Avoid Double-Work
I’ve coined this word “Double-work” to easily describe those areas of your business where things are done more than once or are unnecessary.
The full definition of Double-work is a form of work which is unnecessary, invented or nonsense and is used to give the appearance of production (actual results). It’s done to amuse the worker and often creates more confusion leading to more double-work.
Let me give you a real life example:
One of our clients had a bookkeeper. She worked 2 or 3 days per week. She was a good, reliable bookkeeper.
But as a BK she was paid by time and so spent time doing her job. One of her main and most time consuming task was chasing payment from clients.
This would include:
- Arriving at the office.
- Making coffee
- Chatting with a co-worker
- Sitting down at computer
- Working out who had outstanding invoice to pay
- Calling the client, leaving a message
- Sending an email
- And repeating this process each day…
This BK is doing her job. Only problem is that her whole process is double-work.
Why?
The client has already been sent the initial invoice. What is needed is that the client pays their invoice on time.
At Afficient we focus on eliminating double work, so our approach was to figure out a way to automate this.
The result is clients receives friendly email reminders BEFORE the due date, on the due date, 7 days after the due date, and then 7 days again and then, if still no payment, off to the debt collector they go.
Each email reminder contains a link to pay for the invoice. This is totally automatic (and can be customised).
What was the result?
- Debtors reduced by 30%
- Cash flow increased by $90k per month
- More clients now pay before the invoice is due.
- The business owner actually received “thanks for reminding me” emails.
- BK no longer needed, saving $20k per year in costs.
The work of chasing money has been eliminated and all of the added paperwork that goes with it.
This is just one example of double-work. They are countless.
Here’s the rule …. Those who are paid by time can rarely identify double-work because they see it as their job.
But for the business owner it reduces profits and drains the business.
What to put an end to double-work?
Call Afficient.
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Tony Melvin is the founder of Afficient and best-selling author. He’s been using online apps to streamline and boom his business empire since 2008. Nobody really knows where he lives because he travels with his family so much.
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