4 ways to make your business “EZ”

People enter business because they want to do something they love, build something that is their own, and perhaps put away a nest egg for the future. But business is hard work. And while that may not be a problem for most business owners, it can keep them from fully enjoying their businesses or making as much revenue as they potentially can.

In this blog, I want to talk about ways that you can make your freelance business or small business easier.

Idea 1: Focus the majority of your time on selling and empowering only. I know that as a business owner you’ve got lots of other things on your to-do list. But guess what: a lot of it is non-critical to generating revenue. Yes, you need to do that other work to keep the lights on, but the majority of your time should be spent on sales-generating activities. That might include actually selling, or it might include empowering your sales staff to sell. Either way, the other stuff should be delegated. When you think about it, an outsource company that takes care of it for you is actually cheaper than you spending your revenue-generating time on non-revenue-generating activities. I not only founded IAC-EZ, but I also own IAC Professionals, an outsource service provider of administrative and accounting work.

If you write out your list of work to do in the day, look at anything during your business hours that are NOT revenue-generating work. Get rid of it.

Idea 2: Hire people who are better than you. You’ve probably heard this before but I don’t mind saying it again. Find talented people and bring them on board. In some cases, depending on your business, that might mean part-time, or it might mean that you pay them a contingency fee rather than a wage. Get creative (but keep it legal, of course) and duplicate your efforts with other great people.

Idea 3: IAC-EZ it! While you should spend the majority of your day on revenue-generation, at the end of the day you need to count your money and figure out what to do with it all. (Oh, and do other bookkeeping stuff, too). That’s where IAC-EZ makes things easier. No rushing documents off to the bookkeeper; no late night calculations to figure out why your books aren’t balancing. A few simple inputs and IAC-EZ does the work.

Idea 4: Create systems, processes, and procedures. This is one area that you simply can?t do enough of. The goal here is to automate work or make it as much of a “no-brainer” as possible so that you can’t help but to succeed. Create checklists for everything that you do and simply pull out the checklist every time you’re about to do that activity. Create templates for every document you have to fill out. Use simple computer tools like Word’s “auto text” feature to input commonly written material. Avoid drowning in the paper clutter by using web-based office tools like those available at Google Docs or Zoho.

Have a great Holiday – and please – try to make your life a bit easier in 2009!

-Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM