Entrepreneurs tend to be fairly proactive and organized people. After all, starting a business requires you to be a forward-planner or go-getter – most people with startup dreams never take the leap. 

That said, business owners can still be prone to procrastination. Some tasks in business can be boring, difficult or uncomfortable, and so we put them off in favour of more exciting tasks. Unfortunately, these less exciting tasks are often still very important. Putting them off until the last possible moment could make them more difficult and more stressful for when you actually have to tackle them. In some cases, they could even create extra problems in the long run that could have been avoided.

Below are just a few common tasks that business owners tend to put off.

Repairing/replacing faulty equipment

Once equipment becomes slow, faulty or inefficient, it needs to be repaired or replaced immediately in order to prevent future problems. Let’s imagine that your company radios are faulty – any communication issues caused by this could be costly to your business. Finding a repair service such as this Motorola radio service could prevent these problems. Repairs and replacements do cost money, but you could create extra costs for yourself by not taking action early. Some equipment may even result in downtime if allowed to fail completely – you can’t run a coffee bar without a working coffee machine or a carpet cleaning company without a working carpet cleaner, so make sure that equipment is repaired before it completely fails.

Decluttering your workplace

Decluttering is a task that many of us put off in both our personal lives and our professional lives. Within the workplace, clutter can often cause productivity issues by making it harder to find the right resources. It could also be bad for your image if you invite clients into a cluttered office or lobby. The long you put off decluttering, the more clutter you’ll accumulate. Tackling the task now could reduce more pain in the future. After this, it’s worth scheduling monthly time to deal with clutter in order to prevent it getting out of control. 

Reprimanding troublesome employees

It only takes one troublesome employee to bring down your entire business. They could be making constant mistakes, neglecting responsibilities or causing friction within the team. Whatever the case, you need to deal with the issue in an appropriate way. Reprimanding staff isn’t fun – especially having to give out warnings or dismiss staff – but there are times when it needs to be done to protect your company. This guide at Insperity offers some great tips on how to discipline staff if you’re unsure of how to approach the issue. 

Chasing up late payments

If you’ve carried out work for a client, you deserve to get paid for it. Despite this, many business owners put off chasing up late payments. This often creates a chain reaction – fail to get paid on time and you may find that you’re unable to pay your suppliers on time. You should avoid this where possible by chasing up late payments as soon as they occur. If customers continue not to pay up, know when to take legal action. You may be able to avoid late payments altogether by warning customers of payment deadlines in advance, putting in place early payment discounts and running credit checks on customers before taking them on. 

Tackling business debts

If your company is in a lot of debt, it could be essential that you start tackling this debt before it gets out of control. If debt is allowed to build up, it could eventually become impossible to pay off – you don’t want to end up facing bankruptcy in a couple years time. There are many ways to tackle debt including consolidating it or paying it off early. There are business debt advice services that can help you to tackle it.