What is General Admin?

So I hear you asking, what is General Admin? Do you find yourself still working at midnight, when you would rather be nicely tucked up in bed either reading a good book or fast asleep.  It’s normally graduated that the work your doing are those general admin tasks that you hate.  Have you ever thought “there must be a better way to spend your evenings?”

Let’s ask the question, what is general admin?

The Cambridge dictionary definition of administration is: the activities involved in managing or organising a business.

General admin is all those tasks that help your business run smoothly and without them, your business could very well stop working.

In short, it is the backbone of any well-run business.

This can be more than just documents and spreadsheets.  This can also be about customer services, emails or diary management.  General admin is an umbrella for all the support tasks your business needs to run smoothly.

As business owners, we all seem to have an “I can do everything” approach to our businesses.  Trying to change our minds on this way of working is not easy.  We can’t always see the added value of delegating our unwanted tasks, only the extra outlay and money factor of delegation.  But if we look at this with fresh eyes and say to ourselves “what would I benefit from outsourcing my general admin tasks?”  We can then start to look at the bigger picture and realise delegation is the way to go.

Now the first thing to do would be to start a pro’s and con’s list.  Then you can work out budgets to make sure outsourcing is the right and cost-effective thing to do.  Once you’ve done this and outlined the tasks involved, you will benefit from working fewer hours a week and having an expert on the team for support.  You will slowly realise it was always the best solutions to your problems.  So what next?

How do you work out what is actually needed in terms of support?

Let’s do a little task together, nothing too strenuous, just something to get you thinking.

Take an average working week and add up all the hours you spend on the work you enjoy.  You know the work you do for clients that pay the bills.  Now look at and list all the other tasks you do in a week, the ones you might be doing at midnight.

The backbone tasks that your business couldn’t run without, the emails, client database updates, new client follow-ups and phone calls to suppliers.  These are your “admin hours”.  Add up the number of hours you spend on these.

We’re guessing your work week is looking quite busy about now, isn’t it?

Now take the second figure, the “admin hours” and half it, yes we said half it.  Now you have an idea of how many hours a week support you actually need.  Not as many as you thought is it?

Now you have a list of the admin tasks you are looking to delegate and a rough idea of how many hours help you need each week, after doing one simple task.  That wasn’t so scary after all, now was it?

You see outsourcing your general admin shouldn’t be so scary.  The thought of delegation and letting someone help you in your business, should not feel like a lack of control or failure.  But it should be embraced and thought of as a blessing.  Because with this blessing comes the benefits of taking away your “midnight admin hours” and giving you the gift of a better work-life balance. With time to enjoy your hobbies and spend time with your families.  A chance to pop to the pub or coffee shop with your friend for a good old natter.  Or even give you the chance to give yourself some much deserved “me time”.

The question should really be at the end of this is, did you go into business to work twice as hard as you did when you were employed?  Or did you go into business to give yourself more flexibility and a chance to do the work you truly enjoy?

With this last thought in mind, your next task really should be to give yourself some time off and delegate your “midnight admin hours” to a Virtual Assistant straight away.

Visit our services page on our website to find out more about how we can support your business.  Or contact us to tell us more about your business, so we can help you find the best ways that we can support you.