As a small business owner in Wellington, New Zealand, you have a great amount of responsibility that can affect various aspects of your enterprise. You are tasked with managing and overseeing many aspects of your business: operations, sales, marketing, HR, finances, and more. This leaves you with countless tasks, duties and responsibilities to juggle on a daily basis.
Because of this, you tend to be a workaholic; always working at a fast pace in order to get ahead of the competition. But one thing you may not realize is that: all work and no play can harm your business. To put it another way, too much hard work can kill you – literally!
Driving yourself too hard is counterproductive and can destroy the business you’re trying to build, as well as your life. The stress that comes with being constantly in “overdrive” will negatively impact your productivity and that of your employees and also stifle creativity and kill motivation in your organization. What’s more, it can lead to burnouts and health problems such as high blood pressure, heart problems, lack of fitness, obesity, depression, and more. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential to ensure business success.
Here are some top tips to help you explore how you can find balance between work life and personal life.
Tips To Manage Your Business And Achieve A Healthy Work-Life Balance
1. Track and manage your time
Effective time management is critical to ensuring that you’re able to accomplish important tasks on time so you can find time for your personal life and avoid the stress and anxiety that comes with overworking. To improve your time management, you need to track your time to find out where and how you spend your time. This will allow you to identify time wasters, tasks you could delegate, your optimal productive times, and other things that you need to take control of your time.
Start by writing down or recording everything you do each day, when you do it, and how long it takes you. You can do this on a piece of paper, Post-It note, or utilize tools like excel spreadsheet or weekly timesheet. Do your time tracking for at least a few weeks, or for one month. This will give you a clear picture of how you spend your time; and you’ll be surprised by the number of workhours/workdays that you waste attending pointless meetings, handling tasks you could delegate, or on activities that provide no tangible benefits.
2. Find ways to avoid time wasters
Once you have a good indication of what you spend most of your workdays doing, you’ll be able to identify timewasters that you could do without. Common timewasters that you and your employees could be indulging in include: extended meetings that could take a shorter time, drop-in visitors and sales people, unnecessary telephone calls and emails, and monitoring social media.
3. Get organised
Use the results of your time tracking to develop and implement efficient business systems for your organization to help you work smarter, rather than harder; save time; and increase productivity.
For example, if your time tracking shows that you spend a great deal of your time searching for paperwork or important documents, you can set up an accounting information system or a virtual filing system to organise your records. Talk to professional accountants Wellington experts to see how business computing systems could boost efficiency in your organization.
4. Prioritise your time
Create a to-do list with all of your daily tasks on it. Rank these tasks and activities in order of priority, from the “most urgent and important” to “neither urgent nor important.” Start with the most urgent and important tasks to ensure these jobs are completed by deadline.
5. Find the right work pattern
Gauge your work habits to identify your personal productive times. Assign tough, high-concentration jobs to those times when you’re most productive. You can create a timeline of your daily activities to help you with this.
6. Be realistic
Don’t push yourself too hard. Remember you are human and you can only do so much. Be realistic when setting workhours and assigning tasks. Know your limits and strike a balance between stretching and overworking. And don’t forget to keep track of your own progress.
7. Delegate and/or outsource tasks
Create a list of duties you could delegate and identify responsible staff that could handle them. Let them take over. Also, consider outsourcing some tasks to professionals. For example, you could outsource bookkeeping and other financial matters to chartered accountants Wellington professionals. This will free up time and declutter your day.
8. Organize your workspace
Having a well-organized workspace can positively impact your productivity by increasing your concentration, creativity and cleverness. Declutter your workspace and invest in appropriate equipment that will support you.
9. Take a break
When creating your to-do list, be sure to include breaks that will allow you to take time out throughout your day. Use those breaks to meet like-minded business owners, partners, or clients in an informal setting. Ensure exercise is included in one of your breaks for the sake of your health.
As well as taking breaks, be sure to have that holiday every quarter. Don’t forget to notify your customers/clients about this.
10. Tap into technology
Be sure to utilize the power of technology to boost your efficiency. Time tracking applications, video conferencing technologies, tablet computers, business software products and support services, etc., can help your business increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. Consult professional accountants Wellington providers about appropriate business computing systems for your company.
11. Find time for your business’s finances
Managing your finances is an aspect of your business that typically takes up too much of your time. Make an effort to cut down on the amount of time you spend dealing with money matters at your business. Below are a few specific tips to help you with this.
Tips To Save Time And Effort Managing Your Business’s Finances
Good financial planning and management is one of the most important factors for your business success. Unfortunately, it can eat up a lot of your time – a resource that can be better utilized elsewhere.
To save time managing your business finances:
Make Sure You’re Organised
Develop appropriate systems to capture, file, label and track key records and data to ensure you don’t waste time looking for things like files, receipts, invoices, documents, and so on.
Remember to take inventory of all of your financial tasks – daily, weekly and monthly financial related duties and schedule them appropriately in your calendar so nothing falls off your radar or left to the last minute.
Take Advantage Of Accounting And Financial Management Tools
Make use of the plethora of software tools available to you to organize your records, save time, and produce professional financial statements. Software solutions, such as Banklink, Xero, MYOB, and other accounting systems for your business can help you save time and money.
Engage The Services Of Professional Accountants
Hiring the services of qualified accountants Wellington service providers allows you to stay on top of your business’s finances and accounting while saving you time and money. Don’t attempt to tackle your all your business’s finances by yourself. Professional accounting advice is important in ensuring you get it right and comply with the law without spending too much time on it.
Chartered accountants in Wellington provide specialist help for businesses in multiple areas. These include: preparation of financial statements, tax return Wellington services, GST, Payroll and RWT, ACC Administration, business and strategic planning, succession planning, business coaching, IRD refund Wellington service, company statutory administration, supply and installation of accounting software solutions and business computing systems, budgeting and cashflow forecasting, taxation, new business startup, finance applications, benchmarking, and more.
These professionals have the knowledge, skills, tools and processes in place that can add considerable value to your business. They know what to look for and where you can afford to cut costs, reduce time wastage and enhance your efficiency to help your business to remain competitive and lead you straight to success. Hiring their services will be worth every cent.
Count On Us Chartered Accountants Know How To Save You And Your Business Time And Money
Count On Us is a very respected and well known accountancy firm providing friendly and professional accounting services to businesses and individuals in Wellington, NZ. As members of CAANZ Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand, we boast vast knowledge and expertise in all aspects of accountancy, taxation and financial planning.
Our accounting and taxation services ensure your business not only meets all legal obligations, but also operates smoothly and you’re able to save money and time, so you can achieve a work-life balance. Through our specialist training and experience, we can help you with: business and financial planning, mortgage broking for commercial or residential properties, establishing family and/or trading trusts, company administration services, tax return Wellington services, business computing software tools, establishing a new company, buying an existing business, IRD refund Wellington services, and so much more.
Give us a call on 04 387 8113 to learn more about our professional accountants Wellington products and services, tax returns in Wellington, and bookkeeping services.
Contact our friendly team to make a booking!