It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Now, for some lucky folk, Christmas looks like cosying up by the fire, sipping a festive hot choccy and falling asleep to Mrs Clause playing in the background.
That is unless you’re running a small business. If that’s you, your Christmas may look a little like this:
- So much admin you could wrap all your gifts in paperwork
- An inbox fuller than Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve
- Phones jingling instead of bells
- Drafted social media posts sprinkled like glitter all over your desktop
- A team busier than elves in the workshop
- An overwhelming urge to jump ship and move to the North Pole
We think it’s safe to say running a small business at Christmas is a bit busy!
Luckily, we’ve got a little gift for you in the form of outsourcing. Outsourcing some of your business tasks during the holidays really can help to take the pressure off and make sure you get the Christmas you deserve while also ensuring your business continues to run smoothly.
If you’re feeling crushed by the Christmas chaos, try outsourcing the following tasks:
Handling the Christmas Chaos
Admin
Now, if your pile of paperwork is starting to resemble a small snowman and your inbox is overflowing, outsourcing your admin could make all the difference.
It means emails are categorised in order of importance and taken care of accordingly, paperwork is filled in, sent out and filed in an organised fashion and your to-do list becomes a lot shorter, and a lot quicker.
When your business is busy, the last thing you often have time for is admin. The only issue with the lack of admin time is that it tends to build up quicker than you’d expect, leaving you with an even bigger problem than the one you started with.
Outsourcing gives you peace of mind that your admin is in order, customers are happy, and your business is running smoothly, even during the holiday season.
Credit Control
Nobody wants to be a Scrooge and make credit control calls at Christmas, but unfortunately, it still needs to be done. Knowing this is one thing but finding the time to do it is something entirely different!
The credit control process can be lengthy, and it needs dedicated time set aside to follow through on late payments. During the holiday season when everything is much more manic than usual, however, it can be tempting to put this off in favour of getting more important tasks done.
This is your sign to get it done!
The longer you put it off, the harder it will be to obtain the payments that are late. If you’re pushed for time, outsource your credit control to a professional who can take care of it for you.
This way, you can rest assured that your business accounts are in order without having to dedicate your own time to doing so.
Social Media Scheduling
Scheduling social media posts is one of those repetitive tasks that, despite its simplicity, always seems to take way longer than you thought it would.
And, when time is tight anyway, it’s the last thing you want to spend your time doing. But if you don’t, you’ll be faced with a gaping hole in your social media content over the holidays or, worse, the task of having to post it yourself. Live!
The beauty of social media is that it can all be done in advance. Avoid taking your posts home with you over the holidays and outsource your social media scheduling before you reach that point.
If you’re keen on creating your own posts, you can still do so. All you need to do then is pop them over to your outsource professional and they can schedule them for you.
No remembering to post your ‘Merry Christmas from the Team!’ post on Christmas morning in between Buck’s Fizz and the present opening. It’ll all be done for you, and your business social media accounts will continue to move forwards even while you take a step back.
Business Blogging
Now you may be thinking, bore off! Who the heck is reading blogs over the Christmas holidays?
Um. Everyone?
People often use bits of the festive period to sit down, relax and scroll. They’ll be flicking through social media more than usual, meaning this is your opportunity to show up on their feeds in the form of a link to your latest blog post.
That blog post is helpful. It’s packed with advice. And so, they click through to your website. Your website is cool. It offers a solution to their problem. And then, all of a sudden, it’s a Christmas miracle and you’ve bagged yourself another customer.
None of that can happen though if you haven’t actually blogged or posted about it.
This is where outsourcing to a copywriter comes in. They’ll sprinkle a bit of Christmas magic to make well-written, valuable, engaging content appear on your business blog page without you having to lift a finger.
All you need to do is post said blog to your socials and that’s it.
The festive period is the perfect opportunity to draw in new customers who usually wouldn’t have the time to accidentally stumble across your stuff – don’t miss out on it just because you’re pushed for time.
Planning Ahead with The Edwards Company
No one wants to spend their Christmas holidays scrambling around trying to get things prepared for the new year.
Outsourcing allows you to get all your ducks (or reindeer, might as well stick with the theme now we’ve come this far) in a row, plan and feel prepared for January. You won’t be behind on chasing late payments, you won’t be faced with a stack of admin on your return, and you won’t have to pull social media posts out of your (Santa) hat at the last minute because you’ve forgotten to prepare some in advance.
If you’re feeling daunted by the Christmas rush and would like to enlist some last-minute support, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our brilliant Virtual Assistant team.