How to keep on top of your office administration!

Running a small business can be a very rewarding experience, and with record numbers of start ups recorded by the DTI last year, the urge to go it alone is as strong as ever. On the other hand, starting up can bring with it a number of stresses which the permanent employee is blissfully unaware of. One potential area of stress can arise when your administration has been left to the last minute, or seems out of control. Here are some tips for keeping on top of your small business administration.

1. Tidy Up - Simple as that. There's nothing worse than trying to run a business from an untidy room or office. Mess brings stress and should be sorted out as your first priority. Ensure that all work surfaces and desks are as clutter free as is possible, and if you are working from home, try to keep an area of your home dedicated purely to running your business.

2. Paperwork - Choose a filing system that suits you and organise chunks of paperwork into logical piles. An ever-growing pile of unrelated paperwork gets harder to sort out each day, and chances are, somewhere near the bottom of the pile will be a request for payment or something else which would have been dealt with already if systems were in place.

3. Accountancy - From our own experience, the one area of admin which you really must ensure gets your full attention is accounting-related. More than anything else, you should keep accurate and up-to-date records of all your income and expenditure on a spreadsheet or using accountancy software. Ensure you are never late posting off VAT returns, completing your Annual Companies House return, or submitting liability payments to the Inland Revenue. If you have a decent accountant, they should be able to help a great deal with this.

4. Email - Given that the Internet is playing a greater part in the lives of all small business people, email communication has replaced more old-fashioned forms of communication to a great degree. We'd recommend trying to respond to emails within 48 hours. Sometimes this isn't always possible of course, but potential clients don't like having to wait for a reply. At Bytestart, we aim to answer all emails before lunch each day. This means we can concentrate on other areas of the business without worrying about getting back to a potential advertiser who may well have emailed several other sites at the same time and will look more favourably on those who replied in the most timely manner.

5. Systems - Everyone will have a different way of organising their time and tasks. Find out what areas of administration cause you stress and create a system to get around the problem. For example, if you receive a high volume of email enquiries of a similar nature, simply create a template response and copy and paste the reply. If you can't find the self-assessment form you should have completed by now, chances are it's buried somewhere in a pile of household bills, takeaway menus and marketing proposals!

Whatever works for you is the best solution. From my personal experience, when I'm organised I get twice as much work done, which is better for my own feeling of satisfaction, and better for business.

James Leckie, Bytestart