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Administrative tasks are a business owner’s worst enemy. Such tasks may involve accounting, managing the employee payroll, answering the phone, replying to emails and dealing with general day-to-day paperwork. As vital as these tasks are, they tend to be monotonous and time-consuming. Some business owners can swiftly fall out of love with their business as the admin starts to build up. In some cases, it can become utterly overwhelming. Finding ways to efficiently deal with these tasks is therefore important. Here are just three ways to take the stress out of admin.
Automate it
Many admin tasks can now be automated using technology. This can save business owners a huge amount of time.
Accounting is one popular task that can be worth automating. Using software, it’s possible to automatically calculate taxes and tax deductions. There is lots of reliable accounting software out there to choose from. Other tasks that can be automated include building rotas, paying employees and providing maintenance checks on machinery.
Whilst most tasks can be automated, this doesn’t always mean that every task should be automated. You can now use automated attendants to take phone calls, however this should only be used to transfer callers to the right department – many people get frustrated talking to a robot for too long.
Outsource it
Another way to relieve the stress of admin is to outsource it. This involves outsourcing tasks to another company. This can be more expensive than automating tasks, but may provide a vital human element in certain cases.
Many jobs can be outsourced. You could hire an accounting company to file your taxes or handle a PEO payroll service to pay your employees on time. Creative jobs like marketing could also be worth outsourcing.
Outsourcing does have its limitations. Whilst many companies outsource phone answering services, this may not be appropriate if the bulk of incoming calls require your specialist knowledge – a phone answering company may be better suited for dealing with appointment bookings and general enquiries.
Delegate it
You can also delegate admin tasks to employees. This could involve giving duties to existing employees or hiring new employees to take on admin jobs.
When delegating jobs to existing employees, you should check that they are able to deal with this extra workload and that they are qualified enough. Jobs such as answering phone calls or general organization tasks could be worth delegating to existing staff.
When it comes to hiring new employees to take on tasks, you should ensure that there’s enough work for them to justify you hiring them – especially if it’s on a full-time basis. This could allow you to hire someone with specialist skills and by ensuring they’re an in-house member of the team, you may be able to communicate with them more rapidly than you would do with an outsourced professional. Some business owners hire full-time PAs to handle all their admin, allowing them to concentrate on core tasks.
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