I remember deciding last year that I\u2019d set half a day aside every week for business admin. It was really important, I decided, to safeguard that time and I\u2019d be able run a business properly this way with all the right things in place. And honestly, I think I\u2019ve managed that a handful of times over the last year. Instead, admin is snatched scraps of time between projects. So other than investing in a virtual PA (the absolute dream), what has worked to help keep my admin head above water?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every time you have an invoice paid, squirrel at least 25% of that away in a separate account for tax, national insurance and pension. And if you\u2019re serious about a pension, you\u2019re looking at more like 40% of each invoice. It\u2019s the only way to safeguard that for your tax bill and not risk mixing it up with what can go on day-to-day bills or the odd treat. Even better, have your work invoices paid into a separate account to your day-to-day spending, that way it\u2019s a hell of a lot easier to track income and expenditure when it\u2019s the only things listed in that bank statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems kind of quaint now to get a receipt but while you\u2019re there grab yourself a polly pocket, label it up with the year and make sure you collect them. You\u2019ll thank yourself at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not the greatest of spreadsheets, but at least once a month I log anticipated income and paid invoices, as well as expenses. Reconciling your bank statement monthly is a hell of a lot easier than the potential mess but the end of the financial year. It also helps me to keep an eye on where I’ve got lighter periods of work coming up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And not just the successful ones \u2013 I run three main project folders. One for current live projects, one for work I\u2019m waiting to hear about and one for unsuccessful bids. They all serve a purpose and together help me track not just what I\u2019m working on but what\u2019s in the pipeline, as well as reflecting on why I wasn’t successful at ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I submit more bids, work with other freelancers and generally develop my business, I\u2019ve also grown and developed my documents. There\u2019s nothing like having a little bank of templates, pulling together the best bits. It\u2019s a huge time efficiency to gained when starting new work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now this one I\u2019ve only started doing properly in the last month, for all my work. Before I attempted a few versions of an Excel spreadsheet but they were never quite right. I always ended up tweaking formula, overwriting cells and generally spending more time than I wanted faffing with them. I\u2019m now trialling Clockify as one of the free platforms and I\u2019m actually really enjoying it. Not only can I track key contracts I need the hours for, but it\u2019s been really interesting to see how I\u2019ve used all my other time across the week (but not all of it is good!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least once a month I do a sweep of my website and LinkedIn to make any updates \u2013 upload a new testimonial, update your offering and just generally check everything\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it gets busy, I just can\u2019t trust myself to remember some of the admin bits like the date to invoice so my calendar is packed full of reminders which I set up when I start any new project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still aspire to be more regular and consistent with my LinkedIn content but what is a gamechanger is carving out chunks of time to create content and using a free platform, like Buffer, to schedule upfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A classic but why change something that works so well? Every single week I start a new list, categorised by client with an extra category for business admin. For anything critical I break out a highlighter. There\u2019s something about writing the lists by hand really like, it emphasises the importance of the tasks but mostly the satisfaction of clicking a tick box on a screen just isn\u2019t the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may not be perfect but it\u2019s holding me together for now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by\u00a0Sear Greyson<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember deciding last year that I\u2019d set half a day aside every week for business admin. It was really important, I decided, to safeguard that time and I\u2019d be able run a business properly this way with all the right things in place. And honestly, I think I\u2019ve managed that a handful…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[11,12,21,25,10],"class_list":["post-506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity","tag-consultant","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t