The Hidden Costs of DIY Admin - And How They’re Holding You Back
You’re paying for it one way or another.
Administration makes the world go round, so to speak. It certainly makes a business operate. Despite being so important to the success of any organisation, a large amount of SME administration tasks—bookkeeping, payroll, customer comms, scheduling, and more—are carried out in a “she’ll be right” kind of way by enthusiastic but overworked and underqualified business owners.
At a certain point, this will almost certainly become unsustainable.
How DIY admin can cost you
Doing your own administration, or roping in friends and family members to help, might save money in the short and medium-term. In the long term, however, there are often a variety of prices to be paid: financial, reputational, and personal.
Lost income-earning hours
It’s the experience of many trades and service business owners that administration is not their forte. There’s a common catch-22: if you’re very good at building, plumbing, installing heat pumps, consulting, cooking, or whatever it may be, you’re likely to have more work than you know what to do with. This leads to taking on employees, and before you know it there is a pile of desk jobs that are taking time away from those well-developed trade skills that actually earn you the big bucks.
A qualified, experienced administrative professional can make quick work of jobs like bookkeeping, payroll, and communication. They can even answer phones and schedule jobs, given a bit of training. This frees up a talented tradie to spend more time making money on the tools. It’s a well-considered investment!
Stress and burnout
When you’re busy on the tools during the day, administrative tasks will inevitably leak into the evenings and weekends. Now, we’ve never met a trades business owner who is excited by the thought of doing office work at those times, but it’s entirely possible that they exist.
If you are not one of those unicorns that has their boat floated by Saturday morning invoicing or Thursday night bookkeeping, you’ll understand how stressful it can be to do it all on your own. Having work weighing on your mind at all times is dangerous for your mental health. This Belgian study, one among many with similar results, shows “a clear graded association of cumulative job stress with all five mental health indicators.”
You are your most valuable asset, and it’s so important to look after yourself. When stress goes too far, it can become full burnout—and avoiding that situation is well worth the financial investment for professional administrative help.
Errors and balls dropped
Completing administrative tasks that aren’t in your skill set, and doing so in the evenings when you’re already exhausted, can be a recipe for mistakes. Errors affect your business in numerous ways:
Insufficient quotes resulting in work being done at a loss.
Poor customer communication causing fractured trust.
Incorrect invoices causing lost income or time wasted in back-and-forth.
Bookkeeping errors also wasting time and causing headaches.
Missed details, scheduling errors, and communication breakdowns having an adverse effect on your professional reputation.
Why not pass these tasks off to someone who is experienced, focused, and working during normal business hours so they’re more available to your clients and customers?
Missed growth opportunities
One of the many downsides of being buried in administrative work is that you can’t see the forest for the trees. Working all hours just to keep the business afloat means no time for networking, sales calls, and seeking out—or simply noticing—opportunities to grow.
One of the frequent pieces of feedback we have received from clients is that outsourcing some of their administration has given them the chance to do all of the things they’ve wanted to do to move their business forward. These include proper planning and cash flow forecasting, attending networking groups and events, training staff further, following up on potential new avenues of work, and more. As the business owner, these are the things that YOU need to be doing. To do so properly requires taking some other things off your plate.
Outsourcing administration can pay for itself
Hiring or contracting someone to do your administrative work is an added expense. It’s also an investment in yourself and the future of your business. As we’ve outlined above, outsourcing these jobs is protection: against blows to your reputation; against income lost due to lack of time on the tools; against mental health troubles that can stop you in your tracks. Which price are you willing to pay?
Seeking admin help doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It doesn’t even have to be a set number of hours per week. The Released team is a flexible resource with various package or ad-hoc options, so you can pay for what you need and nothing more, with scope to increase and decrease hours as needed. There are no extra overheads, no employment obligations, and no sick or holiday leave to pay. The breadth and depth of our 20+ member team means that your work will be covered no matter what, and we can get an answer to most questions with a quick voice note in a group chat. We also have specialists in all of the most popular job management softwares, making it easy to have a member of our team fit seamlessly into yours.
Take it from some of the clients who have made the investment:
“Our company’s productivity and service to our customers has increased. We should have engaged this service from day one! A special shout out in particular to Sarah A. who has been an absolute champion and asset to us. I couldn’t imagine trying to do this without her!””
“Released changed the way we do business. An absolute powerhouse of administration gurus at your fingertips. They are amazing at the things most business owners are mediocre at - all for reasonable rates. Thanks to the amazing team at Released for working closely with us at First Point Electrical. Highly recommend.”
“I can now concentrate on the core work that I am passionate about, without spending time and attention on things outside of my expertise. I still feel in touch with all that’s going on and in control, thanks to great communication and flexibility. Thank you, Released team!”
Interested in taking the first steps to freeing up time and taking some tasks off your plate? It’s easy. Book in for a quick no-obligations chat to discuss how we can help.
