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Running a home business is great. Whether your blog is your business, you run a small store from your home, or you earn money from your house in a different way, it can be a fantastic opportunity. Working from home gives you excellent flexibility and the chance to run your business in your own way. It can be very exciting. But it is also challenging. When you run your own business, no matter what size it is, and how much money you make, the buck stops with you. You make the decisions, which means that you also make the mistakes.
While most home business owners enjoy the creative elements of their work, far fewer look forward to the admin. While being able to file tax returns and send invoices online has reduced the amount of paperwork that we have to deal with, there will always be some element of administration that comes with running a business. Your filing might mean moving documents to a folder on your desktop, instead of sorting it into a filing cabinet, but you still need to do it.
If you find that your home business admin gets on top of you, or, that when it comes time to file your returns, you haven’t got a clue where your invoices are, you certainly aren’t alone. But, letting your admin get out of hand can be detrimental. You could lose important documents, waste time tidying things up, or even make costly errors on your reporting. So, let’s take a look at some ways to simplify your systems, which will help you manage your home business admin without the stress. You can also get more work from home tips here.
Use Effective Templates
Do you waste time creating invoices every time you need to send one? Do you write every email from scratch, taking the time to make sure that the signatures contain any necessary legal info? Save time by using useful templates from Templafy and life could get far easier – just follow this link: https://www.templafy.com/business-document-templates/
Do It Straight Away
The best way to stay on top of admin is to do it straight away. Get into good habits, and there will never be too much. If an invoice or receipt comes in that can be dealt with in less than two minutes, do it there and then, or as soon as you can stop whatever you were working on. If it will take longer to sort, leave it until the end of the day, and set aside a few minutes.
Use Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are as helpful as templates when it comes to keeping things in good order and easy to manage. Setting up a spreadsheet to help you manage your income and expenses will make your tax returns easier but also give you a far greater understanding of your cash flow.
Outsource
If you really hate filing and other admin work, ask yourself if you really need to do it. Is there anything that you could outsource to someone else? An accountant might be able to manage your finances, and a virtual assistant could help with any admin, which can be done online.
What techniques do you use to manage your home business admin? Share in the comments, and don’t forget to like and pin if you enjoyed this post! You can read some of my other business articles here:
12 Ways To Make Extra Money Online
What I’ve Learnt From My First Year Of Blogging
These are really good tips. I’ve been using spreadsheets lately, even though I despise Excel, and I must say that they’ve been helping me with staying organized a whole lot.
I do love a good spreadsheet!
Hannah,
Working from home or running a homebased hustle is no different from that corporate job. The only difference is the flexibility of you calling the shots – and not a senior boss that you report to. Templates are a must have – though a thorough check is a must lest the wrong information reaches a client. My team and I work with a team of professionals with the help of precious VAs. Effective communication is our greatest arsenal. This is because our goal is to exceed customer expectations and give value of most impact. We all thrive, scale and succeed at different paces as we cheer each other on. There is no better way to explain how to manage a home business like you have.
I have pinned and shared the blog!
H Emma | https://thextraordinarionly.com
Thank you so much! You’re absolutely right, and I think when we first start our own businesses we forget that really it’s very similar to being employed. I think organisation is the key to keeping it going forward.
These are great tips. I just try and stay as organised as possible, which means doing things ASAP so they don’t build up 🙂
I think that’s a great way to do it – something I need to improve on though (I just love leaving things until the last minute, ha)
Well this is such a helpful post!! In life, organisation is so so key!
Rosie
I’m glad you found it useful!
These are great tips! I love being on a schedule and getting into habits of doing things. Changes are what bug me! haha
Oh I totally get you – I can’t stand it when something gets in the way of my schedule.
I don’t have a home business but I’ve really been trying to organise my ‘life’ admin better! I am a terrible procrastinator so I am trying to get better at not putting things off till the last minute! I also love using spreadsheets to keep myself organised.
When I come across your blog. I do get something notable to read. These tips are really helpful to cut short of time and manage your business outcomes online hand in hand.
Work from home to create your own business is tough however at times its fun.
Thank you! Yes, working from home to create a business certainly has its challenges, but if you can overcome then I think it’s really wroth it. Thanks for commenting!
Thank you, I’m glad you’ve found this article useful. It definitely is fun (once you’ve got the admin out of the way!).