Small Business Owners: How To Wear All The Hats Without Losing Your Mind

Do you own or manage a small business? If so, you realize how much work has to be done on a daily basis. And if you're like most small business owners, you do most of the work yourself. From accounting to inventory and from payroll to managing employees, you have a lot of hats to wear. In fact, the sheer number of job responsibilities for most small business owners can sometimes be overwhelming. Human resources, accounting, payroll, inventory management, ordering, shipping, customer service, crisis intervention - these are all roles business owners perform on a daily basis. If you're wearing all these hats and having difficulty keeping up with it all, consider these tips. 

Take Advantage of Streamlined Technology

If you're using multiple spreadsheets to track sales and inventory, stop. Instead, turn to a streamlined software program that will help you complete all your daily business tasks. For example, Dynamics Ax, a software program from Microsoft, allows you to track employee performance and employee records, inventory, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales, shipping, expenses and a whole lot more. You name it, this type of software tracks it.

What's more, it's all integrated. So changes that you make in one area automatically make changes in another area. For instance, if someone in the warehouse pulls and ships an order, the program will automatically generate and send a bill to the customer, which greatly reduces the amount of paperwork and billing you have to do. 

Hire the Right People to Fill the Gaps

You're good at a lot of things, but you're not good at everything. No one is. So, when it's time to take on employees, hire ones that make a difference. Instead of hiring people that only know how to perform their job, look for candidates that can do their job and fulfill another need you may have. For example, if you're horrible at running your website, hire a store clerk who also has training in web sales or someone who is going to school for internet marketing. 

You have to wear a lot of hats as a small business owner, but you can't possibly do everything without some help. If you're struggling in your business, look to innovative software programs to help you run your business. If you're ready to hire employees, hire ones that can wear multiple hats as well. Anything you can do to lighten your load will help you become a more efficient business owner and it might just prevent you from pulling your hair out or losing your mind.