Necessary Business Tasks

There is so much more to running a business than the thing that you enjoy doing (mine is writing)!

My writing business is going well. I have one big client who has an endless supply of work. I could work only for him and be just fine. However, I am trying to learn to balance my client and take on more work. I would love to write for BlogMutt again at the same time. I also have occasional work from Fiverr, which helps to keep me busy.

Then, there is the other side of a business. This is the work that needs to be done but isn't always the fun stuff that you enjoy. These include both paperwork and marketing.

Paperwork.

Paperwork is not only important at tax time. It is also important all year round! If you keep up with your paperwork, you will know how well (or not well) your business is doing anytime that you want to look. You will know what you are spending money on. You might find out that you are overspending on some things. You might realize that you are not bringing in enough money. There is so much that you can gain from keeping up with your paperwork!

The truth about paperwork is that, if you don’t keep up on it, you could get lost in. I found once I got file folders and a program on my computer, it is a little easier to keep up with. I just don’t want to be in trouble at tax time because I didn’t keep up with the work.

Marketing.

Marketing is important so you can make more sales. If people don’t know about you, you don’t have a business! You need to focus on marketing constantly so that you are making sales and gaining a customer base. Many people only spend time marketing when they need more customers and sales. They stop focusing on marketing when they are busy with work. Then, when they get slow, they focus on marketing again. This leads to cycles of being busy and slow. Instead, if you market constantly, you will always have jobs to keep you busy!

There are many ways to market your business, whether you prefer to blog, use social media sites, or network in person. Many people do a little bit of everything! I try to blog weekly. I know that some of my blogs are not the best so I am going to try harder to give my readers blogs that they deserve.

I have a Facebook and a Twitter account. I try to do a whole month at a time. It takes a bit of time but I would rather spend a day or so focused on scheduling posts and tweets than to have to remember to do it daily.

I know that these tasks are an important part of my business but it doesn’t always feel that way. I would rather be making money than spending money or feel like I am wasting my time on pointless tasks. I know that they are not pointless but when you have a pile of work that needs to be done, it feels like you are wasting time with them!

The truth is that, if you really hate marketing and paperwork, you can always hire help. Then, you will make sure that your business continues to grow. You can focus on doing what you do best – making money while your other stuff gets done (and probably done better than you would do)! It just might be the best idea that you ever had.