Working too many hours? Here’s what you need…

If you're an accountant and you find that you're working crazy hours, 60, 70 hours a week, you are the one who has to deal with all the firefighting, all the queries that come your way, you're constantly having to remind people to do things.

Then ask yourself the question.

Do you have adequate systems and processes in place? Now, this is probably not the first time you've heard this, that having systems and processes in your business, in your accounting firm, is the way to go if you want to be able to run your practice without having to be there every moment of the day.

And many business gurus will tell you that to run a business that can run without you, you need to have the right systems in place. The most famous book on this is "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber which also enforces on getting systems in place and written documentation of everything that you do in the practice so that you don't have to be there for something to happen.

You can have a system set up for onboarding a new client, where you write down what needs to take place and by whom and a checklist so that it gets carried out. Similarly, you could have a process set up for the disengagement process, a process for how you will market in terms of putting out your social media content. Additionally, you can have a process or checklist that your team goes through when they are completing a VAT return or a set of accounts.

Everything in your business should have a system and find a system where you can track your systems and house all your checklists and processes within so that your team members can run the system, rather than you having to tell every team member or a new team member that comes along, what they need to do in which circumstance.

We use Trello in our firm to document and house all our checklists and processes and systems. There are others out there like Sweep Process and Process Streets, and many other ways that you can house all your systems and processes. And make a point of keeping them up to date. Once the processes and systems are all set up then the team will run the firm and save you lots of time allowing you to work on the business rather than in the business