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6 Reasons why bookkeeping is crucial for your business

Posted on by Peace Dzakpasu

Bookkeeping is key to keeping accurate financial records. As a business owner whether big or small, you run the show. Many businesses, which otherwise have been successful, have been pulled down by their failure of maintaining proper financial records.

Track Profit and Growth

Profit is a key metric for any business. Bookkeeping will allow you to track your monthly profit, and also help you better understand your business cycles and how it is progressing.

Helps You Budget
Budgeting is important for businesses. It is the financial guideline to business success. With bookkeeping, you can be able to assess your financial resources and manage income and expenses.

Tax Preparation
bookkeeping makes it easier to file the tax returns of your business. With a proper organization of records on your earnings, you won’t have to worry about struggling to find receipts and invoices because all your records are properly documented.

Record organization
The organization of financial records is very important. It should be easy for you to assess your financial information at any time. This will help when it comes to applying for grants, loans, or even attracting investors to your business.

Business Analysis
When you analyze your financial statements, you can easily manage your cash inflows and outflows i.e. your profit and loss. Bookkeeping can help you assess your business performance and identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Requirement under Law
It is required by law that you keep financial records of your business. It’s therefore important to meet your business requirements

The importance of bookkeeping cannot be over ignored. AmityVirtual can help in all of these aspects and processing your tax return as well. Let us work with you to get your business financials under control.

10 Free Apps every small business owner should have

Posted on by Peace Dzakpasu

Most Small business owners run their businesses on tight budgets and always want to find ways of making some savings without compromising on quality.

Making use of free business apps is a great way to improve how you run your business without breaking the bank. From accounting software to social media management, there are loads of options available to help you with productivity, efficiency, and communication.

Below are ten (10) free apps that every small business owner should have:

Project Management

Project management tools help maximize efficiency in small businesses. If you tend to have work on lots of projects in your business, you need a project management tool instead of always using worksheets. You will need tools that allow you to assign and track projects on a dashboard. These tools allow you to add assignees, due dates and comments to cards. Asana and Trello are two free ones I would recommend.

Communication

For your business writings, Grammarly is a great tool for automated grammar, proofreading, and writing revision. It helps you to improve your writing skills and corrects your grammar.

Calendar Management

Calendly is a modern tool used to Schedule meetings without hassle. Allows you to never get double booked. You can automate with zoom, Google meet, and other conferencing apps

Screen Capture /recordings

Awesome Screenshots and Loom are screen recording extension for Chrome that gives users the ability to create and share media. Create your videos using your camera, and audio. It also allows capture of the screen as well.

Conferencing or Meetings and Messaging

Many businesses especially those with remote employees or multiple locations have access to quality videoconference software and instant messaging platforms that can make businesses run more smoothly and keep everyone in the loop. Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, Slack, and WhatsApp are the go-to ones.

File Storage and Sharing

With a free storage and sharing app, you can create and save files online, share them with team members, and access them from any device. Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are two key free and safe drives you can use.

Customer Relations and Contact Management

Customer management is a crucial part of keeping your business running smoothly because happy customers are equal to loyal customers. Zoho CRM and Hubspot are one of the best you will find free.

Social Media Scheduling

We all know how important it is for businesses and individuals to have a presence on social media.

You can design and schedule multiple posts using social media scheduling software platforms. Zoho Social, Hootsuite, Facebook Business Suite are a few free options out there. These tools help make it much easier to manage social media and you do not always have to rush to put content out there. 

Finance

With good financial management software, you can access information about your business’s revenue, expenditure, profit margins, and overall financial health. Zoho Books and Wave are some of the best options out there.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is used by thousands of businesses across the world to reach out to potential customers. There are several free platforms out there. Zoho Campaign is my #1 as its free plan is very simple to use.

Which of these free business apps will you use?

No matter what type of small business you run, there is an app to make work easier for you. In a packed market, it pays to do some thorough research before making a choice. The great thing about these apps is that they are free. If you are not comfortable with one, you can always ditch it and try another one. Using free Apps can benefit your business.

7 Reasons you need a website for your small business

Posted on by Peace Dzakpasu

A business’s online presence, regardless of the competitive environment, can have an enormous impact on its success.

If you still aren’t sure that a website is right for your business, think about these seven reasons why you need a website for your small business.

Acts As An Anchor For Your Business Marketing

One main reason you should have a website for your business is to increase your organization’s visibility and credibility. Chances are that other providers offering a similar service to yours, one way you can stand out is by having a website that looks good and communicates quality information to your customers.

Without a website, people may question the credibility of your business. Having a website is an opportunity to make a great first impression and give potential Customers ease that you’re a real business.

You Can Promote Your Products And Services

Having a professional website will mean that potential customers who are looking for you can find you and get the needed information about your business. Perhaps one of the most fascinating reasons to have a website for your business is because it can increase your chances of getting leads.

Once people find you online, they become interested in your product or service and want to know more, they’ll know how to contact you thanks to the information on your website, which allows you to increase your customer base. 

