Simple ways to save your Business time (and maybe money)

‘Time is money’ is an age old mantra you’ll have probably heard time and time again. As with many of these age old mantras there’s got to be a grain of truth in it. Why else would it have lasted so long?

In business it’s especially true, even more so if you’re a start-up or small businesses. Every second, minute or hour can be crucial, the difference between completing a project late or missing an order.

Unfortunately though there’s an awful lot of rigmarole involved in a running a business and a multitude of tasks that need doing. Not only that they’re often time-consuming. To the uninitiated or simply unorganized it may feel like there’s not enough hours in the day.

If this is you then read on, as we’ve got a few tips that should help you make the most of the 24 hours, 1224 minutes and 86400 seconds in a day…

Move your accounts to the cloud

If you haven’t noticed it already, you will do soon. The cloud is coming and it’s beginning to vastly change the way whole sectors go about their business. Amongst the crucial business services you’ll find taking to the cloud is accounting. ‘How the hell will this save me time?!’ I hear you cry. Well, read the paragraph below.

Online accounting means you can update everything instantly and see the outcomes straight away. The software can reconcile your outgoings with your bank statements, work out tax and produce clear graph visualisations. Not only that, It’s often much cheaper too.

Embrace project management software

Similar to cloud software, project management software is in vogue at the moment…Well, not in the magazine (at least to my knowledge) but you catch my drift. Searching around you’ll find a wealth of software on the market to make running concurrent projects that little bit simpler. Basecamp and Trello amongst a myriad of others, provide online environments where you can plan , keep track and collaborate on projects.

They may not be the definitive antidote to your organisational woes, but they should increase efficiency and spare you from pondering for a good 5 or 10 minutes on the next job you’re meant to be doing.

Use the appmosphere (wisely)

There’s a lot of gimmicky, largely pointless apps on the market – most are on my iPhone – but there’s also some value out there, and some that could help you to use your time more efficiently. The double team of Google Drive and Google Analytics will provide you with the ability to create documents, presentations or spreadsheets and allow you to check web stats anytime, anywhere. Well, provided you’ve got an internet connection.

Even if your business isn’t the most techy you may still some nifty little apps to help you use your time more effectively, apps like mPowa allowing users to take credit or debit card payments anywhere via their smartphone.

Right, that should help you on your way. Chances are that as a small business owner you’ve been too busy to read this though. What a waste of both of our time!