Administration - the mysterious ingredient

Author: Youth 2 Youth.

Administration is an essential ingredient to your business, but it's also the hardest area to pin down. Often, administration is required across many areas of a business; though in other cases an administration employee will manage all administration tasks, coordinating them from across a variety of projects, services or brands. As a profession, it's almost always undervalued. But for a young entrepreneur, administration can be essential to your business success.

Administration spans a wide variety of skills and areas, including, but limited to:

• Processing
• Creating and coordinating business systems
• Managing the 'traffic' of an organisation (flow of information and documents)
• Project management
• Filing

There aren't a whole lot of administration courses that you take quickly and easily. Most private colleges that are business colleges may cover these basic skills, but probably don't isolate them. The easiest way to get administration skills is to get some work experience. Volunteer as an office junior and get your hands dirty with the not-so-great jobs. Filing, processing, answering the phone and responding to mail may not be your dream job, but it sure will teach you some very valuable skills. You'll learn about organisation and how important internal business systems are; about customer service and public relations; and about keeping good and accessible records.

The term 'business administration' is often used to describe business management, hence the title of the well-known and well respected Masters degree, MBA (Master of Business Administration). 'Business administration' generally refers to the management of the operations of a business, whilst 'administration' in a business context is often the coordination of information.

'Copyright 2003 Youth 2 Youth'

Disclaimer: This article is for your information, but it may not apply to or be suitable for your situation, so seek professional advice. Youth 2 Youth cannot be held liable for anything resulting from how you use the information provided in this article.