Making sure your business is as efficient as possible is key if you want to maintain a positive cashflow, be more profitable and make your business a success.
You’ve no doubt thought about efficiency in your business. It’s one of the reasons why we have team meetings, carefully plan our time and try to get into work after a good night’s sleep.
But have you thought about all the other ways you could make your business efficient?
Here are five mistakes we’ve seen business owners make time and again that end up making the business less efficient – all of which are quite easy to fix.
You stick to paper records
The easiest way to make your business more efficient is to switch all your accounting and finance work from paper to online with cloud accounting software.
We cannot overstate how much this will help you save time that you can then put back into your business.
Forecasts, accounting, the books, invoices and financial planning will all take a fraction of the time it would usually take. Collaboration is also far easier, whether that’s with your team or financial advisers.
From bookkeeping to forecasts, switching to digital will make your business far more efficient.
You have a relaxed attitude to invoicing
A poor invoicing system means you will probably be paid late and have to cope without a regular and predictable flow of cash in your business to invest.
If you let them pile up and tackle them in one go, you’ll simply get pulled away from your business for an unnecessarily long amount of time and might not be able to clear the backlog, anyway.
Leaving your invoices until the last moment may also mean you miss some suppliers’ payment periods, too, forcing you to wait even longer to get paid.
And, if you’re so relaxed about your invoicing, why should your suppliers be concerned about paying you right away?
So, if you want to make your business more efficient, consider the way you do invoices.
By keeping your invoice system itself efficient, and perhaps even rewarding early payments and punishing late ones, your improved cashflow will make sure your business is efficient and adaptable at all times.
You don’t have a (virtual) assistant
Never underestimate how far a little help with administration can go.
Seriously, think about some of the extra work you might have on your plate right now alongside your management duties, from data entry and emails to scheduling and travel plans.
The more of your time spent on such tasks, the less time your business has with its leader at the helm.
So, consider hiring an administrative assistant.
You can even find a virtual assistant online, many of whom have their own specialisations, from bookkeeping and marketing to blogging and copywriting.
You don’t outsource
Outsourcing is when you hand over a service (or part of one) that you do to a third party for a fee.
In some cases, it can be more cost efficient than hiring a new member of staff, especially seeing how you can outsource work to workers outside the UK.
Outsourcing is especially useful for getting through a particularly tough and busy period – in that sense, outsourcing is like getting a temp worker, potentially at a lower cost.
You would be surprised how many different types of outsourced workers there are, so if you offer a digital service, it’s always worth having a search.
You don’t have an accountant
There are a lot of ways an accountant can make your business more efficient, most typically by making it as tax efficient as possible.
By getting your tax returns done as soon as possible so we can focus on your tax planning to save you money that you can put back into the business.
But accountants can do more for you than just that. For instance, we can help you audit your business to ensure your processes are as efficient as they could be.
With management accounts, we can keep track of your finances on a monthly and quarterly basis, and spot opportunities you might have missed.
Even if you just need some quick advice, talking to an accountant for five minutes is a much better use of your time than researching on the internet for an hour.
Talk to us about your business.
