Admin Day- Dealing with the Dirty Dozen

Posted By Elaine ~ 18th February 2011

Here is my latest column for the St Croix Courier…enjoy!

Admin Day- Dealing with the Dirty Dozen

In to each life a little rain must fall…and in the case of an Entrepreneur that would be the dreaded administration work. When you got into business you had a dream….a dream that included energy filled days where the business rolled along nicely and you were having fun doing what you love to do.

Then reality struck; when you sat in your office there was the carnage of unfinished paperwork, unanswered calls and a long list of things of to-dos. This was not what you got into business for. However, this is a part of the business that cannot be ignored because if you do, you will have angry customers or worse the CRA knocking on your door.

Here is a recap of the most common Administrative tasks and how to handle them efficiently.

The Admin Day- Dirty Dozen

1. Check all of your phones, copy down the number and message and return them…all of them. To save time on this task get the voicemail to e-mail service that most carries provide.
2. Make all phone calls that you have been putting off. Perhaps it is a call to the phone company regarding a question on your last bill.
3. Attack your paper with the FAT principal. File it, Act in it or Toss it. Keep a recycling and garbage bin near your desk so this becomes an ongoing habit
4. Review all outstanding bills and pay them. To make this easier keep them all in one file.
5. Collect all outstanding receivables, this is your cash flow. If you have a hard time with this hire or delegate this to someone who doesn’t.
6. Deal with all those magazines and articles on your desk that are waiting to be read. Have a file specifically for these and give yourself a deadline to do the reading, if it doesn’t happen in the time frame then let them go.
7. Website updates are a critical part of your online presence. It is not enough to have a website, you have to have fresh content for the Google spiders. No new relevant content…no indexing.
8. Follow up on all outstanding proposals. This shows that you are interested and yes…ORGANIZED.
9. Filling out forms can be a long tedious painful experience. Do these activities first on Admin Day and reward yourself with a fresh coffee or some other reward when you are finished.
10. Review the schedule for the coming week and pull files for the clients so you are ready to Rock and Roll come Monday morning.
11. If you are in business then you need to SELL…yes that four letter word. Make a list of prospects that you want to contact in the next week. By taking the time to do this one single activity you are committing to growing your business.
12. And last but not least…do ONE thing that will help you to grow your business.

There is hope and it comes in two parts.

You need to carve out a time to work on your business, yes that means turning off the phone and committing to the time. Initially it may take up to a full day to handle the administrative backlog, however as time goes on you will see a reduction in the amount of work week over week.

The second part requires you to grab a pile on the desk and yes….get-er-done,  have fun and Happy Admin Day!

To see more videos to inspire you in the office visit my youtube channel here.