Entrepreneurs and small business owners know the scenario all too well: they open a business to pursue their passion, but end up spending as much time, energy, and money on the administrative tasks that keep the operation running. Even getting ahead by forecasting cash flow is a pipe dream reserved for corporate CFOs, not small business owners.
Jamaica Trinnaman, owner of HelloBulk Market, has seen this firsthand.
Even with experience in the grocery industry, Trinnaman still found running her bring-your-own-packaging market in Salt Lake City a challenge. It wasn’t the grocery-side that presented problems — it was managing the backend of her business. “I thought it would take about a day each week,” Trinnaman says. In reality, she was spending half of her working hours on business operations instead of managing the store.
“Everybody sees a cute little grocery market and they don’t understand how much time and effort it takes to get every one of those products here,” she says. “Paying invoices and all the bookkeeping becomes even more challenging because you’re often in this awkward spot where you can’t afford a real bookkeeper or an attorney, but these things would really help you with growth. It’s an ongoing battle.”
Time-saving tools
Research shows small businesses spend up to 240 days a year on administrative work. Invoicing, billing, and payroll, ensuring suppliers, contractors, rents, and insurance are paid — it all needs to be done by someone. For small businesses, that “someone” is often the business owner.
“It’s critical for business owners to find resources to handle the tasks that aren’t their strengths,” says Brock Blake, CEO and co-founder of Lendio, which began as a small business lending marketplace and recently added accounting and financial management tools for small businesses, too. “If owners are spending their time on manual tasks that aren’t driving growth or revenue, finding another way to get these tasks done is essential. Day-to-day cash flow and accounting are great places to start.”
This, says Blake, is why Lendio launched Sunrise, a free small business accounting tool and app that runs on both mobile devices and as a desktop service. “Money is essential for every business. We started Lendio to help small businesses connect with the right financing, but business owners also need to manage their cash flow without it becoming all-consuming. Corporations have massive accounting teams. Small businesses need the same type of help but on a scale that fits them.”
Streamlining business
Kori Jean Olsen-Gerrard couldn’t agree more. Her growing, luxury real estate business is currently booming, but it’s overwhelming at times.
“Sometimes it feels like you’re working all day, every day,” says Olsen-Gerrard, “which is the opposite of why I opened a business. Going into it, you have a lot of uninformed confidence. Then you actually start running your business and realize you’re also the accountant, marketing person, customer service team, and the person paying the bills.”
This is where accounting tools like Lendio’s Sunrise software take over: by streamlining finance management tasks and processes. The software is free to use and creates invoices, accepts payments, catalogs expenses, and assists with reports and expense tracking. The mobile app also allows invoicing on the go. Sunrise’s new subscription service gives small businesses another option to include professional accounting services as well as cash flow forecasts and alerts plus insights into where a business is spending and making money.
For Olsen-Gerrard, any tool that simplifies operations means she has that much more time to spend on what she loves: working with clients and raising her growing family. “You might start your business knowing that you’ll be the one wearing all the hats, but eventually you have to figure out how to take some of those hats off and put them somewhere else.”
Find out how Sunrise by Lendio’s finance management software can help your small business at lendio.com/sunrise.