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Michigan insurance Archives - Contractors Insurance Agency

Keep Your Computer Files Up to Date To Ramp Up Your Business

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As a contractor, you are always busy on job sites, but you may also have to deal with the administrative side of things as well.

When you have automated systems in place, software that makes your work easier and processes in place that help you to be efficient that is great!

Another thing we don’t always think about is keeping our files up to date.

Have you ever needed a document and wasted a ton of time trying to figure out where you filed it, or what you named it? If your computer files were up to date, you would be able to click a few times and have what you need right away.

This not only saves you time but also frustration.

Some of the things you want to consider cleaning up monthly would be:

  • Removing old files and clutter
  • Save to the cloud, not the hard drive. If you have it on the hard drive, take time to move it to a cloud-based service and delete it from the hard drive.
  • Clean off any old programs you have on your computer as well. Make sure you have any updates or latest versions for programs and your operating system.
  • Organize your files and folders and make sure you know what is in them and they make sense to you.
  • Review your emails and delete any that are no longer needed

If you are currently doing everything on your own, you may want to consider hiring an administrative person to help you or even a virtual assistant to help you for a few hours each week.  This will free up your time and energy so you can focus on bringing in new business and ensuring your current projects are running smoothly.

If you need any support around your insurance policy, please reach out to us here at Contractors Insurance Agency. We are happy to help.

 

How to Delegate Effectively in your Contractor Business

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When you own a business, you wear many hats and to grow and to get more done, you need to have people you trust to delegate some of the workload to.

Delegating is great for your team.  It shows you are trusting them to be responsible to do tasks and it builds trust with them.  You are helping them with professional development and teaching them new skills which shows great leadership.

While the benefits of delegating are clear to many, (save time and money, get more accomplished, grow your business) many business owners still fail to delegate effectively because they are their own bottleneck.

They don’t want to take the time to teach the skills to someone because it’s easier to do it themselves. What if the other person doesn’t do it like they would, what if things fall through the cracks? There are so many reasons business owners come up with to keep their own plate overflowing and themselves feeling overwhelmed. And their team is looking for more and maybe even moving to a different company because they are not being challenged where they are.

Keep in mind that your team wants to do a good job for you, and they want to be successful.  The right team knows that the better the company does the better everyone on the team does.

While initially when you delegate it is a little more time consuming to get someone else up to speed, in the long run it will take you less time when they know the skill and can take on the task.

Some of the tasks to delegate would be administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings, answering calls, checking/responding to emails and invoicing. If you are sending emails out such as newsletters or posting blogs to your website, you can have an administrative assistant take that on as well.

Another time to delegate is when you are not skilled at the task yourself.  You may be taking three times as long to complete a task that you could hire someone else to do.  Think of what your own time is worth and look at the cost of hiring someone for that task and figure out how much you could be saving and even bringing in with new business that you have time to focus on.

Here are 7 tips to delegating effectively:

  1. Be sure you have the right person doing the task
  2. Know why you are delegating the task
  3. Provide complete direction on how to do the task
  4. Be available to answer questions and provide resources/training to get things started
  5. Delegate responsibility but also the authority to make decisions needed regarding the task
  6. Check over the work initially and provide constructive feedback
  7. Be sure to thank the person and let them know you appreciate their work

Over time you will get better and better at delegating. In turn, you will have more trust, commitment, and loyalty with your employees. You will improve productivity and be able to grow your business as well.

If we can help you with any of your contractor insurance needs here at Contractors Insurance Agency, please let us know.

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