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Here are 12 Days of Business Admin Tasks

During the Christmas break, as client work is usually slow, I always spend time tidying-up my own outstanding admin tasks.

I also compiled some social media & blog posts so here’s the posts that were scheduled across my social media for the 12 Days of Christmas 2020 – 2021

On the 1st Day of Christmas – I Reviewed My Facebook Groups.

When did you last check your Facebook group?
Do you know how many you’re a member of & what notifications are received?
Do you find it hard to keep-up with your Facebook notifications, to respond, or even miss some info completely?
Are you a member of too many groups?
If you signed-up for any challenges & are the groups now innactive?
Which groups are actually good for your social life or business?
Which groups just cause unwanted ‘noise’?
Do you actively engage in the groups
Is the group content no longer relevant for you?

During the holidays, instead of just scrolling your feed or notifications, why not take a little time for some housekeeping?

Work through your Facebook groups &, depending upon how useful being a member is for you, change the notification settings, or unfollow, even leave the group if it’s no-longer relevant.

To do this, when on the Groups Discover page & feed, use the Gear icon for settings & options, e.g add or remove from Favourites; select the groups you wish to unfollow or leave & edit the notification settings so you receive the info you want to.

Be ruthless & enjoy fewer notifications for a while. If you do miss updates from any groups, go back & change the settings. However, you know you’ll soon receive invites to new groups, or be tempted into online challenges which are invariably accompanied by a specific group.

Do you run your own Facebook group? Are you actively engaging with your members? If this is a struggle, then consider outsourcing to a #SocialMediaManager #OnlineBusinessManager or #VirtualAssistant for a few hours per month.

DOWNLOAD my FREE guide: ‘150 Tasks you can delegate to a Virtual Support Professional’

On the 2nd Day of Christmas – I Audited My Social Media

On which Social Media platforms are you most active?
Which are no longer relevant for you/your business?
On which platforms do your clients & customers hang out?

Social media is ever evolving & changing with once popular platforms being repalced by the latest new app.

Your personal preferences & business has likely changed too?

What about your customers, have their social media habits altered?

On the second day of Christmas admin tasks

You don’t have to be on every platform, it’s OK to step-back & stop posting on the ones that are not beneficial to you & your business.

After all, you are the only person that sees 100% of your posts! No-one else does so it’s a waste of effort if your audience, your potential clients are not reading your carefully curated content.

If you have time during the holidays, undertake a social media audit & don’t be afraid to step-away from the applications which are not best serving you.

If you don’t want to close your account completely, then update your profile, or create a pinned post to direct people to the platform where you’re most active.

Do you struggle to maintain an active social media presence?
Do you need help posting content?

Now’s the time to consider outsourcing to a #SocialMediaManager #OnlineBusinessManager or #VirtualAssistant for a few hours per month.

DOWNLOAD my FREE guide: ‘150 Tasks you can delegate to a Virtual Support Professional’

On the 3rd Day of Christmas – I organised my emails

How many unread emails do you have in your inbox?
Do you have time these holidays to have a tidy-up?
Are your messages are segregated into tabs such as Focused or Primary?
Is Conversation view activated?
Is there a reading pane & is it in the position you most prefer?
How are new emails filed – unread, newest, oldest, from, subject, size or importance?

Change these options in settings if they don’t work for you.

Create folders/labels relevant to you. Think where you’d look if you were asked for info in a week or two & name accordingly.

Use the Search function to identify messages from a specific person or with a particular subject. Select all these from the tick box at the top & move to a folder, archive or even delete.

Set-up Rules to automatically re-direct future messages into appropriate folders.

If you receive too many newsletters, then unsubscribe & redirect the sender’s blog posts into a news aggregator such as Feedly.

Work through your inbox, but don’t respond or action each one right now. Move to folders such as: Action/To-Do; News/To-Read; Ongoing/Awaiting Response, then action these at a later time.

Older emails may no longer require a response or any action so can likely just be archived.

Check out my longer blog for in-depth instructions on email management.

Contact me if you would like assistance in managing your emails, either ongoing or for a one-off clear-out & organisation.

On the 4th Day of Christmas – I optimised my diary

Look at the full year, or a minimum of 6 months, & block out time in advance for:

Days off, holidays away, public & school holidays, training days & time for self-development
Add-in all essential commitments, the non-negotiable meetings & calls that have to be attended
Enter personal dates such as birthdays, anniversaries & medical appointments
Allocate time each day for your own admin & emails etc
Block further time each week to work on your own projects, when you’ll turn-off your phone & notifications to concentrate – won’t you?

Colour-code the diary entries to see at a glance the purpose of the commitment, but to save confusion, don’t use too many shades.

If there are papers for meetings, add them to the calendar icon & remember to block out time beforehand to read & prepare.