Increase Your Business Credibility

Having a website gives you a space to share what your business is about, establish your role in the industry, and connect with the customers who need you.

Furthermore, having your domain name gives your email address additional validity if you’re sending an email from a personal email, potential customers may not take you seriously.

You Can Be Found Easily On Search Engines

Once you’re online and have a well-optimized website, you have a chance of appearing in Google search results. This means that when people are searching for a product or service, there is a chance your website will show up in the search results. This allows you to generate leads and drastically increase your customer base.

With a website, you might reach people in other countries or on the other side of the world who might need your products or services. Some of these people may become customers, shareholders, or suppliers; and they wouldn’t have found you if you didn’t have a website.

It’s Your Digital Brochure And A Reflection Of The Service You Provide

As a small business, you should utilize a website to effectively reach your client base and be able to react and communicate timely and effectively to its current and prospective customers. Moreover, today’s consumers use websites not only to identify businesses with which to conduct a transaction but also to gauge the reliability of that small business. 

Is Simple And Affordable To Set Up.

Modern website builders like WordPress and Wix make it easy for you to build an attractive, mobile-friendly site without any formal training in coding.

It is now simpler to create a functional, aesthetically pleasing website.

24/7 Customer Service Representative

One of the main uses of a website is to encourage people to contact you. Your website is available 24/7 to answer questions and provide information for your potential clients and customers, and allow people to book a call, or submit an order if it’s an e-commerce business. For products or services, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) put pertinent info and prices directly on the product page so the visitor doesn’t click away in search of more details before hitting the add to cart button if you have them on your website.

Websites have become vital to business today. I recommend you create one if you haven’t done so already. You can improve your website over time, but the key is to start. If you have a website, it belongs to you, and you are in control of the content and the message being put across.

Business and social trends change. If your customers are on Twitter today, they might be on a new platform next week. No matter what social media customers prefer, they can always find your website in the same place which is available to everyone. 

7 ways to work smarter as an entrepreneur

Posted on by Peace Dzakpasu

Working smarter and not harder is the key to greater productivity and superior results.  Learning to work smarter, not harder can improve your performance, and help with better time management. 

Using your time efficiently and focusing more is what working smarter is basically about. This enables you to make faster progress on your most important tasks.  It is time to look at how to work smarter, not harder, and learn extra effective ways to work.

Schedule Tasks Ahead

Planning tasks weekly and daily ahead helps you work smarter. Everyone knows how to set goals. However, not everyone can go through with achieving the goals and not everyone understands why goal-setting works.  

Goals trigger behavior, sustain drive, guide, align your focus, and promote self-mastery. It is important to use to-do lists. It’s generally useful and gives a great sense of achievement as you cross off the tasks done.

Take Regular Breaks

Taking breaks is one of the best ways to work smarter. Build time into your schedule to take a few breaks throughout the day. Use this time for things like taking a cup of tea, checking social media, browsing the internet, calling family, or just to decompress. However, be sure to stick to this schedule.

Give your brain some time to refuel so you can come back feeling relaxed, more mentally equipped, and ready to take on the task.

Avoid Distractions and Stressors

Job stress is expensive. That’s no pocket change. Spare yourself and your business the loss of productive time by identifying your stressors and eliminating the ones that you can. 

While it is key to take care of business and balance both internal and external requests, it is equally important to prioritize and politely decline or avoid anything that can hinder your performance.

Automate what you can

Automation. It’s the age of technology and helps maximize your productivity, so why do the work that technology can do for us. Use various forms of software to automate things like your emails, tasks, and payments, etc. You may want to build routines and customize things so that you’re not at every point deciding. 

When you eliminate overwhelming tasks, you’re able to focus your energy on more important work decisions and business strategies. 

Embrace your Strengths and Weaknesses

You know yourself better. When you know that you are good at a task, you can tend to focus more of your energy on that while you work at developing the areas you are not strong at or seek help with.  Knowing and owning your strengths and weaknesses, will in one way or another have an effect on how you deal with work.

Learn to embrace both your strengths and weaknesses by taking on more activities you think you’re good at, and delegating or outsourcing those that slow down productivity. Consider delegating or collaborating with someone who can shoulder the burden of your weakest points.

Batch Similar Tasks

Doing similar tasks together can help you be more efficient because you’re not switching back and forth between dissimilar types of work. By doing so, your brain is not overburdened to deal with one type of thinking to another. 

Batching similar tasks help you can stay focused and zoned in on the tasks at hand, reduce your distractions, and surmount those to-do lists strategically.

Outsource / Delegate more

Do you spend so much time answering emails, scheduling meetings, and posting social media updates? The problem with “doing it all” is that you get less chance to focus on new ideas and business strategies.

For entrepreneurs and business owners, it is better to outsource the least essential and repetitive tasks.

Undoubtedly, the key to greater productivity is to work smarter, not harder. Working smarter saves valuable time and energy for the things that matter to your business or life goals, your personal growth, your well-being, and your relationships.

What approaches do you use to work smarter? Let us know in the comments below.