Day: April 20, 2020

As a business owner, you probably won’t get much time to think about those things that are not worthy of your time. There are always things that can be avoided or eliminated so that time can be saved.

In the beginning, small businesses used to have paper registers for inventory, billing, recording and all. Now, they have point of sale software, inventory management apps, ordering apps and credit management apps. These technologies have taken control of the businesses, restricted work pressure and improved productivity. In one way or another, you just don’t want them but you need them.

Things in Pakistan may take some time, but we know the people are tech-oriented and eventually, businesses adopt these technologies. But, why not hurry up?

Here are some tips that may or may not involve technology but have to do a lot with saving some of your precious time. Have a look

 

Use a Filing System

You have the option to create different folders with the inbox programs. Put important emails, notes, documents that you want to keep in a folder where it will be easily retrievable when needed. Some of them have powerful search capabilities, so maybe you can only create 1 folder for all of your necessary email instead of several different folders.

Having done that, you can dive into that folder now, take whatever you need and instead of wasting time looking through those folders you created, you may be able to focus on some other stuff. This will save you a lot of time as well.

 

Limit Your Online Time

Enough said, right? Yeah, you know it. Especially surfing on social media. This right here is your business’s biggest enemy. You waste hours here without even noticing it. So what can you do?

There are some special tools and apps available on the internet that will block social media sites and other distractions on your device for certain amounts of time. If you don’t have the self-control to do it yourself -at least I don’t have- consider using one of those programs and save hours of work.

 

Keep Better Records

From personal files to receipts to legal waivers, small businesses have to record each and everything. If you still work with the stacks of papers, your staff or you, at the moment, must be wasting loads of time trying to look for the documents or data probably no one remembers.

Working with paper documents is a difficult task. Documents being misplaced or getting damaged or even ruined is a common practice. But if your records are digitally stored can be easily backed up and searched in a few steps. Plus, if you allow your employees to enter information into that account, there will be less room for error, confusion, mistakes, and more transparency. For example, One such app is the Oscar Udhaar app.

Udhaar app is a digital Khata for Pakistani businesses. It allows you to add your daily cash and credit transactions and also sends a reminder message to the customers in case they forget to pay back. This app is free for both personal and commercial use.

Get your day organized and stay organized. Once a day or once a week, take some time to plan. Use the techniques that I’ve talked about. By investing a little time in planning and organizing, you can save a ton of time down the road.

 

Considering the small retail stores in Pakistan, it’s a common scene at the small shops you will only find single workers who work for the whole day. If not, then there may be one or two helpers who mark their attendance periodically as the owner stays the whole time.

In this problematic situation comes the stacks of papers and dusting of the clutter you have gathered on your desk. Since you have to be on a safe side, you can’t trust your employees with the paperwork and definitely can not afford to lose your important notes, registers, accounts books and ledgers.

Organizations follow systems and procedures for all different types of tasks involved in a business, which helps them become quick, efficient and productive. But, the small ventures still face issues because of their limited income. They can not afford to buy software to manage their cash and accounts and hence they opt to perform it manually.

We figured this out and looked for some ideas that you can get your hands on and become more organized in your small business. Try one of the below for slow and sustained improvement or you may plan to incorporate a different management process in your business.

 

Take Control of Papers and Documents

Paper is the biggest source of mismanagement in many businesses. If you don’t file them up or work through a digital archiving system in place, you are prone to danger. Start by collecting all the papers lying around, assign them names like – keep pile and a discard pile, then shred or recycle all of the documents, magazines, newsletters, papers, cards, notes, etc., that made it to the second pile.

If you’re not sure where to start, review what types of documents you should keep and what you should dump. The rest is a piece of cake for the shredder.

 

Use the Right Productivity Tools

We all have our certain apps and tools we use every day to make our work simpler or maybe for fun, although some are probably more useful than others. This is why it has now become a need to, at least once a year, list down the apps and tools you are using in your business and decide if they still meet your criteria of managing stuff. This is also a time to consider whether any new tools could improve your business’ productivity.

You may have come across multiple such apps but in case you don’t know about the Udhaar app, you are missing out on some big technological enhancements.

Udhaar app is actually a digital Khata journal or ledger that lets you record your daily cash and credit transactions simply on your smartphone. It works online and offline, so you can manage your business on the go. It also sends reminder messages to your customers to collect Udhaar three times faster. And above all, it’s a free app without any monthly or annual charges.

 

Winding Up

The tips above will get your small business more organized immediately. But never forget how fast things can get out of control. Pair these activities with a resolution to conduct a quick and easy review of your papers, productivity tools​, and computer status a few times a month so you can stay organized and prevent things from reaching overwhelming levels of disorganization.