Do you already own and operate multiple businesses? Or, are you considering starting another business? Running more than one business is challenging, but it doesn’t have to be difficult.
Not having access to the right tools to streamline your financial and operational requirements makes running businesses difficult. Here are some tips for making the management process easier.
1. Use cloud accounting software
If you’re still hanging on to using Excel spreadsheets to manage your business finances, it’s time to reconsider your approach. Years ago, spreadsheets were sufficient because it’s all anyone knew. When Microsoft came out with Excel, it was cutting-edge technology that made managing finances easier. However, with today’s complex needs, spreadsheets have become outdated.
A solid cloud accounting system, like the financial management software from FinancialForce, will make managing your business finances easier than using a spreadsheet. For instance, all your data is available in real-time to account managers, and the system keeps track of all your important elements separately, like accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory management, procurement, quote and order management, and more.
The best part is that you can manage multiple businesses in different currencies, so if you’re a U.S.-based business with operations in Europe, you can manage your European-based business in pounds, euros, or any other European currency.
2. Delegate, delegate, delegate
Delegation is an important part of running any business. It’s even more important when you run multiple businesses. You only have so much time and energy to spend performing tasks, so the more you hire out, the better.
Make sure you’re outsourcing as many tasks as possible between your businesses. For instance, hire out your social media marketing, copywriting, content writing, and even your marketing campaigns. Lighten your load as much as possible so you can spend time growing your business instead of managing minutia.
3. Hire a virtual assistant
Administrative tasks are a major burden when you could spend your time doing other things. Having a virtual assistant will help. Have you ever noticed how much time you spend managing your emails? It’s a lot, right? If you’re like most business owners, you get an excessive amount of emails. If this is your situation, hire a virtual assistant to read and reply to your emails.
You can let them know what types of emails to bring to your attention, but for the most part, they’ll handle everything for you behind the scenes. This includes customer service requests, although, if you’re running a decently-sized company, you should have a full-time customer service representative available during normal business hours.
4. Use a CRM system to extract data
Data is critical in running your businesses and without accurate data, you risk making the wrong decisions. This is where a customer relationship management (CRM) tool comes in handy.
With a CRM, you can track all kinds of data, like sales, email signups, lead scoring, customer purchases and demographics, customer service issues, and more. This type of data will give you a good insight into what’s going on with your businesses so that you can make the right decisions, financial and otherwise.
For instance, if you’re hitting your monthly email subscriber goals, you’ll know your marketing efforts are working and you can increase your intensity.
5. Take on a business partner
Choose one of your businesses to take on a business partner (or two). This will lighten your load significantly. You’ll need to share the profits, but it’s worth it because you really can’t do everything by yourself.
Ideally, you should find a business partner who will take on the daily operations for your business to leverage your time and effort. They’ll get a more significant piece of the pie, but you’ll have more time to focus on more important matters and your profits will require less effort.
Just be sure to choose your business partner(s) wisely. Don’t take on a partner who doesn’t have experience running a business and always run a background check no matter how successful someone seems.
Condense and streamline
The key to running successful businesses will differ based on individual markets, but the common thread that makes it easier is condensing and streamlining your operations. If you haven’t done this yet, start with your finances because that’s where you have the most at stake. Then, streamline your business processes and you’ll have an easier time managing your businesses.