Over the years I have worked for many different managers and companies and this has given me a very broad view of office working techniques.When I worked for the government in the local tax office work didn't seem very hard at all. Obviously, I was much younger then and new skills came very easily to me, but looking back I didn't even understand the word 'stress' as related to work. My line manager used to check my work and there were seldom any errors. I used to have plenty of time to chat with colleagues and still completed my work on time. Admittedly we had people doing the filing, making the tea and other necessary office jobs to ensure the smooth running of the office.
Nowadays we each have to do all these things for ourselves. There is less of a hierarchy - no junior to do all the menial tasks in most organisations. And certainly for the small business no-one to do all the administration.Some of my earlier articles have mentioned outsourcing and I feel it's important to mention this again. It is an ideal way for the small business owner to consider who is trying to do all the admin as well as the main work of the company.
Let's take an example - the local plumber. Apart from actually going out to homes to mend pipes, plumb in washing machines etc. he/she also needs to take new telephone calls, run a diary system, keep a record of clients and tasks completed, complete invoices and do the banking. These are just the main tasks needed to run the business efficiently.The actual amount of admin work often doesn't warrant employing someone full time, or even part time as the amount of work can vary from week to week. By outsourcing some of these tasks he/she would only pay for the number of hours worked. Also he/she would have no National Insurance or tax to worry about. Just an invoice to pay either weekly or monthly. It is up to he/she to decide which tasks to delegate.
You may think this will be costly and in today's current economic climate, but think of the time you will save and can possibly enable you to fit in more of your work.
Have a look at my website to see if there is any help I can give you. If in doubt just give me a ring - you have nothing to lose, but may have a lot to gain!
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Back in my school days spelling and grammar were of prime importance when writing essays on any subject. Weekly spelling tests were the norm. We left school knowing at least how to spell common usage words and how to put a sentence together grammatically. Today I'm not so sure.
Going back many years when I first worked in a Bank part of my job was to write letters to solicitors, accountants and customers. It was very important to not only get the information correct, but also the spelling and grammar. We had secretaries then who would type the letter and correct anything as they did so. The letter would be returned to me to be checked and then a manager would sign it. The manager would also ensure that spelling, grammar and information was correct. Yes, it was a bit long winded and expensive even if the end result was very good.
Over the years staff in most companies was reduced until now, letters are written straight onto the computer and are rarely checked. No wonder we get mistakes occurring. Most people use computers or word processors and these have a built in spell checker. This makes life so easy and we all get lazy about our spelling because the computer will do this for us. However, the English language is full of words which sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings. We have there and their, hear and here, bough and bow to mention just a few. We also have UK and US spelling.
Therefore, we cannot just trust the spellchecker completely. We need to proof read our letter or article to ensure that the correct words are used, given the meaning of the sentence. A little time taken to proof read a letter, or get a colleague to do it, may earn you more sales, less complaints and a reputation for being very professional.
Recently I came across the following article and thought I would share this with you. I thought it very appropriate in these times of recession and financial difficulties although it was written over 100 years ago.
When Wilbur and Orville Wright finished the first successful manned flight on Dec. 17, 1903, they amazed and astonished the world. They also demonstrated the power of their problem solving method.
They not only solved a problem that others had found too complex and technical, but they did it without any help from outsiders. These brothers had little formal training or education, but they had amazing brainpower. Few accomplishments can match what these two former bicycle mechanics did with that flying machine.
The key principles of problem-solving used by the Wright brothers are still relevant for business owners today. There are only eight of them, and here they are:
Ø CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT: This conflict can be used to discover and validate new ideas/strategies to find a practical answer.
Ø TACKLE WORST THINGS FIRST: When big problems are put first, the cost for the whole is limited to this set should a solution prove unachievable.
Ø JUST PLAIN TINKERING: New approaches can be created by tinkering with parts of a problem when you’re trying to understand it.
Ø RIGID FLEXIBILITY: Flexing the mind allows for thinking of possibilities outside the realm of policy, tradition, or experience.
