Feeling overwhelmed by lack of time? An ever-growing to-do list that never seems to get smaller? The same time-consuming tasks piling up every month?
You’re not alone.
As a business owner, there's lots to keep on top of. Sometimes, the list can feel never-ending.
But with the right approach, you can harness tools and software to reduce the time, effort, and stress of running a business.
Read on to find out how technology can remove the stress of running a business.
Automate, automate, automate
Running a business is all about repetition. It’s about doing the same tasks over and over and over again to the best of our ability. The more consistently we do those tasks, the better our products and services will be, and the happier our customers will be too.
The most successful businesses are the ones who get this repetition down to a fine art. The delivery of each product or service follows a detailed step-by-step process which is honed and finessed over time. Their customer experiences are flawless because they deliver consistent experiences, time after time.
The benefits of delivering a consistently great product or service are countless. Happier customers lead to more referrals and new business. Customers come to expect the highest quality, so you can charge a premium for your products or services. Slick systems and processes maximise productivity, eliminate stress, and save time. Robust structures allow your business to grow and take on ambitious new projects.
Save time and deliver a better experience for your customers by automating manual processes. You’ll get back hours of your week and lay the foundations for consistency and accuracy.
Running your business online
Let’s face it, everything is online nowadays– banking, entertainment, tax returns. It makes sense that your business should be, too.
Running a fully digital business removes the stress and anxiety of paper chasing and disorganised systems, plus it opens the door for automation, which can save you even more time as a business owner.
Of course, if you work on-site, in a shop, or a factory, it won’t be possible to run your entire business online. But maximising financial tools and software as much as possible will save you time and make things run much more smoothly.
Making the shift to online accounting can be life-changing for a small business.
Having a central source of truth where everything is permanently accessible and up-to-date provides a 360-degree view of your entire business, day or night, from any device. You’ll have peace of mind that you can access key financial information whenever you need it and use it to make the right decisions for your business.
With online accounting software, the opportunities for automating day-to-day tasks like invoicing, bookkeeping, and chasing invoices can significantly speed up your workflow and give you back valuable time that can be spent growing your business.
Smarter systems
As the old saying goes, work smarter, not harder.
The world of online business can be both a blessing and a curse. With endless options for business apps and technology at our fingertips, we can quickly find ourselves drowning in disjointed systems and software.
How many apps and tools do you use every day to run your business?
For us, the number seems to be ever-expanding. First, there’s our clients’ online accounting systems, then bookkeeping systems, reporting software, cash flow forecasting software, then there’s our team comms, client comms, internal task management, marketing channels... the list goes on.
Do you find yourself wasting time jumping between multiple different systems?
Get your systems to work together to save you time.
Connecting your systems with a tool like Zapier can save you valuable time switching between platforms and carrying out the same manual tasks month after month. If you find yourself doing the same tasks over and over again, it could be time to get your tech stack working together so you don’t have to do the heavy lifting. Even a few simple automations can add up, saving you hours over the course of a month.
To remove the stress of switching between multiple apps and manually transferring data between them, it’s vital to streamline your business’s tech stack and make your systems work for you.
Focus on your strengths– outsource the rest
As a business owner, you’ll know all too well that there’s a huge amount of things to keep on top of. Wearing all the hats can feel like a constant balancing act of juggling and multitasking.
But to save yourself from burning the candle at both ends, focus on where your strengths lie and outsource the rest.
If numbers aren’t your strong suit, find a great accountant or advisor to take care of you accounting for you. If the thought of sales turns your stomach, find a great customer relationship manager to nurture leads and bring in new business. If you aren’t the creative type, find a great content specialist to manage your marketing for you.
Doing it all yourself without any help can be a one-way ticket to burnout. Outsourcing can save you hours, if not days a month, helping you focus your energy on where it matters most.
Less, but better
When it comes to business, we could all benefit from taking a leaf out of Dieter Ram’s book and focusing on ‘less, but better’.
You can remove the stress and anxiety of running a business by making your systems work for you. Maximise technology, accounting software, and automations to save time, stress, and effort, and lay the foundations to grow your business.
By letting software do the heavy lifting, you can focus on what really matters– building an amazing business.
Want to find out how business software can work for you?
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