Being an entrepreneur and small business owner means that your work life is kinda…well, crazy. It might look like you’re living the dream, working your own hours and being your own boss, but the reality is that the passion and drive that led you on this journey to begin with mean that you really don’t have an ‘off’ button.
We founded Those Girls Beverage Co. in December 2013 and started with three key tasks: develop products, apply for markets and sell our products. Since then, our company has rapidly expanded and we have learnt to adapt to our roles as Company Directors, which involves more than just decision making. The day-to-day activities of running our business as it grew meant we would need to be in 10 places at once and could be working on any, or all, of the admin, accounts, logistics, production, marketing, design, sales, training and business development sides of our business.
We have always been hands on from the very beginning, as there is no better way to learn what works and what doesn’t. As our prime focus was marketing our brand at festivals and markets and making sales, it meant that we would spend long hours travelling in the car together and working at the events. And so, we learnt to split our focus and make the most of our time, responding to emails and making important phone calls while driving.
As we move into more of a paperless society, it became more and more important to be able to have access to all our vital information while we were on-the-go, and so we invested our time into exploring software and apps that could help us keep track of our rostering, timesheets, accounting, point of sale, emails, etc. We learnt very early on that we needed to set our processes so that anyone could operate these systems, as we would soon be needing extra hands to join our force.
We can’t live without emails on our phones as it means we can catch up on our admin whenever and wherever we have a chance. The most important apps that help us run our business are:
- Square – point of sale app
- Deputy – rosters, timesheets & staff management app
- Xero – accounting app
- Westpac – banking app
The beauty of the way this technology works is that when you spend the time to focus on the important things and implement these systems, it saves you a whole lot of time dealing with urgent matters that may arise. Integration is also a big part of our choices in apps as we needed systems that would work together and save manual or double handling.
Although our head office is based in Melbourne, our investor and business partner is located in Brisbane. Xero allows all parties to have access to our accounts so that we can track and monitor our progress from each end. We also recently welcomed the addition of two virtual team members from NSW, our Bookkeeper who is located in Carrabubula and our Business Development Manager who is located in Bilgola Plateau. It might seem like surreal to be able to welcome members into your team when you have not even met them, but the truth of the matter is that it all clicked into place very naturally. Both members are very aware of what is happening in the business by being able to login at any point and access the information they require.
So make the most of today and use technology as your extra pair of hands, or two! It has helped us to keep organized, transparent, up-to-date information and streamline all our processes to achieve a scalable business model.
Our top 3 tips:
- Work smarter, not harder so that you can focus on the bigger picture
- Spend time setting up systems that anyone can use from anywhere
- Think outside the box… great people don’t always share the same postcode as you
