Page 164 - The UnCaptive Agent

THREE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONSOF YOUR AGENCY AND HOW TO STAFF THEM 137

Administration and Accounting

The third essential function in the agency is accounting
and administration. Every business has administrative
tasks that must be completed. Who will do the tasks
like filing, ordering, and making sure that everyone in
the business has what they need to do their job? In the
beginning, this is likely to be you, the founder. When
you hire your first service employee, this may be a part
of their job as well. And as the agency grows, you will
undoubtedly find that someone needs to be tasked with
the myriad and miscellaneous administrative responsibil-
ities. This individual is often called the agency manager.
However you provide for it, you need to recognize that
these tasks need to be done, and you should be very
direct about who does them so you can manage the
function rather than letting it arise organically.
One way that is increasingly popular to take care of
these kinds of tasks is by outsourcing them. In many
cities, businesses now exist that fractionalize almost all
kinds of work, including administration. It would be
a worthwhile use of your time to investigate whether
this is available in your community, as it will likely save
you time and money.
Every business has to provide for the accounting
function. “The language of business is accounting. If
you can’t speak the language you can’t play the game,”
says serial entrepreneur Keith Cunningham. And while
you may be tempted to operate your business out of
your checkbook for a period of time if you do, you will
inevitably learn that it’s a mistake. Just as every agency
needs an agency automation system from the day it
opens its doors, every agency needs to provide for profit
and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow reporting from
its first month.