How to get profits in the bank (and not on your shelf)

Mornings turn into days, which turn into weeks, which in turn into months and another year has gone. Have you come back from your holiday keen to develop better time management habits? Have your time management habits meant that you didn’t get a holiday? We have prepared 12 5-minute time management exercises to help you get more from your day. Invest an hour with these suggestions to see if they could help you achieve more, feel less stressed and get that perfect work/life balance. 1) Have a plan for the day As the old chestnut goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. Don’t potter. Have definite targets for the day. Imagine the sense of accomplishment that you’re feel when you look back at a list of completed tasks. How to do it? Spend 15 minutes at the end of your day planning your next day. Review your tasks and number them in order of urgency and importance. 2) Eat your greens Your most urgent, and possibly most important task might not be your favourite. Tackle it first. Just like eating your greens, it may not be the most enjoyable of experiences, but it will do you good. As before imagining how relived/satisfied you will feel when you complete it. What if you have got tasks that carry over? Try a test. Every time you review these tasks, draw a star (or type *). If you get up to nine stars there is every chance that you will never complete that task. Which leads us to 3) Pass the torch/delegate Remember this is delegation not abdication. Before you delegate you need to know the parameters of the task; what skills are involved, possible time allocation of task. Who will you choose to take on the task? You also need to bear in mind if you need to train any aspects of the task. If you do decide to do in-house training, the initial investment will be worth-it in the end. 4) Stop plate spinning As a business owner/manager you have many responsibilities. As you flit between operations, accounts, marketing it’s possible to leave lots of half-finished jobs. Do you make your life more difficult than it needs to be by distracting yourself unnecessarily? How often do you look at your phone? Do you have Outlook open the whole time, so that you can see emails ghosting in front of your eyes; haunting your day? To completely focus on a project could you leave your phone in a different room. If you have staff could you ensure that they know that you are not to be disturbed and even equip them to field any queries that come up so that you don’t face an avalanche of issues when you resurface. 5) Change your schedule: Tweak it out If you’re reading this article, then it’s obviously because you want to discover some useful time. If you’re struggling with time management, the solution may be as simple as changing your schedule around and analysing your activity patterns; that counts at home as much as it does at work. Please note we are not talking about wholesale change – just little tweaks. 6) Leave a buffer between meetings to avoid getting punch drunk Jumping immediately from one task or meeting to the next may seem like a good use of your time, but it has the opposite effect. We need time to clear our minds and recharge by going for a walk, meditating, or just daydreaming. After all, the human brain can only focus for about 90-minutes at a time. This exercise is particularly useful when you analyse and record the actions that you may have picked up from each meeting. There’s nothing worse than when meetings bleed into one another or you cannot properly recall what you’ve volunteered for until you see your initials against them at the next meeting! 7) Stop being perfect: Done is better than Perfect Benjamin Franklin said, “Well done is better than well said.” Mark Zuckerberg has built an empire on the maxim that Done is better than Perfect. Do then review and analyse. If you don’t start you guarantee you will not finish. If you are begin, you don’t know where you’ll end up. When you’re a perfectionist, nothing will ever be good enough. That means you’ll keep going back to same task repeatedly. How productive do you think your day will be as a result? 8) Just say “No.” Stop being everyone’s friend by saying “yes”. Be realistic with yourself regarding your time and other commitments. You’re not helping anybody (particularly yourself) if you monkey collect, stress yourself out and let people down. This mindset can lead to a downward spiral in performance and mood. 9) Don’t waste time waiting: Make every second count Even in the most organised of days you can find yourself with pockets of time. Business contacts will run late, you will have suppliers that keep you waiting. Have some tasks in mind that you can do to make the most of these “gifts” in time. 10) Find inspiration: Keep the fire burning Even if you are doing a job you love life can become a trudge. Make sure you can give yourself a chance to get above this by recharging your motivation. Tune into a TED Talk or read a biography of a thought changer. It will give you the energy to think around issues. 11) Batch similar task together. When you have related work, batch them together. For example, don’t answer your emails and phone calls throughout the day. Schedule a specific time to handle these tasks. By doing this you can educate people in how you work; they will not expect to receive an email response straight away for instance. Different tasks demand different types of thinking. By batching related tasks together, your brain isn’t switching gears - which means you cut out that time reorienting. 12) Do less: don’t do the headless chicken Don’t punch the air. So much energy gets wasted by running around and plate spinning. By slowing down you can be aware of what needs to be done and concentrate on those things. Make sure you use a task list for the week and evaluate it daily. By doing this you can increase your chance of improving your work/life balance.

