Running a small business can be a stressful task. With factors such as sales, employees, finances and operations constantly requiring your attention, it is no wonder so many small business owners find themselves anxious and lacking in sleep. Whilst running an SME is indeed challenging, there are a number of ways in which you can cut out the chaos of running your own business. In this article, we look at some of the best ways business owners can simplify the process of running an SME, so read on to find out more!
- Automation Is Here To Save The Day
Small businesses often get bogged down with repetitive tasks, which is why automating various processes is a fantastic way to cut some chaos out of daily business. Small business accounting software can assist you in handling your finances, creating automated invoices and keep track of invoices that need to be paid. Software helps you keep everything organised and can cut down on the manual labour needed to attend to these tasks. This allows you to free up your employees to work on other, more pressing tasks that need to be attended to. You can even automate your digital marketing process, cold email campaigns and inbound call analytics using the myriad of automation tools that are available in 2019.
- Delegate Your Tasks
It is not uncommon for SME owners to want to control every aspect of how the business runs – after all, the business is your baby, and you have worked had to get it where it is today. However, there is a fine line between micromanaging and having too much load on your shoulders. This is why delegating tasks to your trusted employees is essential if you want to run your business efficiently and effectively.
Take time to truly learn what your employees’ strengths and weaknesses are, in order to delegate the appropriate tasks to them. Delegation puts accountability on your team and motivates them to work harder, push further and become more invested in the success of your business. It is important that you trust your team is capable of accomplishing their roles, so delegate wisely and take some of the burdens off your shoulders!
- Deal With Expenses Immediately
When it comes to taking the chaos out of running your business, it is important that you deal with any expenses that crop up immediately. Whilst it may be tempting to deal with your tax receipts and invoices at the end of the financial year, you would probably benefit a lot more from keeping track of your incomings and expenses on a weekly or monthly basis. If anything needs to be paid off, we highly recommend settling those debts as soon as possible and getting them out of the way. This will assist you in keeping track of your accounts in a stress free manner, and will ensure that you are debt free at all times. There is nothing more stressful than knowing you owe sums of money to suppliers or employees, so deal with expenses immediately to reduce the stress of running an SME.
- Manage Your Inbox
Not many people realise just how important managing your inbox is when running a small business. Reading through hundreds and hundreds of emails can be both frustrating and time-consuming. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for important emails or opportunities to go unnoticed when you have a thousand emails to scan through. This is why keeping on top of your email inbox is so vital to the success of any small business. Set aside some time every day to check through emails, replying, forwarding or deleting them straight away. Keeping your inbox free from clutter will assist you in staying organised at all times. If you are having trouble keeping up with emails amongst the many other tasks you have to attend to on a daily basis, we highly recommend delegating this task to your personal assistant or any other employee who is capable of handling the job.
- Utilise A Workflow Platform
Last but not least, one of the biggest tools that can assist you in cutting the chaos out of running an SME is a quality workflow platform. Even if you have a small workforce, you need to be able to effectively communicate with your staff. This is where a workflow platform really comes in handy. You will be able to assign tasks, message your employees and allow discussions between team members with the aid of a workflow platform. Employees can easily keep track of their deadlines which will ensure that projects are always completed on time, thus increasing productivity and efficiency levels of your business.
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Running an SME doesn’t have to be a stressful task when you utilise a combination of the tools we have looked into today. We hope that this article has given you some key insight into how you can cut out the chaos of running your small business.
