Stretched too thin?

Were you excited to come back to work this week? Or do Mondays come with a sense of heaviness and dread?

Are you feeling stretched too thin, at the beck and call of others with a thousand tabs open in your brain and not enough hours in the day and desperate to reclaim your life?

Freeing up time is one of the first things I look at when I start working with a bookkeeper.

The reality is that there are only 3 ways for you to free up your time:

Reduce your workload 

You can do this by firing painful or unprofitable clients who take up too much of your time for not enough reward, or by hiking your rates up to see if these people deselect themselves as your clients.

These clients are often the most price sensitive as well, and if you're stretched too thin it doesn't make sense for you to hold on to these clients when your time would be better spent servicing the clients who value what you do and who are happy to pay you well and on time to do it.

This also leaves space for you to take on clients who are a better fit.

Be more efficient 

Where can your systems and your processes be improved?

In a lesson in my 9-week coaching programme The Business of Bookkeeping™ I teach about the 8 Wastes of Lean where you look for anywhere in your processes where waste occurs.

In brief, look for any part of your work process that is not needed, not wanted, taking too long, or includes wasted time or resources.

It can help to map out your systems to see where time can be better spent, where wasted time can be eliminated, and where tech can replace or minimise repetitive or time-consuming tasks. 

Delegate to others 

Bringing on a team, whether that be staff or contractors, can feel daunting and overwhelming and often the fear of what could go wrong can stop you in your tracks.

There is simply no other way to build a bookkeeping business past your own time constraints without bringing others onboard to take on some of the load.

There is a lot to consider and learn in this area, especially if you've never done it before, and it's one of the core things I focus on in my coaching.

Most bookkeepers I know wait too long to do this but you need to take this next step if you want to grow your bookkeeping business.  

Where are you at?

Which of the above is your next step? Do you need to fire some clients, work on your systems, or start delegating?

There are often a bunch of mindset shifts that happen as you move From Bookkeeper to Business Owner™ and that's where I can help.

😃Stephanie 

PS: Interested in working with me as your bookkeeping business coach? Send me an email  or Message me to start the conversation.