Ø FOREVER LEARNING: Learning as a lifelong passion is essential for finding the information to solve problems.
Ø METHODICAL METICULOUSNESS: The fastest, most efficient way to solve a problem is by being meticulous and methodical in your approach.
Ø EQUITABLE TEAMWORK: The force of a group with a common purpose is multi-plied by interdependence and powered by trust, effort, profits, power, and honor.
A side benefit to these steps is that there is an added financial bonus. By using these principles, the Wright brothers minimized their costs to less than $1,000 and solved the problem of flight with mind-boggling speed. What business owner wouldn't want to solve a problem in his business and cut cost at the same time?
Most people probably think of bookkeeping and accounting as the same thing, but bookkeeping is really one function of accounting, while accounting encompasses many functions involved in managing the financial affairs of a business. Accountants prepare reports based, in part, on the work of bookkeepers.
Bookkeepers perform all manner of record-keeping tasks. Some of them include the following:
-They prepare what are referred to as source documents for all the operations of a business - the buying, selling, transferring, paying and collecting. The documents include papers such as purchase orders, invoices, credit card slips, time cards, time sheets and expense reports. Bookkeepers also determine and enter in the source documents what are called the financial effects of the transactions and other business events. Those include paying the employees, making sales, borrowing money or buying products or raw materials for production.
-Bookkeepers also make entries of the financial effects into journals and accounts. These are two different things. A journal is the record of transactions in chronological order. An accounts is a separate record, or page for each asset and each liability. One transaction can affect several accounts.
-Bookkeepers prepare reports at the end of specific period of time, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. To do this, all the accounts need to be up to date. Inventory records must be updated and the reports checked and double-checked to ensure that they're as error-free as possible.
-The bookkeepers also compile complete listings of all accounts. This is called the adjusted trial balance. While a small business may have a hundred or so accounts, very large businesses can have more than 10,000 accounts.
-The final step is for the bookkeeper to close the books, which means bringing all the bookkeeping for a fiscal year to a close and summarized.
The art of getting new business is no mystery. In fact it’s so simple we miss the forest for the trees. Here are 10 tips to remind you how to build more client base.
1. Get New Business From Old. Ask existing clients for more business before you try warming up a stone cold lead. Ask the happy clients for referrals to people they know that you don’t – and be sure to keep track of who referred whom.
2. Pitch a Stranger. It’s like bad advertising when you blow hot air when pitching to a new prospect. In face-to-face mediating you’ve got to know what to say, and say it with conviction.
3. Give It To Me Straight. No one has time for the “warm-up”. Prepare well honed phrases and practice them in front of a mirror. People like it when you can get to the point rapidly and intelligently. If it’s by email, make sure they don’t have to scroll down to read it all.
4. Talk About Your Failures. Seriously! It builds credibility. Everyone can’t be perfect all the time, and when you can tell a prospect why you lost a client and what you’ve learned it’s a welcome change. They appreciate not getting the usual hot air & razzle-dazzle.
5. Offer a “Loss-Leader”. People are less and less apt to buy impulsively from a person if they don’t have a good feeling about them. Offering a loss-leader allows the relationship to mature over time. (Loss-leader is the practice of offering a product or service at a considerable discount and loss of profit to attract future business.)
6. Get Sold Yourself. Pick the most successful competitors in your area and let them sell you. Play customer and be aware of how you feel during each step, and see why their approach works so well. Car maufacturers buy each others cars and break them down to nuts and bolts. You can do the same thing in your space.
7. Pitch an Enemy. Find the most disagreeable son of a gun you can find and pitch him or her. Let them be as nasty as they please, then analyze later if anything they said had any merit. Be totally unemotional, and don’t defend anything. You’ll learn where you’re lacking after doing this.
8. Start an E-mail Newsletter. This is much like #5. Give them useful information week in and week out, or month in and month out. Make them happy to see your name in the “from” field. If they only hear from you when you want something, they’ll turn you off when they hear from you.
9. Offer Testimonials. Satisfied clients or customers can say things about you that you can never believable say about yourself. Use the person’s full name if possible when doing this. “KM from Buffalo” isn’t nearly as strong as “Kenneth Moore from Buffalo”.
