Small Biz Survival: Why you procrastinate on invoicing and what to do about it.
We like to work on the parts of our business that are fun to us. Even the prospect of, "I have to do this to get paid" isn't usually enough to keep us from putting off our invoicing.
So what do you do about it?
- Build a system. Set up the steps that need to be taken throughout the process to make it as easy as possible to figure and send those invoices. And the first step is to create and record some standards of what you charge, whether by the hour or by the finished product or whatever method works best for your business. The second step is a system that makes it easy to record your work just as soon as you do it.
- Do it only once. Record your work in the same format as your invoices so you can copy from your work record and paste directly into the invoice form. (I use this trick, myself!)
- Use an online system like Invoice More, Fresh Books, or Greener Billing.
- Delegate. If you're bad enough about procrastinating, pay someone else create invoices from your work records. That could be an employee, a virtual assistant, or your local bookkeeping service. (photo by got mesker?)
Comment -- The operations side of a small business is often neglected by entrepreneurs. You'd rather work on the stuff that got you excited about starting the small business in the first place, right? Who gets fired up about doing the paperwork of invoicing? But it's pretty important because it's how you get paid. Sometimes it makes sense to outsource it to someone else. You can search SBAM's member directory for small business bookkeeping services. Michael Rogers
