Business owners are limited in what they can personally handle for every day tasks in their business. While most would prefer to see each task through from start to finish, it’s just not feasible.
To-do lists grow just as a company does, and owners are forced to delegate even more responsibilities to others. It can be hard to offload duties, since you still want to be sure they’re being done properly.
For this process to work smoothly, you’ll want to entrust some online solutions and resources to help you.
Here are a few key areas to focus on:
Be Secure
Whether you’re in a technology business or not, most facets of your business are run online. With your sensitive details and most important information housed in a virtual environment, you can be left vulnerable.
There are various solutions that can be used to safeguard your data; MozyEnterprise is one of the most trusted. This type of tool can help you stay on top of file backups and online security.
Oversee the Books
What is a business without a deftly run accounting department? You may get by as you playing CFO at the beginning, but if you don’t have a strong background in finance, you – and your business – will inevitably flounder if you do this long term.
Be sure whoever is managing your company’s money is well educated and highly experienced in corporate finance. This individual should regularly report to you with past reports, current status and future projections.
For most owners though, this sort of reporting isn’t enough. You launched this company, you want to have your finger on the pulse of its fiscal health.
If this mindset resonates with you, consider a tool like QuickBooks Online Plus for your accounting needs.
With this tool, your company can take advantage of double-entry accounting, a deep level of customization, easy usability and comprehensive reporting. With its Web-based nature, you’re never more than a click away from checking in on how things are looking from a financial perspective.
Analyze Your Strategies
If you’ve handed over the responsibility of marketing to another leader on your team, kudos to you for taking that important step. But just because you’re trusting your marketing department to brainstorm strategies and see them through to execution doesn’t mean that you need to completely drop the reins.
As the business’s chief leader, you should be up to date on how marketing initiatives (and sales efforts) are performing. One of the best ways to gauge the effectiveness of campaigns is by turning to Google Analytics.
Use this service to monitor your traffic, get insight into how effective your mobile apps are and boost sales.
Notice: Video and story-based messaging is extremely powerful when used within a well developed business strategy. Lumen5 is a social video marketing tool which has been noted by Social Media Examiner as one of the best tools to make videos. Try it for Free.
Manage Your Reputation
Last, but not least, how do you do your best to control your brand’s precious image in the eyes of consumers (and competitors)? The best (and hardest to swallow) answer is that you craft and keep this image by doing reputable work, following through on promises and always keeping integrity as your focal point.
Beyond this, you can employ a variety of tools to see how others perceive your company.
Try using a solution like SocialMention to search for your brand’s name and other related key words and get real-time feedback.
By seeing what’s out there, you can nimbly handle any problematic situations that arise. Your reputation is everything, so you’d be wise to be consistently aware of it.
As you seek to maintain control of your business, while simultaneously empowering other leaders to handle some of the duties you can’t, it can be hard to find a good balance. Use online tools that benefit your business and allow you to still have a bird’s eye view of your company’s functions without micromanaging.
Keep your data secure, your finances functional (and visible), your strategies evaluated and your reputation intact.
With some help from these systems, you’re sure to stay appropriately involved while letting your business flourish under a healthy amount of autonomy.
If you want to learn more:
…visit our upcoming training webinars and register for your free seat today!