Navigating a small business – How to stay organised

It’s late December and instead of spending time recharging your batteries and being with your family you are hunting for all of the paperwork (including invoices) to prepare your self-assessment tax return for submission.

This was me last year when I was preparing my self-assessment tax return for being a landlord. I had to go through all of the receipts and invoices ensuring I had everything that could be included, this created what I call my Working Spreadsheet or Messy Spreadsheet, from that I compiled all the information into a tidy, easy to understand spreadsheet ready for when I submitted my self-assessment tax return. As this was my very first submission, I wanted it to be accurate, so I sent my tidy spreadsheet to my bookkeeping friend. They were very impressed with how that looked! Which has given me the additional confidence to be able to share this with you!

What if I told you there was another way…

Imagine this:

Instead of hunting around for all of your disorganised paperwork last minute, you were able to find the information with ease. You have it all completed and linked in a spreadsheet and on a shared drive. You can look at the category totals ready for submitting your tax return as the spreadsheet has been formatted to take this into account. Instead of being a week or more to compile and complete, this takes a couple of hours.

You too can achieve this by using any of the following techniques:

🌿 Using Time Management Techniques. Blocking out your time weekly/fortnightly/monthly to update your spreadsheet or financial system. The task is spread out, being completed in small chunks and not piling up becoming a larger task as the year progresses and therefore feeling unmanageable or overwhelming.

🌿 Outsource the task. You can outsource the data entry task to a virtual assistant who can conduct this on your behalf, meaning your time is freed up for you to think or complete business activities and taking some of the stress away when you find that the task keeps getting bumped down your priorities list.

🌿 Starting this at the start of the financial year means that you will get into a rhythm and routine of what you need to do for your processes to work in a more efficient and less stressful way.

If you are someone who finds just the thought of looking at a spreadsheet stressful, you could practice these before and after having to complete the task:

✨ Go outside and be present in nature, listen to the rustling of the leaves in the breeze, feel the warmth of the sun on your face and acknowledge the birds and other wildlife surrounding you, I find being in nature gives me an energy boost and can even lead to solving problems or having new ideas as my mind is free to just be

✨ Ensure you practice self-care, whether this is undertaking some deep breaths, a meditation or yoga, taking the time out will help you have a break from all the mental stress, thoughts and busyness we entail each day

Here’s the thing, by putting these sorts of things in place you will not only improve the way your business performs, as you will have more time and capacity for your clients. You will also improve your mental wellbeing as you won’t suffer burn out from completing a stressful and overwhelming task over an intense period of time or miss out on family time and have heightened emotions and energies when you should in fact be enjoying yourself.

Get in touch if you’d like to receive my easy-to-understand finance spreadsheet to save you pulling your hair out when it comes to year end.