Try out these tried and tested techniques, highlighted by Xero, to get your invoices paid faster 1) Invoice straight away So many business owners we meet say they haven’t got time to send invoices. You need to send invoices to get paid; like it or not it’s what you’re in business for Don’t make setting up and sending invoices an arduous process. In these days of user-friendly cloud-based accountancy software you can send invoices from your phone; on the move. Remember clients are more open to paying bills when they've just received the goods or services that you delivered. Cash in on the goodwill. 2) Send clean invoices Is there any ambiguity, misinformation (or wrong information) on your invoice? Remove it! Take away any potential blocks to your client paying up. Details on your invoice should include description of the work or product, the date it was delivered, and any client requirements (such as a purchase order number). Some clients have very specific requirements so ask what they need to see on the invoice. Could you ascertain this information prior to you doing the work? Make the due date clear, too. 3) Ask for prompt payment You are not a bank; you don’t need to give credit. More than a third of businesses now request payment within a week. Consider doing the same. Your client may want to negotiate for more time – and you should try to be flexible – but starting off at seven days will help set an expectation of prompt payment. 4) Make on-time payment worthwhile How clear are the terms and conditions on your invoice? Putting thought into how you operate this policy pays dividends. You operate from a position of strength. Have you considered charging fees for late payment? If you charge include a line something like: “Late fees are assessed after the due date, at the rate of 1.5 percent per month.” A more positive approach is to offer a discount for prompt payment. The lure of saving money is a powerful motivator, even if it’s just a few percent discount it gives you, or your credit control person/department an extra chase date. 5) Be easy to pay Customers will pay faster if they can use their preferred method. Offer them a variety of options. Be aware that some customers would like to pay using credit card or an automated clearing house (like PayPal). Could you set up an iZettle card reader to take credit card payments? Our research shows you'll get paid 20 days sooner if you offer these options. Learn more about online payment services. If you are shepherding your clients towards paying via bank electronic transfer, then make sure you include your business bank account number and sort code number on the invoice. 6) Chase payments Have you got a credit control process? You'll need to follow up with the client to make sure it's being processed. Online invoicing makes this a lot simpler. When you send online invoices, you can see when it's been opened and when it's been paid. If the due date is approaching and it hasn't been paid, send a reminder. You can set your software up so that the reminder email is sent automatically. If the invoice goes past due, it's time to make a phone call. Remember there are several legitimate reasons why an invoice doesn’t get paid. Don’t always think the worst. Try and establish what the reason is and then maintain communication with your client. This really helps with your cashflow planning.

A4B NE are honoured to receive the prestigious Wealth and Finance "Excellence Award in Business Consultancy 2023"

It’s the time of year when many are thinking about holidays. As well as sunscreen, your holiday books and a stash of Euros (perhaps not as many Euros as you were hoping – thanks to the pounds current poor performance) as business owners we have the additional concerns around our business. Like many things the key is preparation. We have prepared a simple checklist that we have found helpful: What does the summer look like for you and your business? Are you aware of all the events that are happening over the next 8 weeks or so? Even if you don’t have regular team/planning meetings it is worth getting together so that you can cover off any potential events/issues that may affect workflow. You and the team If you have staff, is all the holiday accounted for (including all those long weekends) and are the team fully aware of any extra cover that they may need to get involved in? Do you know the potential work pressure points, and have you got contingencies for these? The holiday period may allow you the chance of letting a team member step into a different role or learn a different skill for a short period. Managed properly, this change may do wonders for their motivation and confidence. Are you looking to bring in extra cover? A subcontractor or temp can bring excellent benefits to a business in terms of a fresh outlook, different experiences and new ways of solving problems. Depending upon the complexity of the role, you may need to invest time in an induction so that you can get them up to speed. Your clients Whatever you are doing over the summer have you informed your clients regarding potential disruptions to the service you offer them; this is especially true if you plan a shutdown. Don’t let them find out this information from your email out of office reply. Will you still have a business when you return from your break? Make sure your figures are up to date before you leave. You want to know exactly what your profit and loss situation is, any aged debtors that need chasing and any suppliers/bills that need paying. Put together a conservative 8-week cashflow and automate payments and statements as required? Don’t underestimate the importance of holidays! This is true both for you and your team. Everyone needs a break to recharge their batteries; we are not machines. Having a good break will potentially improve creativity, productivity and reduce stress, anxiety and even depression.

