This story must be shared with you to make you stop, think, rethink and comprehend (!) that your greatest commodity is your time.
There was this sole business owner – let’s name her Jill – who was running her firm from home. Her average hourly billing rate was in the $300-400 range. She used QuickBooks. She was one of those “I-can-do-it-all” type of person. For a long period of time she did not do any “customization” in QuickBooks, her invoices did not have a logo or any fancy design distinguishing her invoice.
One day, she decided to “customize” it. She has never been trained on QuickBooks, but found her way around it, was able to take care of her business accounting needs. She was sure she can figure it out and make her invoice pretty and unique.
And she succeeded. In 2 hours she figured it out. She put a logo up in the left corner, changed the font type and size, and added some other small changes. But she figured it out and differentiated her invoice from other QuickBooks invoices.
How much did it cost? About $800. Probably one of the most expensive and overpaid piece of task ever.
How overpaid? If Jill had a contact to a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, it probably took 15 minutes and significantly less money.
The moral of this story: life is short, we have only 24 billable hours a day, so think and rethink what the best use of your greatest commodity ever is. Your time.
My name is Sylvia Pacher, managing director for CCG- Virtual Corporate Services group, and I am always here to talk about your business goals and needs to reach those goals. My success is your success - please feel free to contact me personally if you are ready to see how we can make your company stronger, bigger, better, more competitive and profitable. Visit www.myvirtualcorporate.com for more deatils about our unparalelled services and I am looking forward to hearing from you (spacher@myvirtualcorporate.com)!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Promote Yourself!
So many solo and small business owners try to do everything. Is it possible? Can one take care of the web site marketing, client needs, networking, bookkeeping, hiring, payroll processing – just to mention a few???
It is possible to do all these so the business and the necessary administrative side of the business are cared for in a professional and timely manner? Can it be done in 8-10-12 hours a day, five days a week only, or some weekend and nighttime must be involved as well? Can work-life balance achieved or sustained when all these are done by the owner?
How many times have you seen your employees leaving at 5.30 or so; and you are still in the office providing QA on a client deliverable and then, only then, you must process the payroll and prepare and send out some invoice so you secure a steady cash flow?
I can say from my experience: letting the administrative tasks go in the first years of the business is like losing control of a ship on stormy waters. And later, when the business is a bit more settled, it just turns to be an old (bad) habit…
… a habit that burns up a lot of time. Since clients come first at all times, administrative tasks are a must-do-but-hate-to-do. It turns to be a very ambivalent relationship between the business owners and these tasks – can barely do it in time but can’t let it go either.
What often ends up happening – and again from my experience – is that something gets missed causing some issues. Often it is just not paying tax in a timely manner because the books are not up-to-date, and that results in losing the “Certificate of Good Standing”. Or a cash flow crunch due to paying payroll as a must, but delaying invoicing clients. Sounds familiar?
I, as a business consultant, get into the picture at this point. And here comes the pleasant surprise to those trusting me enough to call me first: we can take over all of these without you losing control or full visibility of your business, or changing anything you already have in place.
Yes, it is possible.
New technology allows us to support your business needs using the Cloud, shared servers and systems. Everything is visible, real-time, all the time. Your books, records, documents, payroll, timesheets, invoices, bank and credit card statements are accessible from your smartphone, desktop, laptop, Ipad. They are also processed in time so there is no tax or cash flow crunch due to delayed processing.
You have your time back to do what you do best: taking care of your clients. You can have some of that work-life balance and stop worrying about time to be found for administrative tasks. So what are you waiting for? Promote yourself and take the non-core functions off of your to-do list. We can help – and you will be more rested, successful and more profitable.
My name is Sylvia Pacher, managing director for CCG- Virtual Corporate Services group, and I am always here to talk about your business goals and needs to reach those goals. My success is your success - please feel free to contact me personally if you are ready to see how we can make your company stronger, bigger, better, more competitive and profitable. Visit www.myvirtualcorporate.com for more deatils about our unparalelled services and I am looking forward to hearing from you (spacher@myvirtualcorporate.com)!
It is possible to do all these so the business and the necessary administrative side of the business are cared for in a professional and timely manner? Can it be done in 8-10-12 hours a day, five days a week only, or some weekend and nighttime must be involved as well? Can work-life balance achieved or sustained when all these are done by the owner?
How many times have you seen your employees leaving at 5.30 or so; and you are still in the office providing QA on a client deliverable and then, only then, you must process the payroll and prepare and send out some invoice so you secure a steady cash flow?
I can say from my experience: letting the administrative tasks go in the first years of the business is like losing control of a ship on stormy waters. And later, when the business is a bit more settled, it just turns to be an old (bad) habit…
… a habit that burns up a lot of time. Since clients come first at all times, administrative tasks are a must-do-but-hate-to-do. It turns to be a very ambivalent relationship between the business owners and these tasks – can barely do it in time but can’t let it go either.
What often ends up happening – and again from my experience – is that something gets missed causing some issues. Often it is just not paying tax in a timely manner because the books are not up-to-date, and that results in losing the “Certificate of Good Standing”. Or a cash flow crunch due to paying payroll as a must, but delaying invoicing clients. Sounds familiar?
I, as a business consultant, get into the picture at this point. And here comes the pleasant surprise to those trusting me enough to call me first: we can take over all of these without you losing control or full visibility of your business, or changing anything you already have in place.
Yes, it is possible.
New technology allows us to support your business needs using the Cloud, shared servers and systems. Everything is visible, real-time, all the time. Your books, records, documents, payroll, timesheets, invoices, bank and credit card statements are accessible from your smartphone, desktop, laptop, Ipad. They are also processed in time so there is no tax or cash flow crunch due to delayed processing.
You have your time back to do what you do best: taking care of your clients. You can have some of that work-life balance and stop worrying about time to be found for administrative tasks. So what are you waiting for? Promote yourself and take the non-core functions off of your to-do list. We can help – and you will be more rested, successful and more profitable.
My name is Sylvia Pacher, managing director for CCG- Virtual Corporate Services group, and I am always here to talk about your business goals and needs to reach those goals. My success is your success - please feel free to contact me personally if you are ready to see how we can make your company stronger, bigger, better, more competitive and profitable. Visit www.myvirtualcorporate.com for more deatils about our unparalelled services and I am looking forward to hearing from you (spacher@myvirtualcorporate.com)!
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