Running a business means doing lots of different tasks and trying to keep all the various moving parts in order – you’ve got to do so many things, from replying to clients, dealing with invoices, organising social media, and growing the business on top of all that (and much more besides). So of course, somewhere in there, there are sure to be at least a few opportunities for things to slip through the cracks – it’s easy for it to happen, but it’s not going to make things any easier. 

Of course, most business owners don’t actually mean to miss things – it’s just that the time runs away from them and little things get forgotten or ignored, which can mean things don’t get paid on time, leads go cold, and payments don’t get chased among other things. Once or twice and it’s not the end of the world, but when it keeps happening, you’ve got a big problem just waiting to happen. 

The good news is that you can make things easier for yourself and ensure that nothing slips through the cracks in your business, and if you want to know more, just keep reading to find out. 

Start With a System You’ll Stick To

One thing you’ll notice as you start looking around at ways to make sure everything gets done is that there’s no shortage of productivity apps, project trackers, and other tools out there. But the thing to remember is that the best one is the one you’ll actually use, and that’s what you need to think about before anything else. It could be a digital calendar, a task manager, a shared spreadsheet if that’s what works for you, as long as it fits with how you work and how you want to get things done. 

The key is not to overcomplicate things – simple and consistent is far better than complex because you’ll probably just end up not doing the jobs you have to do if it’s too complicated to deal with, and that’s not going to get you any further ahead (it might even make things worse). So you’ll need to choose something that helps you see what’s got to be done every day without making it harder to actually get that stuff done. 

Automate What You Can

One of the best ways to reduce the chance of missing things is to automate the tasks you do the most – the ones that get repeated all the time. That could be follow-up emails, tracking leads, moving people through a sales pipeline, sending out invoices, and so on, and if you can automate at least some (if not all) of these things, it’s going to take a lot of pressure off and make things much more consistent. 

A good CRM (customer relationship management) tool can make that really easy, and if you’re not sure where to start or how to tailor it to your business, a Pipedrive consultant can help you learn what to do and get everything set up properly. This is great because they’ll work with you to streamline your processes so your system just works away nicely in the background while you get on with doing other things – and nothing’s going to fall through the cracks. 

Don’t Rely On Memory 

Your brain can only hold so much at once, and although it’s fantastic when it comes to ideas and decision-making, it’s not so great for remembering things long-term, especially when there’s a lot of short-term things to think about. If you’re trying to keep appointments, deadlines, follow-ups, and all kinds of other things in your head and nowhere else, it’s really only a matter of time before something gets lost, and you won’t even realise it’s happened right away. 

That’s why it’s so important to use reminders – it’s not a weakness and it doesn’t mean you’re bad at running your business. What it means is that you know you need a little extra prompting, and you’re serious about getting things right for you, your customers, and your employees if you’ve got any. It’s also important to keep everything in one place, which could be an app, or perhaps even a notebook; as long as it’s happening it can be as futuristic or old school as you like. The point is, the more you can get out of your head and into a system, the better. 

Schedule a Weekly Review

A weekly review, even if it’s only five or ten minutes, can make a big difference. You’ll be able to look over what’s coming up, check what didn’t get done, and update your to-do list for the next week so you know what’s urgent and what your priorities are. This is a great way to catch anything you might have missed before it becomes a much bigger problem.