Note any reminders for deadlines, regular reports or other docs to be sent & submitted. Remember to add in time before the deadline to chase others for their input or contribution.

Don’t book meetings back-to-back & allow breathing time & a comfort break in-between. Change the default meeting duration in settings if necessary.

Add in travel time where required, or ensure the meeting alarm reminds you in plenty of time to get there.

Get help managing your diary!

Contact me for further details on how I assist clients with their diary management.

On the 5th Day of Christmas – I organised my online files

Do you know where to find important files on your computer?
Are they on the desktop, saved locally in ‘Documents’ on the device or in the cloud?
Where are files saved when you download from the internet? Do you sometimes lose them?

In your browser’s settings, you can change the download destination, or insist the system asks first where you want to save & then you can change the file name too.

If you save to the cloud e.g. Dropbox, Onedrive or Google Docs (other options are available) your files will then always be accessible (even if your device hard-drive fails). You may also be able to retrieve recently deleted files & track changes/updates to the document.

It’s easiest to organise files & folders to match the way you work. Think what you would search for & name accordingly. The ability to easily find files is important so use suitably descriptive names.

Finance records are likely best saved by date, the year certainly, & ensure you can easily identify sales & purchase invoices.

Create master folders & sub-folders within these, but not too many nested folders to begin with, or you may become lost trying to find a file..

Have an Archive folder & save space by compressing/zipping folders that are rarely accessed, but not able to actually be deleted.

Contact me if you would like assistance with organising your online filing system.

On the 6th Day of Christmas – I changed all my passwords

Do you have one password to access the majority of your online accounts? Or, do you keep forgetting passwords & having to reset them?

Gone are the days when we only needed to remember a few passwords, but with effective password managers, we now don’t need to. You just need to remember one master password!

Your virus protection or online backup application may include a password manager e.g. Avast & Backblaze*, but there are other free options available. such as: Lastpass; KeePass; MyKi & LogMeOnce.

The password manager will likely be an extension installed on your browser & only work when you’re on a recognised & secure wifi connection. Connect on your local cafe’s free wifi & the manager won’t be accessible.

When you login to an account, the manager will capture the username & password & save to your vault. If you change a password, the manager will ask if you want to update the information saved in your vault. Access a login screen via the vault too.

Some will work across multiple devices too so you can install an app on your phone or tablet.

There may be the option for the manager to auto-generate a secure password of random characters.

You can also save other important info such as your passport & driving licence details. Also give others access to certain passwords in your vault (family member, colleague or VA) so they can login to your accounts without the actual password being visible.

If you need to send sensitive information, then use a one-time self-destructing link such as

Some will work across multiple devices too so you can install an app on your phone or tablet.

There may be the option for the manager to auto-generate a secure password of random characters.

If you need to send sensitive information, then use a one-time self-destructing link such as 1ty.me

On the 7th Day of Christmas – I backed-up my computer

Scheduling regular backups has never been easier. Although you may already be saving your files to the cloud, your whole system should also be backed-up.

What would happen if your computer hard-disk failed? Would you be able to retrieve all your files & easily re-install all software & applications? How would any downtime affect your business?

As a minimum, save your documents to the cloud & have access to a spare computer to retrieve these & be able to continue to work.

Experts agree that a 3-2-1 backup strategy is best. Keep three copies of data: one being original copy & then two backups saved on two different storage types, preferably one of these to be off-site or online.

You can use an external hard-drive to back-up, but these devices are still subject to wear & tear so may become corrupted. As no.2 in the 3-2-1 strategy, it’s convenient to keep the drive with you to regularly back-up, but in the event of a major disaster to your office, there’s a risk the drive may be destroyed too.

There are a number of providers offering online backups for relatively little cost – I like Backblaze*. Your data is encrypted & as an extra precaution, it’s copied & uploaded to more than one of their off-site servers.

After installing the online backup programme, the first backup will take the longest as all your data has to be uploaded. All subsequent backups will be much quicker as the software recognises fresh activity & new files on your computer, so just these will be added to the backup. You can schedule your backups for your convenience & if continually backing-up when you’re connected online, you’ll likely not notice this is actually happening!

Don’t forget to download your data from social media too! This guide from backblaze shows you how.

On the 8th Day of Christmas – I synced & secured all my devices

For ease of working from anywhere & on the go, I’ve synchronised all my devices: PC, laptop, tablet & phone. I can access my files, emails, calendar & contacts from whichever device I have to hand at the time. If I save a doc, add a new contact or something to my diary, the details are updated online & I’m confident that I’m always working with up-to-date information.

The web browsers also sync so I can access my bookmarked/favourite sites from both my computers. I add notes to Trello or Simplenote which is free to install on many devices( unlike Evernote).

All my devices are password protected with tracking apps are installed & my laptop hard-drive is encrypted. The access codes are saved in my password manager which is accessible on all devices. The information on my computers & smart-phone is regularly backed-up.

