck’ and, not unlike getting fit; you will soon start to notice improvements.

If you need an impartial pair of eyes to review your existing processes, why not get in touch?   We can discuss your main areas of concern, then I’ll work with you to implement the practical changes for the future of your business.