10 things a small business owner can do whilst working from home
Many small business owners already work from a home office, whilst others are now relocating from their co-working spaces and setting up shop in the spare room. Most Virtual Assistants are already home-based so are experiencing little disruption in the current climate, but for others this will be a whole new world with new challenges to deal with. This week my husband’s company have recommended all their staff work from home where possible – so hubby has set up shop in the spare room whilst I’ve managed to keep the office to myself – for now! We just need to make sure our internet holds out with the increased usage – fortunately Virgin is pretty reliable!
For many small businesses, the challenge now is what happens once the schools and nurseries close – we’ll be sharing childcare and playing tag between the house and the office/s if (when) we get to that! The other consideration is the effect on our businesses – whilst we can continue to operate as normal, how can we continue to sustain and grow our businesses as our clients become affected?
If you find that client work has quietened down, don’t despair – use the time wisely to get ahead and do all those general housekeeping tasks that you keep putting off. If your VA is not currently engaged arranging meetings and events for you, talk to them about how they can help ensure your ship is watertight instead.
Here’s ten ideas for what you can be cracking on with!
- Prepare your accounts – we are nearing the end of the financial year, so there is no excuse now not to be getting everything ready for your accountant. That could be ensuring all your expenses have been claimed, making sure you’ve reconciled all your incomings and outgoings, making sure your receipts are all sorted in date order and match your statements and downloading your home office bills from your online accounts.
- Set up or sort out your CRM – this is something that is on so many to do lists! Whether you need to set up a CRM and get all your contacts added, or whether you need a clear out (don’t forget GDPR and that you must only keep information as long as is necessary!).
- Speaking of GDPR, are you up to date? Did you do all the work pre-May 2018 and have done nothing since? Maybe you can spend some time ensuring you are compliant, getting your policies reviewed or in place and ensuring your website has the cookie policy sorted. Do you also have the right clauses in your contracts?
- Marketing is a great area that you can get ahead on. Start brainstorming ideas for blogs for the next twelve months and get them written and scheduled. Create templates for your newsletters. Do your social media post research and planning.
- Reading. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a pile of books that they have never read? Unless you have a toddler crawling over you wanting to join in, now could be the time to hunker down with a good business book.
- Stay motivated. Keep in touch by using Skype, Zoom etc. Many of the video conferencing facilities are offering their services free at the moment to make life easier for everyone. Loom for example are cutting prices to ensure they don’t profit from the situation. Read their offer here.
- Research – new opportunities, content, blogs – now is a great time to get online and get the background research done.
- Start recording your processes in writing or by video, so that you can start outsourcing work once things clear up.
- Prepare yourself for longer term isolation, how can you support your business – Business Information Point issued some useful information today, which you can read here.
- And last but not least self care. Try and do some exercise and get outdoors where possible. Meditate if that’s your thing. Download some yoga videos! Chill out. Things will work themselves out. Spend time with your family. Talk. Play. Watch movies (I hear Frozen 2 is going to be released early – that might not be a good thing!)
I hope this has given you some ideas, do get in touch if we can help with anything at all – even if you just want a chat and someone new to talk to!!
We recommend you take our quiz to find out what type of support you need to help you to create the business you want and you can download our free ’30 ways to use a VA’ guide here.
For more information on how we can help you to find the space to grow your business, call us on 07814 218142 or email joanne@joannemanville.co.uk.