With only 5 working weeks to go before Christmas hits, what do you have left on your to do list?
In between concentrating on serving your customers, providing your services and managing your workspace and teams, there’s an abundance of operations and management jobs that need to be done. Why not take some of the pressure off and ensure you finish the year with all these tasks completed too. Here’s some ideas about what you can outsource to ensure you rest easy this Christmas.
Admin
This time of year it’s always good to start getting ready for next, and an important part of that is organisation. You don’t want to come back to work in January with a messy inbox, unorganised filing systems and unruly databases. So why not enlist someone to help? It may only be a few hours work, but against providing your core services, it’s not necessarily a priority.
An experienced personal assistant can expertly organise your emails, purging out of date or unnecessary correspondence, creating folders to file important emails, highlight important messages and much more. They can even send holding responses for you to give you more time to deal with key communications.
When it comes to your digital filing systems – folders on your laptop/ computer, DropBox (or other file sharing platforms) or local servers – these can get out of hand after 12 months activity! It’s a task that you probably keep thinking about, but let’s face it, the prospect of sifting through and getting them sorted isn’t a fun one. Why not bite the bullet and recruit a helper? With an impartial view and no emotional attachment, they’ll quickly and efficiently tidy your files and likely make them much more user friendly too!
The same goes with your databases. Over months of use and ongoing updating they’re prone to getting untidy. New names get added to notes, but not the ‘Contact’ section. Numbers and addresses aren’t always up to date. Old information and data entries are kept when they no longer need to be. Excel spreadsheets have formatting errors and inconsistencies. It’s a mess! Get a skilled administrator to have a look and take the stress of this task away.
Whilst we’re on the subject of admin, have you sent your customers’ Christmas cards out yet? We can source, print, write and post them for you if you like?
Finance
This is so important. We can’t stress enough how little time there is until businesses start slowing or shutting down for the 2-week holiday period. Realistically you only have 4 weeks to get your outstanding invoices sent or followed up for payment. It’s nice getting the orders in and goods sent out, but it’s even better to start a new year with the cash in the bank and your finances in order. We understand one can’t happen without the other, but these processes don’t have to be independent. Hiring a capable Credit Controller to follow up older debts and keep on top of new ones is the best way to ensure you’re ahead of the game when January comes around.
Bookkeeping is another key area that’s often left until it’s an absolute must. Incoming invoices, receipts and payments are a regular daily occurrence for most businesses and it’s easy for them to pile up quickly without being properly logged, making year end books a bit of a headache. Why not alleviate some of the pain and let a professional help you get it all organised?
Quick question … When was the last time you reviewed your annual cashflow results and forecasts to look for expenditure savings? We’d be happy to help by producing simple summaries and overviews for you.
Digital Marketing
It’s easy to let marketing go a little when you have a busy period, but the problem with that is, when it gets quiet again there’s nothing in the pipeline! Don’t let your new year suffer because of your December successes. Employ an experienced digital marketer to help create and keep on top of your newsletters, mailshots, annual summaries and infographics. Keep the promotions going for January and get a plan in place for the rest of the year.
Whether you currently use social media as a marketing channel or not, now is the time to start thinking about your strategy. If you use it already, you’ll know how important a good plan is and if you don’t, you should be! Seek the services of a digital marketing expert so it’s not all on your shoulders. The best way to interact and engage with prospects often changes, their help and advice will be invaluable – Not to mention they’ll take the daily workload that comes with social marketing away too!
FYI – We’ve worked with over 30 industries on 100’s of accounts, across multiple social media channels. We’re always happy to answer questions and share ideas.
So, whilst you’re taking care of order fulfilling; customer services; staff reviews; stock takes; desk clearing; and new year goal setting, let us help with everything in between. Allow yourself to make time for the most important thing of all – spending time with family and friends and taking some much-needed time off!
We have been successfully providing services remotely for six years now. We are members of the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) and have been for 6 years. We work on our clients’ behalf as part of their team, and you can be confident that all services we provide are GDPR compliant, we take confidentiality seriously.
If you’d like help with your admin, finance tasks or digital marketing, then please get in touch:
T – 01903 688789 E – makeithappen@mbsmih.com