Like many growing small businesses, we have found that as sales grow we begin drowning in an enormous sea of small administrative tasks – especially book-keeping. Being behind with book-keeping prevents good business decisions, because without accurate accounts you do not know whether you’re meeting your targets. On the other hand, paying someone in the UK to do our book-keeping would be cripplingly expensive.
Our accounting system is online (it’s called Xero), which means in theory anyone in the world can assist with getting our books up to date. So I got very excited when a friend introduced me to Ian Conolly, who runs an engineering firm in Zimbabwe. Ian has witnessed people in his community struggling to make ends meet and wants to make a difference by helping them find employment. There are many numerate, reliable people with good English who cannot get enough work. So Ian set us up with one of his staff, who has been taking care of our fiddly income streams ever since. Due to the trusting friendships involved, we can 100% trust them to access our accounting and payment systems, and the work is a life buoy for our business.
Ian is now ready to take on more remote book-keeping work and help create more jobs. Do you use Xero and need help with your accounts? If so contact us and we’ll refer you.
