How To Reduce Your Admin

Admin tasks are fundamentally necessary if your business is to run smoothly and successfully but it’s undeniable that they take up a lot of time. Admin isn’t everyone’s cup of tea!?

Studies show that businesses can work on average as much as?16 hours a week?on it, while US businesses alone spend nearly?$600 billion a year?on administration.

For businesses who still perform many of their admin tasks manually this is a lost opportunity, as modern technology will help these processes run easier and take up less time.?

WHY should you reduce your admin?

The idea of potentially automating or outsourcing these important tasks is quite daunting, if they aren’t done correctly it could have a negative impact on your business. That’s where your systems will shine, a good SOP will identify and manage potential risk.

The benefits for your business when you reduce time spent on administration are:

It's better for your clients!

• One of the main pros of reducing administration is that it?frees up time, meaning you and your team are able to focus more time on your clients. Whether this is spent on customer delight, lead generation or business development, this is a benefit where you should see visible changes quickly.
• With more time, your team will be able to finish their work to a?higher quality. With your customers happier with the standard of work, they are more likely to return and recommend you to others. Increasing client delight with less churn.

It's better for your team

• Reducing admin?cuts down on workplace stress, as many admin tasks require strict attention to detail or have deadlines attached. These can be mentally taxing on your team when they are spending a lot of their time working on routine or manual admin, which increases stress levels and challenges productivity and creativity.
• Improving?workflow?is a great benefit to reducing admin. A lot of the time these tasks are a necessary part of working on a specific project, so when your staff is in a rhythm and getting lots of work done, they are interrupted by having to stop and complete these tasks. By removing them, your team will be able to keep up their motivation and work more efficiently.
• By lightening the admin workload for your team they will be able to increase their?memory recall. When you have lots to remember, your brain will prioritise what is most important. If your team isn’t overloaded with things to remember, they can remember important information easier and faster.
• When your team has more time to focus on non-admin work, they will?improve their skills. By increasing their competency on the relevant tasks of their workload, they will be able to perform their job faster and with fewer errors, resulting in happier internal and external customers.
• All of these benefits of reducing admin means you can offer your team?more flexibility,?creativity and sense of achievement, which improves morale, productivity, and staff retention.

It's better for your business

• Reducing admin is?cost-effective?for your business. So much money can be saved by limiting the time your team spends on admin, time better spent in other areas where they are working in their own zones of genius.
• This will?attract skilled team members, as candidates with higher skill levels will want to join a workplace requiring less admin work, with more time to advance their talents. You will be able to build a stronger workforce and keep them for longer.
• As we have emphasised, reducing admin gives you?more time to focus on what is important.

HOW do you reduce your admin?

1. Identify and prepare

Which tasks do you want to cut back on, and to what extent? The first step to reducing your admin is by identifying which tasks are most important (have a tangible effect on your business success) and urgent (have impending and strict deadlines) and allocate your resources accordingly.

Administrative tasks can be divided into 2 main types:

• operational
• regulatory

Operational tasks are those necessary for running your business smoothly, such as managing income, outgoing payments or recruitment.

Regulatory admin tasks are those that are compulsory to fulfil government requirements, such as filing tax returns.

Identifying the risk factor in both these types of tasks will help prioritise them.? For example tasks where incorrect figures or missed deadlines may result in fines or penalties such as tax returns.? These are the tasks you might want to automate or outsource.?

Decide how much budget you want to dedicate to reducing your admin. As you are researching who to hire or how to automate your admin, consider the budget both financially and in time. Ensure your accounts are in order, everything is up to date and in an easily shareable and understandable format.

2. Automation

Automating your administration is a great option to consider. It’s cost-effective, frees up your team, removes human error, has consistent delivery and will ensure your deadlines are met. You can?download our free e-Book here?to learn how to systemise and automate your business to improve and reduce your admin.

3. Outsourcing and Delegation

Almost any part of your business can be outsourced, and admin is a great place to start. Try asking your network for recommendations, you can even try a VA! When you are outsourcing, you are passing on admin responsibilities to a third party who is an expert, completing the tasks faster and more efficiently.

Download our free guides here on?outsourcing made easy?and?150 tasks you can delegate to a VA.