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Software is changing all the time but here are a few useful bits that you may not have spotted in your existing software:

Xero

• I still come across people who haven’t set up bank rules for repeating payments such as rates and salaries.
• If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper using Xero then it is worth doing their online certification course to learn all the main tips and tricks.
• There is a new short term cashflow report which can be particularly useful at this time. It forecasts your cashflow for the next 7-30 days based on invoice due dates although it doesn’t include payments for such things as salaries and taxes.
• Use the invoice reminders to gently chase overdue invoices where customers may have forgotten them.

Thrivecart are offering a lifetime subscription for you to handle all your online sales through one platform. You will still need to use a payment provider. We use Stripe for card sales but you can use GoCardless or Paypal.
 
Zapier

• ​Many apps that don’t have a direct interface can be connected by using Zapier. An action in one app can trigger an action in another app using Zapier rather than coding. It’s so simple that even I can do it (and I haven’t even done the training yet).

Let me know your other hacks and shortcuts as efficiency is so important in business.

If you don’t already know that I’m a tea addict then you’re clearly immune to all my communications (please tell me that you know that I’m a business coach?).
 
Accounting software is a small but important part of my life and it frustrates me when people don’t use it correctly. It’s the equivalent of slinging a teabag in a cup and claim that’s a cup of tea or confusing instant coffee instead of a proper brew. 
 
If a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well. And, if bookkeeping or anything else is not your cup of tea (pun intended), then outsource it and spend your time doing what you love and where you can earning more.

I once worked with a young lad who had exactly complimentary skills to mine. Together we made the perfect team as we shared the same values and would happily shunt the workload between us to whoever was best suited to handling the task or customer. This compatibility meant that, although only two people, we were probably as effective as three.

I’m afraid that I spoilt the dynamic when I went off to have babies and then moved to France.

Roll forward several years and my own kids operate as a power team as one thinks linearly and precisely, while the other is a problem solver who thinks so far outside the box that they don’t even realise that there is a box. For years now their combined efforts have been enough to outwit most adults. (It’s also why I have so many grey hairs just from trying to stay ahead of them).

Even if you never discover such a perfect pairing it is worth having a diverse team who bring different skills and ideas so that the combined efforts are much more than the sum of the individuals.

I recently received a complaint from somebody for posting in a WhatsApp group in the middle of the night. Had I realised that they had audible notifications switched on I would have been more considerate, of course.

But it made me wonder how many of us allow our phones etc. to dictate our lives.

Whether in meetings, writing, recording videos or checking a set of accounts, most of my work requires concentration so I try to minimise interruptions. I also like a good work/life balance. And woe betide anything that disturbs my beauty sleep.

Here are some of the things that I do which may be useful to you.

• Define your ‘office’ hours. I prefer 9-5 when working with UK clients but it’s not always possible when coaching business owners overseas.
• Use Calendly or similar to schedule telephone and zoom calls when it suits you.
• Turn off audible and pop up notifications on all devices.
• Keep your phone on silent or vibrate unless expecting a call.
• Use the Do Not Disturb function on your phone for a good night’s sleep or when in meetings. I-phone allows certain important numbers to overcome this as I still want to be contactable if anything happens to my kids.
• Use an answering service to get rid of cold callers and forward messages. I’m happy to recommend the one we use.
• Have a voicemail message which encourages users to leave their own message rather than keep trying to ring you.
• Be selective about which apps you want to use ‘badges’ for or other passive notifications. I use these for my business emails on all devices and for Twitter and LinkedIn on the iPad that I use for social media.

Decide how accessible you want/need to be and set everything up accordingly. And remember that you control your communication devices, not vice versa.

There are several times when it is good to delegate:

1. Profitability – when you could make more money by paying somebody else to do the job while you earn more money elsewhere. This is why I have a PA

2. Procrastinating – when you’re not getting around to the task for some reason, either a genuine reason or an excuse because you don’t want to do it. Sometimes it needs to be you but, if somebody else can do the job then hand it over so that it actually gets done

3. Dislike – this is a bit of a luxury but is also one of the perks of running your own business. After all I persuade business owners to hand over their bookkeeping and accounts which I love and they hate (see also procrastinating!)

4. Expertise – when somebody can do a better job than me it makes sense to pay them to do it. I recently saved hours by delegating an IT problem to a local company to sort out.

Learning to delegate may not come easy to some but it is the only way that your business will grow bigger than just you.

I’ve just been watching an online conversation which includes some people who appear to want to work for nothing.

You’ve probably realised by now that I love all sorts of efficiencies. When you’re trying to run a business in just 25 hours per week (as I was) it makes sense to pay a little to save time which you can spend earning much more.

As always somebody was looking for free software to do a particular task.

The camp was split between using a free app which only did half the job or paying a few pounds for an app to do it all. I’m biased because we used to pay for the app in my practice. BUT we paid for the app because it was cheaper than paying a junior to faff around finishing off the manual part of the job.

The software was cheaper than a junior so imagine the time cost if the business owner was the one doing the manual work.

Please do put a value on your time. If £6 saves you half an hour in which you can earn more then you should be paying the £6.

What sort of ways could you pay to save time?

I’ve been struggling a little with mental discipline since Coronavirus has been a reality in the UK. It’s not a problem I usually have so I’m only just learning how to cope. It takes a lot of mental strength to overcome my natural inclination to procrastinate and, after however many weeks into lockdown, I’m at last starting to do something about it.
 
Since changing email provider I have been unable to handle my emails through my laptop Outlook app, so I’ve been accessing them on my ipad until I had time to resolve the problem. It was only meant to be a short term fix but, like many of these things, it has dragged on because I had more urgent/important things to deal with.
 
So each time I wanted to send an email (a big bit of what I do) I had to go onto my ipad … with my social media apps. My ipad usually sits on my desk anyway so I can have a bit of a chat between jobs and it doesn’t usually distract me while I’m actually working. But now it is! 
 
So I’m getting it fixed this week in the hope that this tiny change will sort my number one distraction and increase my productivity.
 
The second thing is that I’ve stopped reading as much as I used to. Last week I forced myself to read and I finally identified that the spotlight above my bed is not bright enough to use as a reading light (whereas Netflix needs no external illumination). I’ve moved in a proper reading light and I’m back up to a book a week. 
 
Have you got any similar examples of where a tiny thing is causing a disproportionate disruption?