10. Ask Questions. I can’t emphasize enough how important and how underused this tip is in business. Simply allowing people to verbalize their needs makes them happy and tells them you listen. It also allows you to hone in on the points to make when it’s your turn to talk.
It’s strange, but we become so busy doing business that we have a tendency to overlook what’s in front of our noses. Most of the tips listed, would come about if we ever had the time to visit with our customers while doing business.
You can save a lot of time in your business by outsourcing some of the different parts of your online business. While you will always want to keep your finger on the pulse of every aspect of your business, certain tasks can easily be outsourced to talented freelancers, leaving you with more time and energy to focus on other things.
If you earn income on your website with Adsense ads, you know it can be a time consuming procedure tracking the ads and tweaking your site content to increase sales. You can outsource your entire Adsense campaign to a competent virtual assistant who can not only track your Adsense program, but can also write fresh content for your site to keep the search engine spiders happy and site visitors returning.
You can also outsource your sales processes by using affiliates to market your information products for you. When you create an affiliate program for your products, you agree to pay a percentage of the sales to others who publish sales pages and promote your products. By agreeing to pay your affiliates a healthy percentage of the profits, 50% for example, you can let them do the sales work for you while you collect a passive income. You can then spend your own time creating new products to put on the market.
A third task that lends itself well to outsourcing is the eBay auction portion of your sales funnel. If you use eBay to sell physical products, you know there is a great deal of time involved in processing orders and preparing them for shipping. This type of work, however, can be easily systemized, which makes it ideal for outsourcing. You can create a step-by-step process for fulfilling orders and maintaining customer service. All of your customers needs get met in the same way, assuring quality control, and you gain several hours back in your weekly schedule.
As a business owner, you know that you have to record every financial aspect in your business. It isrequired by law. The books you record it in to will befor tax purposes and the figures should be accurate.However, you have to consider the fact that if you own an online business, there will be too many things on your mind and you will often tend to forget about doing the books. Being negligent on this part can incur serious penalties. If you don’t have enough time for book keeping, then you might want to try outsourcing book keeping for your online business.
Today, many companies are now outsourcing book keeping jobs in order to save time and be more efficient in running their business. Besides, if you let other people do your books, then you will be able to concentrate more on running your business. Outsourcing book keeping is as popular as it is very cheap.
You have to consider that outsourcing has become a trend in today's business world. Because it is a lot cheaper to outsource than to have an in house bookkeeper or accountant, many businesses today are now outsourcing their book keeping jobs.
These are the advantages of outsourcing book keeping.It will not only give you more time to concentrate inrunning your online business, but it will also saveyou a lot of money.
However, before you hire a book keeper to do this kindof job for you, you first need to remember that youhave to choose the right book keeping service first.
The first thing that you need to look for is the qualifications of the book keeping services company.The staff should be knowledgeable in the field of bookkeeping, and they should also be certified professional book keepers.
Besides the qualification, they also need to be experienced in the field of book keeping and are knowledgeable in the inner workings of businesses especially about financial transactions in businesses.You have to remember that one doesn’t need to hold a degree as an accountant in order to become a good bookkeeper. Normally, everyone can become a book keeper.The most important thing that you should look for in a book keeper is experience.
The portfolio of the book keeping services company you look for should also be good. The more clients they have, it will mean that they are trusted by people.Besides, as a businessman or woman, you too would understand the fact that people will only buy the services of businesses that they trust.
These are the things that you should look for in book keeping services companies when you plan on outsourcing your book keeping jobs to them. By having all the mentioned traits, you can be sure that you will be able to get your books back in time for taxtime.
Remember these tips and you will be able to have more time on running your business and save a lot of money.
One last thing - by outsourcing book keeping for your online business,you can be sure that you will have nothing to worry about when tax time comes. However, just remember that you have to give the book keeper you hire all the necessary information about your business and also your financial records or he/she cannot prepare accurate financial information to your accountant and taxes.
