How To Get Things Done When You’re Out Of The Office

Did you ever think when you first started your business that you’d have so much to do? You probably didn’t give a lot of thought to chasing payments, researching suppliers, or social media marketing, yet these are tasks that all businesses need to undertake.

When your job takes you out of the office a lot it can be difficult to find the time to get all your business admin done. Many small business owners put in a lot of late nights, work on weekends and holidays, and risk ending up with unhappy family members!

If this sounds familiar maybe it is time to implement some changes to both give you a better work-life balance and grow your business at the same time.

Plan your time

If you’re going to be spending a lot of time on the train or a plane, make the most out of your travel time by doing tasks that don’t require you to be sat in the office. Plan ahead to make sure you have WiFi and all the info to hand to write documents, respond to emails, book meetings, and whatever other tasks you’ve assigned yourself. If you’re driving it can be a good idea to leave earlier to avoid rush hour. You can then make calls, respond to emails, or do any online research while you’re waiting for your meeting to start.

Go digital

Being able to work from anywhere makes life a lot easier if you travel a lot. Use Dropbox, Google Drive or Sync to store your documents so you can access them even if you’re not in the office. Make sure your diary is synced between your laptop and your phone so you can always see appointments and don’t miss any reminders if one device runs out of battery.

There are many online accounting software solutions that allow you to quickly access invoices, statements, and accounts from your phone or laptop such as Xero or QuickBooks.

Find a right-hand man

Or woman.

You’re good at what you do, whether that’s selling a product, running a training course or coaching other business owners, but credit control, writing documents, or booking meetings might not be where your strengths lie. If you’re out and about most of the week you don’t want to come home to time-consuming tasks.This is when outsourcing can be a lifesaver - if you choose the right person.

The beauty of remote business support (more commonly known as a Virtual Assistant) is that they will possess lots of different skills that you'd normally need to have several employees to cover but when you’re running a new business it’s not always possible to take on extra staff.

With remote support you can hand over a variety of tasks from credit control to supplier sourcing, proofreading in different languages to social media, and know that you have someone with experience to get the job done without the need to micro-manage them. Or if you are an established business, remote business support is an effective way to add/replace an administrative layer with a flexible working solution.

If you have clients outside of the UK, you can even find someone bilingual to help you with translation, proofreading, and teach you about any customs and business etiquette. Knowing someone is on the other end of the phone or email to handle things you need to delegate gives you peace of mind to go to your meetings and appointments without worrying about outstanding work or looming deadlines.

If you want to find out more about how a Bilingual Virtual Assistant could change your life get in touch!