One of the problems with having a small business is that sometimes you don’t have much of one of two things: time and cash. There never seems to be enough time to get everything taken care of that you want to get to, and even if you’re making money, there doesn’t seem to be enough for everything you need to pay for.
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I can’t help you specifically with the time issue, but I can definitely help you start thinking better about the expenses side of things that actually might help you with time.
A big problem with small businesses is that there are many things that have nothing to do with the business that you still have to take care of. If you work from home, most probably you’re doing a lot of things around the house, especially if you’re single. Frankly, all that stuff can start to get on your mind and wear you down.
You need help; that’s a given. You’re going to have to spend some money; that’s also a given. But spending some of this money will help you immeasurably; that’s a promise. Here we go.
1. Hire an accountant. This might seem self serving since we’re an accounting firm, but it’s always my first recommendation to anyone who’s been in business at least one year, no matter the size of the business or whether they use us or not. Many people could do the work themselves, but when business starts to improve you’ll be hard pressed to find the time to keep up with everything when you have clients to take care of.
The time to calculate all your expenses and do my books can be overwhelming, especially if you travel a lot; you’ve probably already experienced this. By having an accountant, you not only can get detailed reporting if you want it, but all you have to do is put all your receipts in a box and get them to the accounting office and they’ll take care of them for you. If you need to pay quarterly taxes, take your receipts and proof of payments to them once every 2 or 3 months.
2. Hire an organizer. You might think this one is a waste of time and money, but I don’t know a single person who doesn’t get behind in paperwork and doesn’t eventually end up with an office overwhelmed with paper, files, boxes, etc. An organizer can not only help you get things together but, if you’re willing to learn, will teach you methods for keeping things under control. It’s not overly expensive and if you’re a quick learner you’ll only have to use them once. If you want, you can have them come in periodically to help you out.
3. Hire a cleaning service. This one isn’t an absolute if it’s covered under your office expenses or if you work at home and your spouse takes care of things. If not, this will not only save you a lot of stress but you’d be surprised how little time it takes someone who’s used to cleaning to finish the job.
You pay based on time, and for the most part you’re looking for someone to vacuum, dust, maybe put your dishes in the dishwasher and clean your kitchen, and of course clean the bathrooms. You can ask for extra services such as putting your laundry in the washer and dryer and washing windows but the more you ask for the most it’ll cost. It helps you out because you don’t have to do take time away from your business to do it.
4. Hire a lawn service/snow removal service. Whether or not you work from home this will save you a lot of time and stress. Both of these take a lot of time to do if you have a sizable yard, and in winter you don’t have to deal with the stress of being snowed in if you live in an area with a high snowfall rate (like I do).
Paying someone else to do these things might seem costly, but unless you like always being outdoors or are always ready to remove snow so you can leave the house it’s definitely worth the money.
5. Join some kind of networking group. No one can stay by themselves all the time and remain sane, let alone stay focused on the job at hand, even if you have an employee or two. If you’re a sole proprietor, every once in a while it’s great to get around other business professionals, whether they’re in your field or not, to have someone to talk to who’s going through the same business pressures you deal with and possibly to help generate business.
At best it gets you out of the house or office for a while and it’s relatively inexpensive. You might even learn some things if you join the right group.
Did I happen to mention that all of these things can be written off? Something to think about.
