Streamlining your everyday business tasks will free you up to focus on your core business, as Brooke Alexander from Cookie Doughboy knows oh-so well.

You know how it is: your passion for something led to starting a business, only to find yourself so bogged down in business admin that you barely have time for your passion. Either that, or you let the admin slide into the ‘too hard’ basket so many times it stacks up to be a hurdle to growing your business.

In the middle of the pandemic, Brooke Alexander started cookie baking business Cookie Doughboy with her husband Danny.

“Initially, I was daunted by the idea of starting a business because neither my husband nor I had any business knowledge,” says Brooke. “Having to accept that we’re going to learn as we go was a big challenge.”

The business began with Brooke trialling and testing cookie recipes, trying to replicate her memories of eating cookies at Levian Bakery in New York. Friends and family were soon demanding more and Cookie Doughboy developed so rapidly that Brooke was soon able to quit her job and invest her time in the family business.

Brooke very quickly realised that they would need a far more robust admin system than paper filing and excel spreadsheets. In fact, any startup business needs all the help it can get to stay on top of business admin.

Whether you’re lucky enough to have a business growing as fast as the Alexanders’, or you’re on a slower trajectory, admin matters. The more you can streamline the admin side of things, the more time you’ll free up to focus on your core product or service.

1. Manage projects

While it’s tempting to keep your business admin in your head (at least in the early days), using a project management system like Trello or Monday will keep you on track.

These systems will keep you organised and across the many pies (or cookies?) you’ve got your finger in. They’re also an excellent tool for delegating tasks to your team – something you’ll want to do more of once your business grows.

2. Automate bookkeeping

Bookkeeping can feel daunting for a new business owner, but with a good system you’ll be much more likely to keep on top of things. Rather than spending hours on manual data entry, BAS statements or invoicing, accounting software can help you snap and sort your receipts and expenses on the fly.

Brooke uses QuickBooks Online, which she finds very user-friendly, even when she’s on the go.

“QuickBooks Online has helped us increase efficiency with record keeping and gives us an at-a-glance view of where the business is at in terms of expenditure and sales,” says Brooke. “We particularly value being able to utilise the invoice functionality for our cafe customers.”

Another advantage of QuickBooks Online is that you can connect it to your bank accounts to make easy payments, plus track your profit and loss or create forecasts in real time.

“QuickBooks makes our business more professional and saves time,” says Brooke. “I get alerts on my phone when there are outstanding or paid invoices. Customers can now also pay via direct deposit, credit card or PayPal. It helps to run the business efficiently.”

QuickBooks Online “provides a clear picture of our financial situation, helping us plan for the future and identify areas which need improvement,” says Brooke. Image: Supplied.

3. Streamline meetings

Ask any startup what their pain points are and chances are an exasperated “meetings!” will come up. They’re as unavoidable as death, taxes and laundry, but fortunately there are some key ways to make them more efficient.

• Check first whether a meeting is needed – Do you really need to meet at all? Would a group email or informal Slack session do the job?
• Keep meetings short – don’t schedule an hour when a half-hour will do. Or even 15 minutes. The more time you allocate to a meeting, the more time it will take.
• Be clear about the objective – you’re meeting for a reason, keep that reason top of mind during the meeting.
• Have an agenda – the points you plan to discuss and who will lead each point.
• Only invite essential people – the less people involved, the easier it is to stay on task. Those present can then take the information and shape it for others in their team who need to know.
• Follow up with an email – the most efficient use of your meeting time is having the meeting points agreed and actioned. Follow every meeting with an email outlining the discussion, what the key action points are, who is responsible, when they will have progressed the item by, and when the item will be finished.

4. Access files

Instead of storing your files and accounts locally, opt to store them in the cloud. That way, you can access your business files between work, client, home and… wherever you find yourself.

Using the cloud makes your business flexible, scalable and shareable. Collaboration is made easier and business continuity is guarded. Cloud backup also gives you better security and peace of mind if local disaster strikes.

There are a number of different cloud platforms available, so do your research to find the one that’s perfect for your business.

5. Collate feedback

Talk to customers, suppliers and producers to gather suggestions on how to make your product or service even better. If you really want to find out what others think about your business, send out a survey using a free platform like SurveyMonkey or Typeform.

“From the very beginning we have always asked and valued any feedback we receive,” says Brooke. “We do this either directly when delivering to customers, through social media stories and through google reviews.”

A simple way to collate the feedback you receive is via a humble spreadsheet. Note the date, time, person, product and the information you’ve received. Refer to your feedback list regularly and you might notice the same suggestions cropping up again and again.

“A few months into wholesaling, we had several chefs suggest that we make a plain milk chocolate chip cookie. Initially, I was resistant because I always wanted it to be full of nuts and chocolate. But they kept asking and saying that customers would like it,” Brooke says.

“I finally agreed, worked on a recipe and sent them the cookies. Well, they ended up being a winner.”

For Brooke, it was a lesson in both the importance of accepting feedback and a business lesson in itself: “You need to make products that people want.”

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with QuickBooks Online.

Images: Brooke Alexander from Cookie Doughboy. Supplied.