10 Quick Admin Tips That Can Help you Run Your Small Business Effectively.

You have no time to plan and prepare.

If you have no time to plan and prepare in business, it’s because you don’t plan and prepare. While planning time isn’t directly attributable to the bottom line, it does have a significant effect. Almost every successful person who has written about business has included planning as part of the strategy for success.

Planning is a crucial part of the business process, as it enables you to have an idea of what needs to be done, when, how and who will be responsible for it. Without planning, your business will suffer from inefficiency and lack of focus, and it is the foundation for everything else you do.

There’s a lot to business planning, but getting started with the basics and sticking to them is an excellent first step. Success with the basics may encourage you to overhaul other parts of the business so that you can get to the point where your business works for you, not the other way round.

Let’s take a look at ten of the easiest ways to start getting your business more organised.

Start the week right.

Whichever day your week starts, take some time either the day before or first thing to organise your plans for the week. It’s important to set some time apart for this because before you know it, it’s Friday, and the to-do list has just got longer. I get a lot of resistance from my clients because they usually arrive at work on a Monday morning and immediately have to tackle messages left over the weekend and the phone ringing constantly. So take the time to plan the night before or the weekday before. You can even take the Monday afternoon – whenever you like. The important thing is to schedule regular time every week purely for planning your business.

Once you have your schedule arranged, you will find it easier to get through all of your administrative tasks. You will also feel better getting it done and not thinking about it.

Create lists of things of tasks.

I know – too simple and you’re fed up with making lists that get longer. To-do lists are an effective tool for getting organised, but you need to get in the habit of working through the list. You can make this part of your organisation session too. It would be best if you made it a priority to work on that list, but you don’t have to do it all at once. You may even have different priority lists. I have a priority list that I spend half an hour on first thing every morning and a non-priority that I try to clear at a rate of one per day.

Split jobs down into bite-sized chunks.

Larger tasks may be more achievable if you break them down into smaller tasks. For example, if you have left your VAT return for the whole quarter and you are now facing the deadline, you could break it down so that it’s less daunting as follows:

• Check you have sign-in information for the VAT return website.
• Gather up all outstanding receipts and put them in date order.
• Check receipts against bank/credit card statements.
• Enter all the outgoing payments into a spreadsheet or your accounting system.
• Enter all the incoming money amounts into your payment system.
• Complete tax return.

You can break the tasks down in whichever way suits you. The great thing about it is that if you complete one part, it leads to you completing the next, and you’re done before you know it.

Keep a detailed schedule or calendar.

Whichever type of calendar you use, whether online, on your phone or a good old fashioned diary, you need a system that will help you keep track of appointments, deadlines, and other important events. You can also use it to write down any ideas for the business. It can be hard to keep a detailed calendar because those pesky customers keep upsetting your schedule! Plan your work and work your plan, and you and your customers will be rewarded with better efficiency.

Don’t just use your calendar for appointments. Schedule admin time, chats with staff, phone calls, coffee time, breaks and of course, your regular planning time.

Stay on top of any data entry.

How boring is keeping on top of entering information in spreadsheets or accounting systems! It has to be done. If you can’t find time and are using the last weekend of the month to do it yourself, sub it out to someone who can do it regularly. Working like that is costing you money.

If you must do it yourself, get in the habit of doing it daily. For a small business, it’s often no more than 15 minutes a day – less time than you spend scrolling through the nonsense on your phone.