BEHIND THE SCENES: A PRODUCTIVE DAY OF ADMIN WORK

Introduction

A lot of founder stories and business “behind the scenes” involve glamorized day-to-days of the company. The reality is that not all days are monumental. Some days require you to sit down at your computer and simply organize and evaluate where you are.

Here is a unique look into my productive day of completing administrative tasks for Stylistic.

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What is Admin Work?

Admin work is honestly the boring part of any company.

It is tedious and time-consuming, but it is something that must be done. From reviewing documents, to scheduling tasks and organizing endlessly, admin requires a lot of mental stamina.

Some common examples of admin work include answering emails, updating databases, or making customer phone calls. These tasks may seem like the most mundane things, but in reality, companies cannot run smoothly without executing these so called “back-end” tasks.

Your company’s systems and procedures must be strong on the inside in order to have a successful face on the outside.

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Setting up New Internal Systems

When I first set up my website on Squarespace, I purchased the Google Workspace plan that came along with the website. Because of this, I started using Google’s products as a way to keep track of all my assets as a company, including my finances, customer surveys, app development designs, content calendars, and more.

However, while I was updating my content calendar on Google Sheets, I realized that what I was using was not effective to my process. I’m sure there are many ways to create a proper user flow in Google Sheets for content planning, but the platform was just not intuitive enough for me.

That is when I decided to switch everything to Notion. Making this change was a huge administrative task. I was essentially tearing apart and replacing an old internal system, which is not simple to do.

Starting out with Notion was a steep learning curve with its multitude of features. But, I quickly learned how to utilize the tools to my advantage in order to create a content calendar that was much more intuitive.

By researching available templates and consolidating features that I liked together into a one Notion document took me about three hours to complete. It was a long and tedious task in the short-term, but in the long-run, my flow of productivity was made simpler.

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This is my actual content dashboard (Yes, there are some cards that are blacked out. Can’t spill all my secrets now can I?)

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Tracking Finances

As a founder who is also a college student, I have received various sources of funding for my venture. As a part of the Werth Innovator’s Internship Program, I have received $4000 in funding. Additionally, I have received $500 in funding from the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI) for winning 3rd place at one of their pitch competitions, and I also received other small amounts from CCEI for participating in various business and networking events

With this multitude of funding sources that go straight to my personal bank account, it was always difficult for me to keep track of my expenses, especially since I do not have a separate business bank account yet. The one thing that made it easier for me was the fact that I only spend money on my business and nowhere else in my personal life, since I am supported by my parents.

However, I realized that keeping track of my expenses meticulously was an important thing. That is why I spent about two and a half hours today looking through all my bank statements and consolidating them into a spreadsheet that included information on my expenditures specifically for Stylistic.

I included columns to track my funding sources and created a detailed budget of how I could potentially use the money.

Although this task sent me into a lot of rabbit holes and confusion around my funding and bank statements, I finally ended up with an organized spreadsheet that tracks everything I’ve done so far in regards to money. In the future, I can now easily track my finances as I have now laid out the foundation.

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Planning for Group Meeting

As a part of the Werth Innovator’s Program, I am the designated “lead” of our weekly group meetings. There are a total of eight young women in this group (including myself), and my job is to lead a coffee chat style meeting every week where we discuss our entrepreneurial ventures and work through any challenges we may be facing.

Last week, we unfortunately had to cancel our meeting due to sickness from many parties, so planning for this next meeting was something that I took a lot of care in doing.

There were two factors that I considered:

• This is the first meeting we are having after missing a meeting. This led me to create an agenda where everyone gets a chance to provide an update instead of our usual rhythm where only 4/8 members present per meeting.

• This meeting falls during the halfway point of our internship. With this in mind, I set out time to ask the group how they are feeling about their progress so far and to talk through any new struggles they may be facing.

Planning this meeting was a much simpler task than the other two things I accomplished today, but nonetheless, it is still important. Even if a meeting like this is only 30 minutes, it is still important to enter it with a clear goal in mind, which is why taking the time to complete this administrative task is crucial, no matter how mundane it is.

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Conclusion

The key thing to recognize is that any task you complete in relation to your company is a big step forward. Yes, it can seem useless to color code a few things here and there, but in the future when you can potentially have a million different categories, having some sort of color system will be crucial to running your business smoothly.

Especially when you’re just starting out and you may be the only person working at your company, it’s hard to see the importance in these admin tasks that you’re completing. It may be useless for you to have a few comments on your documents explaining what each section means, but it may be the only thing keeping your future co-founder or intern going when they are confused about something.

In the end, you need to learn how to detach yourself from your business at times. This is something that I still struggle with, but as the days go on, the more I realize the importance of this. Your company is a living, breathing thing, and most times, it needs more organization in its life than you do in yours.

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