A day in the life of a small business owner

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses already faced an uphill battle with one in five failing in their first year.   

And now with the current economic climate and changing restrictions, it’s become far more challenging to thrive.

But it shouldn’t be all doom and gloom, as the current crisis has presented the perfect opportunity for you to reimagine the way you work.

By innovating operational processes such as payroll, HR and bookkeeping, you’re able to grow in resilience and face whatever is thrown your way.

Out with the old and in with the new

Gone are our old ways of working, with brew runs and chats by the water cooler now distant relics of the past.

As some form of home working, whether that’s part-time or permanent has become the new normal for the vast majority of people, the previously mentioned operational processes all desperately need to adapt.

It’s no longer practical to store your HR documents in the office or have your bookkeeping software bound to your desktop.

To truly succeed going forward, you need the freedom to easily work from anywhere given a moment’s notice.

We appreciate that this can be a jarring thought, especially when you’ve become accustomed to a specific way of working.

So, to help you visualise this change, below we’ve created an example day for a small business owner that utilises IRIS’ software solutions.

A typical day for small business owner Charlotte

8:30 am

The Government announces there will be an update at noon to introduce further COVID-19 measures.

9:00 am

The month-end is here, and that can only mean one thing – payday! Charlotte uses IRIS’ payroll outsourcing solution, IRIS Fully Managed Payroll, to pay her employees. Charlotte reflects that all she needed to do was pull her staffs’ variable pay data such as overtime, bonuses, absences and holidays, and IRIS Fully Managed Payroll did the rest.

9:15 am

After grabbing a quick cup of tea, Charlotte logs into her cloud HR software, IRIS HR Professional via the handy web app. She exports a single pre-built report that pulls all the variable pay data for that month which she then sends to her IRIS payroll manager.

10:00 am

One of Charlotte’s employees calls her as she is feeling unwell and showing potential COVID-19 symptoms. Charlotte instructs her not to worry, take the rest of the day off and to book in a coronavirus test.

10:10 am

Charlotte logs back into IRIS HR Professional to access her employee’s records and to log the sickness.

11:00 am 

Charlotte receives an email reminder for her IRIS Training Centre webinar that is taking place later in the day.

12:00 pm

The Government update is live, and Charlotte has tuned in to make sure her business is up to date with all the latest changes.

12:30 pm

Charlotte receives an urgent call from her son’s school, informing her that his lunch money balance needs a top-up so he can pay for his school meal. She quickly logs on to IRIS PlusPay transferring the money immediately.

12:45 pm

Following the announcement, home working has now once again been encouraged, which means Charlotte and the rest of her business will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

1:00 pm

A few employees have been getting restless regarding their return to the office, so Charlotte prepares an update immediately to inform them of her plans to continue working from home.

1:40 pm

After carefully crafting her company update, Charlotte uses her communication platform, IRIS Reach, to send all her employees a text and email informing them of the plans to work from home for a while longer.

2:00 pm

Time to grab a quick lunch, opting for leftovers from the night before, Charlotte quickly eats before taking her dog out for a stroll around her local park.

2:45 pm

IRIS Fully Managed Payroll has now sent Charlotte a confirmation that all her staff have been paid.

3:00 pm

The employee experience starts from the second a new starter accepts their position, and Charlotte is well aware of this. As there is a new starter joining in a fortnight, Charlotte inputs their details into IRIS HR Professional, providing them access to the portal and employee handbook ahead of their start date so they can familiarise themselves with the business.

4:00 pm

The IRIS Training Centre webinar is now live. Charlotte has tuned in, and at the end of the session, she’s had the opportunity to ask a few questions in the Q&A, helping her solidify her understanding.

5:00 pm

An article covering today’s announcement has just been posted on the IRIS Blog. Charlotte reads it for a recap so that she has a firm understanding of everything that’s changing, providing her with some light reading and the knowledge to guide her business into the future with confidence.

5:30 pm

To finish her day, Charlotte uses her small business bookkeeping software, KashFlow, to check if her late invoices have been paid as some automated reminders were sent recently.