Every small business owner knows the feeling… when morale is low around the office and it seems that everyone is complaining about processes and working amongst chaos just to keep their heads above water.  At the same time, everyone is fighting the adoption of the new software that has promised to make things run more smoothly in the office.  Even after multiple training sessions and trying different management styles to make the company more efficient, the back office still has frequent process issues. How hard can it really be to have an efficiently operating bookkeeping and administrative department? 

Improving processes and leveraging the technology investments that have already been made is a good place to start. But, let’s be honest, it can be difficult to find time and resources to make improvements while simultaneously running the business. So, what is the right way to delegate the proper execution of running your business?

Has there ever been an employee that made both you and your business look good constantly? If so, chances are you wanted to ensure that they stay with the company forever. Keeping the right employees and helping the negative, non-effective employees move on to other ventures are one of the two most difficult things about running a small business.

Let’s start by discussing the harder and more critical of the two: Removing negative employees from the company. This is important because if an employee is a bad fit for a number of reasons, for example: they can lose customers and even run good employees away.  Although it is easy enough to calculate the cost of a bad hire from lost revenue, inefficient use of resources, and recruiting fees to replace a bad hire, it is important to also consider the indirect costs that are compounded due to the current business environment.

For example, the pace of today’s work environment caused by technology and streamlined processes has eliminated most routine positions and therefore requires employees to work more effectively with less supervision. This may be most evident in employees with plenty of experience but who have trouble keeping pace in today’s environment. Technology and streamlined processes are making it difficult for some employees to see how they add value to the company. These employees are motivated by the fear of losing their jobs and wreak havoc on the growth and success of the company to ensure their job security.

If experienced employees are unable to adapt to streamlined processes, there will be a decline in knowledge translation to the younger generation that thrives in today’s environment. These types of indirect costs are extremely difficult to measure but wreak havoc on the success of the business.

Let’s revisit the question – what is the right way to delegate the proper execution of running your business?Hiring and retaining the right people could be much easier than once thought. Consider Outsourcing: no recruiting fees, job ads, technology investments, or other chaos.  Go and Grow can develop a solution tailor made for your business. The first step is to begin automating  your accounting processes. Next, develop processes to make the business smarter and more efficient to reduce costs and increase productivity.

Here are some examples:

• Eliminate cumbersome and time-consuming manual tasks such as data entry, envelope stuffing, filing and check runs
• Pay bills online at a fraction of the time it takes to process and sign checks
• Automate customer collections
• Stop opening mail by having the vendor emails sent directly into the accounting software
• Reduce human error and increase accuracy with automated software
• Improve internal controls to reduce the risk of fraud
• Improve timely reporting of financial results
• Improve collaboration of limited resources

Let us help put these processes in place and become the back office for your business at a much lower cost with better controls. Call us to get started today.