If there’s one thing all business owners agree on – no matter the industry they’re operating in – it’s that too much time is taken up with ‘admin’. Whether it’s completing paperwork, sorting out invoices or trying to arrange meetings (that often don’t feel very effective), business admin has a bad habit of distracting us from actually doing the work we set out to do as business owners.
So, how do we get around it?
Well, admin will always be a part of running a business. But it doesn’t have to take anywhere near as much of our time as it currently does. Instead, we could turn to tried and tested websites to see whether or not the tools, products and services they offer could help to simplify our business admin. If that’s something you’re interested in trying, here are five of the best websites to help you streamline your business’s admin so you can get to work on the stuff that actually interests you…and makes you money.
- Intuit Market
You’ve probably already heard of Intuit Quickbooks, and in fact, you might be using their accounting software. But it offers a lot more than accounting software, from printable checks (for payroll and invoice payments, for example) to pre-printed tax forms (to speed up and simplify those tax returns), as well as deposit slips, envelopes and more. There’s definitely something on this website to help you simplify your business admin, especially if the managing the financial side of running your business is chewing up too much of your time right now.
- Dropbox
Doubtless you’re familiar with Dropbox, but rather than just using it as a personal tool for storing those photos you can’t hold on your iPhone anymore, it’s a website that many business owners turn to in order to move their paperwork online.
You can store all paperwork relating to your business – whether that’s vendor contracts, insurance documents or lengthy business plans – as well as files that form the backbone of your offering, such as logos, website files, photography assets and more. If using Dropbox is something you’re interested in, check out their pricing plans for businesses.
- Todoist
If you have trouble keeping on top of your to-do list (especially if that to-do list is shared with other people), you should check out a website called Todoist. Its product allows you to add and access all of your tasks on lots of different platforms (so you can see them and tick them off on your mobile, your laptop or your iPad for example) and you can share and collaborate with other people too so that you can work together as a team without losing track of which tasks are complete and which still need doing (or creating).
It synchronizes in real time so there’s no lag, you can color code priorities, divide tasks into subtasks and sub projects, and even get notifications too. So, have a look at how it can help your business – the website offers a 14-day free trial.
- Invoicely
A common complaint among many business owners is the time it takes to manage invoices. For that reason, a site like Invoicely is one you should be taking a look at it. Its invoicing software allows you to automate your workflow, create invoices easily and receive instant online invoice payments.
If you’re in the early stages of setting up your business, or a one-man band, the free plan might be enough for you. But, the enterprise plan allows up to 25 team members to use the software, and you can even use it for multiple businesses and create recurring statements. Check out the pricing plan and see if it might help to simplify your business admin.
- G Suite
Finally, you might have noticed that scheduling meetings with your team (or vendors, suppliers, clients or anyone else that needs your attention) takes up a lot of time. But, you can simplify all of this admin and know exactly what’s happening by using something like Google Calendar.
G suite’s calendar solutions allow you to plan your time and schedule meetings in a way that integrates with Gmail, Drive and Hangouts, and you can access it on the move too. You can create group calendars, migrate and sync existing calendars held on other platforms, and you’ll also get pop-up reminders so you don’t miss events. Here are the solutions on offer to businesses, so take a look and see if it simplifies your business admin in the way you need it to.
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