Another "interesting" year! Despite fiscal events, wars in Europe, 3 Prime Ministers, we have made it through 2022 and are looking to plan for growth in 2023. What are your business goals for next year? What's realistic? To help you get the most from your goal setting exercise we have prepared 6 practical steps to success that have worked well for my clients: 1 – Set descriptive business goals What the mind can’t visualise, the mind can’t achieve. Get yourself a piece of paper and describe exactly the amount of money you would like to take home. Where would you like to (if possible) go on holiday next year? How many weeks would you like to take? Whatever motivates you write it down or paste an image. What would your ideal day, week, month look like? Hour many hours do you want to work? Be as detailed and descriptive as possible. The more meticulously you can do this, the more likely you’ll be to achieve your business goals. 2 – Set achievable business goals There’s nothing more soul destroying then the feeling of failure. Don’t set yourself up to fail. Put together goals that could be achieved in baby steps. Steady increments, and the momentum that will provide, will help you reach your ultimate business goals 3 – Set time-focused business goals 2023 will go quickly. We need to make the most of it. Make sure whatever goal you give yourself is time sensitive. We are all busy and there is always something to do in the business. Ask yourself every Friday afternoon, have I achieved what I needed to this week to make sure that I am on course to achieve my goals? It may help to have an “unreasonable friend” to act as an enforcer; the equivalent of a business personal trainer – just to keep you on course. 4 – Track and analyse and adjust Reaching our business goals is next to impossible when we don’t have a way of tracking and analysing progress. Set metrics, markers. These metrics need to work for you. No one knows your business like you. Make time to record the metrics and then make time to analyse them. You may need to adjust how you work, delegate, get external help or reprioritise. I found many of my business contacts have complained this year about having poor time management. This is fixable but it requires careful (and honest) analysis of your daily work routine to get a hold of how you allocate your time. Success comes from focus. 5– Focus on Forging Good Habits We may need to change our working habits. Eat the spinach and do the jobs you automatically put off first. Be honest; are there jobs that you enjoy that are less than essential? Give yourself those jobs when you have completed the key tasks that will contribute to you achieving your goals. Could you start work earlier? Do you work better if you have a break midday? Call in someone close to you to help you make an honest appraisal and adapt if necessary. Doing this will ensure you maximise your chances of success. 6 – Leverage the 80/20-rule The 80/20 rule, or the Pareto principle, says that 80% of the results comes from 20% of the efforts. Anything that we measure, will highlight that 80% of our results are coming from 20% of the work that we put in. We often apply this to our sales, but it works in other business functions too. Find the 20% of your efforts that are producing the 80% of your results and amplify them. Try these principles in the first quarter of 2023 and compare results to the last quarter of this year. To help you we have prepared a goal setting worksheet for you to complete.

“There’s not enough hours on the day”. “The staff always need to involve me - I might as well do the work myself.” “I never get a proper break. Why has everything got to come through me?” In my time as a business advisor, I’ve heard them all. Lots. Having the business too reliant on you is physically and emotionally draining. It inhibits growth. You think if I’m tired now what about if we bring in more customers. It doesn’t need to be that way. We have devised 4 points to check if your business is too dependent on you. If it is then we can help. Promise. 1.Your holiday doesn’t feel like a holiday Do you feel the need to take your laptop to the beach? Do you tell your staff and customers that you will be away but will be regularly checking emails and can be contacted if needed? You need downtime to avoid burnout. Your team and your customers will get the best version of you if you’re not allowed to spend time recharging your batteries. Put the processes in place and plan for your absence and you can go away with the peace of mind that your business is earning you money even when you’re sipping on your pina colada. 2. You are cc’d on more than five e-mails a day Dread opening your inbox? Hate the way that emails distract you and mess with your day? Stop inviting them into your working day. Having the culture within the business that you need to be copied into everything not only leads to you feeling like you’re drowning it also takes power away from your staff; like you’re micromanaging them and they constantly need your approval. If you need to be involved in the exchange, then plan regular team meetings and look at what you can do to improve reporting mechanisms. 3. You know all your customers by their first names You pride yourself on excellent personal service in your business. In fact, not only do you know the name of every one of your customers’, but you know their dog’s names as well! Knowing all your customer’s names is undoubtedly an effective way of proving that value them but it can also be a sign that you’re the lynchpin for the business; you keep it together. To make everything less about you, look to bring in a dedicated salesperson. If you enjoy the sales process and relationship building still be involved but involve others so that customers get used to dealing with someone else. Accept and believe that we are (and potentially should be) dispensable. 4. Does every payment need your rubber stamp? It’s important not to let costs get out of hand and to have the handle on your cashflow but does every payment really need to be signed off by you? What happens if you’re away for a few days and a supplier needs paying? Putting the right people and processes in place to handle payments is an essential part of building a valuable business. Could you give two employees co-signing authority to an acceptable limit and make sure your system is robust enough if there is an issue.

