Launching a start-up and running a small business can be exhausting. With less or no staff at their disposal, passionate owners are personally responsible for an overwhelming amount of daily tasks. Yes, the effort and hours are needed to help your enterprise succeed, but there should be a limit to the number of things you do without help.

Founder’s fatigue is recognised as a contributing factor to the failure of many ventures. Don’t let it determine the outcome of your company. There are simple ways to avoid tiredness from crushing your entrepreneurial dreams – and one of the easiest is to invest in small business online accounting.

The Dangers of Fatigue

To understand why exhaustion is bad for business, you have to know how it affects you. Whether triggered by a lack of sleep, too many responsibilities, stress, or a combination of these factors, it can influence your:

• Mood – making you cranky or uncomfortable, lessening your patience with clients and increasing your chances of snapping at staff or family
• Focus – causing a lack of concentration that could lead to careless mistakes, inattention to customers and impulsive decisions
• Memory – leading to potentially missing important meetings, deadlines or tasks, as well as struggling to keep track of your daily duties
• Efficiency – which may result in you doing far less than what you could have achieved, leaving you behind schedule

The good news is that all of these symptoms are preventable. You simply have to tweak the way in which you manage your business. That’s where online accounting solutions offer the first bit of relief.

Get Help from Your Computer

Money does all the talking in the world of entrepreneurs. Therefore, getting your sums right, staying on the taxman’s good side and paying your creditors on time is essential. If you’re trying to do it all on your own, you could unknowingly be failing or mistakenly neglecting other areas of your business.

But there’s really no need to struggle on your own. Our Online accounting software can help small businesses conquer their books with incredible ease. How? Just look at the benefits it provides:

• Gives you greater freedom – You’ll have the ability to work anywhere, at any time, using any device with internet connectivity. You won’t have to be at the office to create invoices, log transactions or check your revenue for the day.
• Saves you time – The data you log into the programme can be automatically compiled into appropriate reports and filed neatly. You can even attach photos of slips or leave notes on important matters, while on the go.
• Costs you less – Your monthly expenses should decrease, as you find yourself not using as much stationery or petrol, and requiring fewer staff members and accounting professionals.
• Provides safe storage – Hard drives crash, paper burns and ink runs if water touches it. On the other hand, online files don’t face any of these risks. You can also limit the access staff members have to sensitive information, ensuring that only you can view and edit certain documents.
• Keeps you in control – Even if books aren’t your strong suit and you have to delegate the responsibility to another, you can still easily monitor the business’s performance.

Once you have the financial side of your operation organised, you can start examining other draining areas of your job. For instance:

• To use your time as effectively as possible, do proper planning on daily processes too. After all, little tasks are usually responsible for developing bigger changes.
• Though you could do it solo when your venture began, you need to hire help as it grows. This ensures that every area of the business receives adequate attention.

In Africa, more than 1.3 million small business owners rely on QuickBooks’ online accounting to keep their company running. Best of all, it’s simple to use and easy to understand, with handy tutorials included and unlimited technical support. You could even try it free for 30 days.