I’d be devastated if I lost any of my devices, but although inconvenient, at least my essential data is accessible elsewhere.

I further protect my data & online activity by using a VPN, especially when I’m working away from my home office with its secure Wifi.

On the 9th Day of Christmas – I produced Standard Operating Procedures

I produces standard operating procedures

As a sole-trader, I alone know how my business is operated, however I do have the backup of trusted colleagues. These associates provide cover when I’m on holiday & also need to quickly step-in when I’m unexpectedly unavailable, e.g. a medical or family emergency.

We’ve never felt more vulnerable than during the CV-19 pandemic &, quite apart from the risk to our health, regulations & restrictions are ever-changing.

Businesses of every size needs SOPs, but especially entrepreneurs & sole-traders who work alone. If you are incapicitated or suddenly unavailable, who will inform your clients or carry-on the basics of your operation?

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are step-by-step instructions compiled by an individual or organisation to help colleagues carry out complex but routine tasks. They are specifically created to be followed by someone other than yourself, so business activities & operation can continue even when you’re not there.

A simple step-by-step word doc is acceptable or create a flowchart, Trello is often used as the board can be shared, or dedicated software is available. Whatever method is chosen, the information in the SOP needs to be regularly updated.

Remember to include the SOP purpose, methodology & procedures, specific roles & responsibilities, necessary resources & materials, any cautions or warnings. Access to essential contact details, phone numbers & emails; relevant login details, access to accounts & passwords.

A VA or OBM can help you produce SOPs & also be your first point of contact in the event of an emergency.

Contact me now to discuss how I can assist you to ensure your business can operate in your absence.

On the 10th Day of Christmas – I created a Business Continuity Plan

Fires & floods, power failures & cyber attacks, explosions & earthquakes would once have been the considerations for implementing a business continuity plan (BCP), but just look what happened – a global pandemic!

A BCP outlines how a business will continue to operate during an unplanned disruption in service.

A corporate BCP will be very comprehensive & determine the most significant tasks required to continue operations together with a list of key people & their out-of-hours contact details.

However, entrepreneurs & sole-traders should also have at least a simple BCP in-place for their colleagues, family or lawyer etc to follow in an emergency. You know your business inside-out, but it’s likely no-one else does & if you’re ill or injured, those close to you will have lots to deal with. It’s therefore your responsibility to provide instructions to ensure someone else can take care of your business activities.

How will they communicate with your colleagues, associates or suppliers?

Which are the most business critical applications that need to be addressed first?

Can the business continue without you, or who can assist your clients?

Contact me now to discuss how I can assist you to produce a BCP.

On the 11th Day of Christmas – I planned to delegate & outsource

As any entrepreneur knows, there is so much involved with running a business, especially if you work alone. The more savvy business owners are aware of the value of outsourcing.

You set-up your business to do what you love, but it’s likely not long before you’re so overwhelmed with emails, admin, finances, marketing, diary management & [insert challenge here] that your attention is contantly diverted away from the fun aspects of your venture.

It’s time to get help & you don’t have to go down the route of employees – just yet. There are many freelancers experienced in all the roles that you don’t particularly want to do!

Whether we call ourselves Online Business Managers, Virtual Assistants, Graphic Designers, Copy Writers, Web Developers, Social Media or Digital Marketing Managers etc, there will be a skilled freelance professional able to assist you for a few hours per month.

Do a time & motion exercise this new year 😉 Spend a week noting down where you spend your time. What’s the most time-consuming? Is it generating new business & revenue? Or are you bogged-down with other minutae which you really don’t enjoy?

Is it time to outsource the time-consuming, non-income generating tasks & free-up your time to focus on what you enjoy? On building & growing your enterprise? Working on your business & not in it?

Download my FREE guide ‘How to Find Your Perfect VA‘ which will help you recruit a suitablely experienced & trustworthy freelancer.

On the 12th Day of Christmas – I had a digital detox

When I began writing my 12 Days of Christmas ‘Admin Tips’, perhaps Day #1, Boxing day should have been digital-detox day!

However, I’d actually been working on my PC all day by the time I uploaded the first post….

Therefore, as the 12th Day of Christmas is actually my birthday, this is the day I’ll be resting & away from any tech 🙂

I do spend many hours each day in-front of my PC & checking notifications on my phone &, as I work from home, it’s sometimes difficult to break-off.

You can likely relate to this too?

However, I feel so much better if I take a break to walk my dogs during the day, stretch & exercise, meditate, certainly eat lunch away from my PC & read a chapter or listen to my audio book.

I’ll make more of an effort this coming year as it’s never felt more important to take care of my physical & mental health.

I hope you’ve found my posts over the last 11 days useful – do let me know.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any assistance & support with your business.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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12 Days of Business Admin Tasks