In any usual year you may be experiencing the mid-year slump; getting caught up in the day-to-day grind of running your business. All those good intentions have gone, and your goals seem too far away.   In any usual year you may have a foreign holiday to look forward to. A holiday will give you the chance to look more objectively at your business and what you want to achieve.   This hasn’t been a usual year. All the normal strains of running a business have been exacerbated by all the changes brought about by Covid.   A lot of business owners we are meeting are weary. 2020 has been a battle.   So, what do you do when you are feeling weary? We have got some practical suggestions that have worked for our clients.   Give yourself a breakout day.   Book some time out and get away from the office, your home, your unit or wherever you work and give yourself the chance to examine why you do what you do and what you want to achieve for the rest of the year. Make sure that the day is completely ringfenced. Nothing but a family emergency can get in the way of you doing it. If you make it for a week or so ahead, hopefully it will give you the chance to look forward to it; it will be something out of the norm. Reignite your business passion During the day try to think back to why you started the business. See if you can capture that initial spark, that passion that drove you to start up, to sacrifice, to invest both your time and money. If you can fall back in love with your business, it can help provide fresh impetus, fresh fight. Commit to your end goal and re-evaluate how you get there What ultimately do you want to achieve from your business? More time, more money? Is your business your pension? Are you looking to sell it? Once you have a clear idea you can then reverse engineer the steps needed to get you there. How you work - Find New Efficiencies According to Dr Maltz it “requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.” A lot is involved in changing the way we think and work. The current situation with Covid has challenged the excepted norms including how we communicate. Instead of feeling squeezed by these changes can we take a step back and look at our processes and change how we work? Can we come at things from a different angle and be more productive? By being more productive we can either do more with our time or increase our earning potential. Surround yourself with like-minded people Positivity breeds success. Are there ways you can be selective in who you talk to regarding your business plans? We all know that the last few months have been challenging but do you really need to be reminded of this? Being around negative people who continually keep telling you that the world will never be the same and that the worst economic disaster in history is coming can be very draining. See if you can surround yourself with people who inspire you and help you see the opportunities not the obstacles. Develop New Networks/revisit old ones How do you find these inspiring people? Check out the events list of local business support organisations, look out for speakers. Are there networking groups that you can attend? As most groups are online now there is minimal cost if any. Try them out and if you like what you hear from someone, request a 121. Get to know them. Find out their story. Revisit old contacts as well. Give yourself the time to go through your old business cards of contacts, your Linkedin list, Outlook contacts. Our networks have probably increased since Dunbar came up with his “number” and from looking through past contacts we may be inspired to reach out, get in contact, find out how they are and if you can help them in any way. As Bob Hoskins used to say: “it’s good to talk”. Invest in Yourself According to Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever.” Things have changed since March this year. There are, and will continue to be, new ways of working. Can you make a list of the number of new skills that you would like to learn? By giving yourself fresh things to do and learn you can feed into your process analysis and increase the chance of getting better and more efficient at what you do which in turn can mean more time and money. Establish a personal reward system You need to reward yourself for all this work! Make sure that as much as possible you acknowledge attainment. There is nothing more draining than monotony and the feeling you are on a treadmill. Take advantage of schemes like the “Eating Out to Help Out” to give you yourself little holidays. If you can keep yourself motivated, you can achieve more which will counteract those weary feelings. 

Even in these extraordinary times a certain amount of control is possible though. We are encouraging business owners to concentrate on doing what they can do during this time rather than what they can't.