Coping With The Workload When You Don't Have Any Staff, Or An Office, Or Anybody Else To Sort It For You!
Well what a predicament some of us seem to get ourselves in. Whether it’s selling insurance or trading on the futures exchanges there’s always a pile of admin to be sorted at the end of the day , or if you can put it off, until the end of the year . Brilliant ! Modern software applications are coming to our aid aren’t they? According to the major software it’s all getting better each day. Your Home Based Franchise bought a number of months ago on the Franchise For Sale market is going great guns and sales are coming in . But you seem to be devoting a lot of effort on the paperwork – in fact a great deal more time than you would generally like to. There’s the customer accounts to be kept in order , keeping up with the invoices, maintaining the records for the Inland Revenue, filing annual returns, sending in your Franchises paperwork, checking the VAT etc. Anyone out there running a home business or a Home Based Franchise will comprehend what I mean. Sometimes it really seems like you don’t get any work done at all.
If you have purchased one of the Franchises on the Franchise For Sale market then they will have their own system of working and the accompanying paperwork, or more probably computer work to go with the franchise. There is very little you can do about this but accept it and set aside a little time to do it. The Franchises will have built in a certain amount of paperwork into their system and it’s worthwhile bearing in mind that it’s not in their interests to keep you behind the computer when you should be out cleaning ovens , fitting tyres or whatever your Franchises subject is. If you discover that you are being asked to do too much paperwork then it may be worth bringing this to the notice of the franchise or having a chat with other franchisees to see how they are coping with it .
The way to get around this seemingly burdensome mountain of paperwork is Little and Often. Two small words that should help you in the long run even if it means a weekly commitment.Nobody , or at least very few people, can stand a long period cooking the company books after a long day out on the road or dealing with a difficult customer. It’s not such a good idea to forget it all, though, as absence really does not make the heart grow fonder when dealing with the paperwork. Say to yourself that you will do up to one hour every three days if it’s required . That way it won’t seem such a mountainous chore but more of a regular slight nuisance. If you can imagine it’s a bit like shaving every day as opposed to having to chop off a forest of beard once a fortnight! If you have an accountant then keep him as your friend by keeping the accounts in order yourself. Accountants charge less for nicely presented spreadsheets than they do for a box of unsorted receipts!
The Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise assume things are be in order and it’s your job to make sure that they are. You can’t really delegate the responsibility of this to anyone else as if somebody else gets it wrong then it’s actually you they will come after not a third party. Keep your eye on this as these people have the power to ruin your life if you make even a small mistake.
The message is that setting aside a little time every few days can mean that you avoid a mountain of hassle at the end of the year!
