I’ve talked to so many business owners who want to grow their business but aren’t sure how because they are already so BUSY! They cannot even imagine how they would find the time to take on more, but they know that if they figure it out, they could potentially see massive growth. Does this sound familiar?
Here are a few ways to free up time so you can grow your business to where you KNOW it can be.
There are so many resources out there now to help you automate tasks that you do over and over again.
Set up calendar links, so prospects, clients, & networking partners can schedule appointments with the back-and-forth emails of “does this time work?”, “how about this day?”. You can set up parameters in your scheduling software so that only the days & times you want to meet are available to be scheduled.
Do you find yourself constantly sending reminders to your clients, or responding to the same questions again and again? Set up auto responders for certain inquiries or automate reminder emails to go out to your client on specific days.
Find yourself spending a lot of time entering data into your bookkeeping software? Connect your bank and your accounting software to save time on data entry.
Are you spending hours sending out invoices? Or chasing overdue payments? Utilize the features in your accounting software to automate your invoicing process and add payment links to your invoices to automate getting paid. Payment links won’t fully eliminate the need to chase some payments, but it can decrease the number you are chasing, and your money will be automatically deposited into your account, so you have eliminated time spent going to the bank.
Do you find yourself “reinventing the wheel” every time you need to do something in your business? Or do you do it differently than your staff? Taking time and defining not only how your business should run, but the steps to deliver the product or service so it is the same EVERY TIME, can not only set you apart from your competitors, but will also make expanding your team easier. If you haven’t already consider setting up systems for
Onboarding new customers or clients
Onboarding new team members (whether they are employees or contractors)
Marketing activities
Bookkeeping including paying bills, invoicing clients, reconciling accounts
Offboarding customers or clients
Hiring and HR
Client work (how you & your staff deliver your product or service)
Responding to client questions or inquiries
And the list goes on…
If you don’t have a system for one or more of the above already, the next time you go to do that task, note the steps on a piece of paper or in your note taking app. Then review it, or even better have one of your staff who also does the same task review it. Did you miss something? Do you need to expand, add more detail in some places? If you continue do this over the next few weeks for each item you need a system, you will have most if not all your systems or Standard Operating Procedures in place in no time.
Delegate or Outsource. Take a good hard look at what you do every day, at what is keeping you busy. If you’re not sure, start a list on Monday, and note down everything you do for the week. The client/customer work, marketing, bookkeeping, sales, general administration tasks, etc. Next look at that list and mark the tasks you enjoyed, and the tasks that made you money. Those items that were marked twice, you should absolutely keep on your plate. Anything that was only marked once, you may want to consider delegating to a team member or outsourcing. Many of my clients do enjoy doing their books, but it is time that doesn’t make them money, so they decided to outsource it to free up time so they could focus on higher-value activities. And anything that wasn’t marked at all, why haven’t you delegated in already? Many of the first things small business owners delegate or outsource are
Marketing – Blog posts, social media management, etc.
Bookkeeping
Other Administrative tasks – Calendar management, email management, etc.
I wrote and entire post on 6 things to outsource to save you money. You can read it here.
The more time you can free up the more time you have for creating real value and growth in your business.
Not sure where to start? We at Fournier Accounting & Bookkeeping Services can help. If it is automating, systematizing &/or outsourcing your bookkeeping we’d be happy to talk to you about how we can help free up your time so you can focus on growing your business. If you’d prefer or need to start with something else, we have an extensive list of amazing professionals and would be happy to help you find the right fit for your business
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