Business admin responsibilities for small business owners

Having sole responsibility for your business admin tasks is not uncommon if you are a small business owner. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners manage and run their businesses by themselves, this is especially true during the startup phase. 

To keep your business running smoothly it’s best to be aware of all your business admin responsibilities so you can manage them properly. 

 Some businesses will have more admin responsibilities than others the exact business admin duties you will have will depend on the type of business you are running.  

The following is a general list of the most important admin responsibilities for small businesses. 

• Email management 
• Appointments and Phone calls 
• Existing business admin tasks and duties 
• Scheduling new admin tasks and duties
• Review of business bank account
• Payroll
• Manage inventory/time
• Review of business plan
• Social media analytics review
• Social media plan and schedule 
• Google Analytics review

Managing business admin responsibilities

When it comes to managing your business admin responsibilities it’s best to schedule a specific day for the task to be completed and also if you can a specific time. 

We recommend that you use a project management app to schedule your admin tasks. 

Using a project management app will help you track what has been done and what still needs to be done. 

Using a project management app to schedule your tasks is also convenient if you are going to be delegating the task to someone else. Project management apps such as ClickUp allow you to create a task and assign it to a team member that’s within your organisation or to someone else outside of your organisation. 

How to complete business admin duties 

As virtual assistants, we complete a lot of business admin tasks that have been outsourced to us from other businesses. We help our clients by doing some of their daily, weekly and monthly administrative tasks.

Below are the processes showing how to complete each task. You can use these instructions to complete your business admin tasks yourself or you can delegate the instructions to someone else. 

•  Email Management 

It’s important to continuously manage your emails otherwise your inbox will become too cluttered and it will be hard to find important emails that you need.  

How to manage your emails 

1. Log into your email account
2. Read new messages then perform one of the following actions: 
3. Delete any unwanted emails
4. Reply to emails that need a response immediately
5. Emails that need longer to respond move to a folder named ‘’respond later’’ then schedule the email response in your project management app as a task to be completed later.

• Appointments and Phone calls 

Making phone calls and attending appointments with clients and colleagues is a great way to build or maintain relationships and communicate. A lot of small businesses also use phone calls and meetings to generate income.

How to manage your appointments and phone calls 

1. Research and compile any information you need for the meeting/ call 
2. Call or Meet the customer at the scheduled time 
3. Record or take notes during the meeting or call 
4. Schedule the next follow-up call/ meeting 

• Existing Business Admin Tasks & Duties 

If you are already running a business your existing business admin tasks are the tasks that are specific to your business that you probably already do. If you are starting a new business you should do the admin tasks that help to launch the business. Follow the steps below. 

How to manage your business admin tasks 

1. Estimate how long each task will take to complete
2. Before you begin track how long the task will take to complete
3. Begin your administrative tasks 
4. Pause the timer during any breaks 
5. Finish your business admin task
6. Once completed mark the task as completed
7. If the task is recurring add any notes, resources or attachments to the task in the project management app. By updating the task with information that helps make doing the task easier you will be able to complete the task faster the next time. 

• Scheduling New Admin Tasks & Duties

It’s good to continuously schedule new tasks frequently rather than waiting and scheduling multiple tasks at once. Frequent scheduling of new tasks will give you more time to get the tasks completed as you can only do so much at one time. 

How to schedule new admin tasks and responsibilities

• Schedule new tasks in your project management tool
• Set the status for the task 
• Set the due date for the task 
• Select a priority level for the task
• Add time estimate for the task 
• Assign the task to the correct person to complete

• Review Your Business Bank Account 

Your business bank account will give you a clear overview of where your business stands financially. It’s good to keep an eye on your business bank account so you are aware of what financial decisions you can or cannot make. 

How to review your business bank account 

1. Login to business bank account
2. Check finances are in line for future projects etc. 

• Payroll

If you have staff or you have outsourced staff then you need to have a method to pay them. Using a payroll service is what most professional businesses use to pay their staff and to pay contractors.

How to do Payroll for your small business

1. Log into your payroll
2. Calculate gross wages
3. Calculate tax deductions
4. Calculate any other necessary deductions
5. Send or hand out payslip
6. Inform the tax authorities of the deductions you made. 
7. Send the tax deductions to your tax authority 

• Manage Inventory / Availability 

If you’re selling physical items then you need to count how many of each item you have, and regardless of whether you’re selling physical items or not it’s always a good idea to monitor your availability.  By monitoring your availability you will see when you will be available in the future. This gives you an early opportunity to schedule an income-generating meeting during this time. By monitoring your availability you will be making the most out of your time. 

How to manage your inventory or availability 

1. Count your inventory if you are selling physical items
2. Use your inventory information to decide which products to put more focus on selling
3. Check your availability and use that information to see when you will have available time and then decide what to spend that available time doing. Whether to use the availability to complete more admin tasks or to schedule a meeting during that time. 

• Review Your Business Plan

Frequent reviewing of your business plan is always recommended. 

How to review your business plan 

1. Review your business plan objectives and goals 
2. Update your business plan 

• Social Media Analytics Review

Not checking your social media analytics means you won’t know what is working and what doesn’t work. Check your social media to know what kind of posts you should continue posting and what types you should avoid. 

How to review social media analytics 

1. Check your stats for last months social media posts
2. Note which posts were the most popular 

• Social Media Plan & Schedule

By creating and scheduling your social media posts in advance you will undoubtedly save yourself time. 

How to plan and schedule social media posts

1. Create next month’s social media posts using information from your social media analytics review
2. Schedule new posts in a social media planner like Buffer

• Google Analytics Review

Checking your Google Analytics data lets you know how well your website is performing. If you don’t check your Google Analytics you won’t know which parts of your website are effective and which parts should be changed. Follow the instructions below to check your Google Analytics if you want to know more about how to use Google Analytics consider joining a Google Analytics beginners skills training session, learn more here 

How to review your website Google Analytics data 

1. Go to https://analytics.google.com
2. Check how many visitors your website has had
3. Find out how many of your visitors are new users
4. Check which pages were visited the most on your website
5. Discover the average time visitors spent engaging on your website
6. Check which pages have a high bounce rate

For more business admin tasks and information check out this article it expands on information about small business admin duties and includes a free business admin checklist that you can download. 

How have you been keeping up with your admin? If you’ve got a backlog of admin or just want some admin support so that you can have some extra time, one of our virtual assistants can do some or all of your business admin tasks for you. Come and join us for the VA Introduction & LIVE Q&A Event where you can meet virtual assistants, ask questions and see what it would be like to have a virtual assistant completing your business admin tasks. Register here