<iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-WCK3FXN" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden" title="gtm-frame"></iframe>Guest post: how to reduce time spent on paperwork | Trade Direct Insurance
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Guest post: how to reduce time spent on paperwork

03 July 2019

You could be spending 2.5 months every year perfecting your paperwork. Let’s see about trimming that down…

It’s a simple formula: the more time you spend on your business paperwork, the less time you’re growing your business or completing work and getting paid. Spending less time drowning in paperwork allows you to stay organised and win more work.

If you’re spending hours on paperwork each week, often after a long and tiring day at work, or at weekends, it can have a negative impact on the rest of your business as you struggle to stay on top of things.

But you’re not alone.

We surveyed over 1,000 small businesses and over half the business owners said they believe that paperwork prevents their business from growing.

Here’s what else we found out about how paperwork holds back their businesses:

2.5 months are spent every year on paperwork

On average, UK service and trade businesses are spending a whopping two and a half months completing their business paperwork.

Paperwork costs trade businesses around £5,657 a year

The time it takes to complete paperwork costs the average UK trade business over £5,600 each year. And that doesn’t take into account lost opportunities from quoting or invoicing instead of meeting new customers.

Businesses spending an average of 7.5 hours each week on paperwork

If you’re a trade business in Wales, you spend an average of 9.2 hours on paperwork, compared to the South West of England, where you spend 6.2 hours. That’s still around a day’s worth of work, often spent during evenings and weekends.

Trade businesses could save 39 days and over £4,000 every year from less paperwork

If trade businesses could reduce this time by 75% they would gain over a month of time and save £4,243 every single year.

(Source: YourTradeBase service business paperwork survey)

So how do you control your time spent on paperwork?

We know that spending less time on paperwork can lead to more money and more time (and let’s face it, that’s time you could spend on much more interesting things!), but how do you do it?

There are lots of tools available which can help streamline your paperwork and save you time, here are few of the most popular ways:

  • Automate invoices and bills with simple online accounting software
  • Send your customers their receipts via email
  • Scan and digitise your business receipts
  • Sign contracts with customers digitally
  • Ditch the fax machine and send eFaxes instead
  • Keep customer and job notes in the cloud
  • Schedule your meetings online

Remaining in control of your paperwork is more important than ever, especially if you want your business to grow without creating headaches for yourself.

What changes could you make in your trade business to get paperwork under control?

This is a guest post from YourTradeBase. YourTradeBase designs easy-to-use software to help trade businesses create paperwork, schedule jobs and manage the workload.

Read more from YourTradeBase or find out more about Trade Direct and Public Liability Insurance.


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