How to find more time as a business owner |
Posted: May 21, 2018 |
As the business world becomes progressively more digital it can feel as though you’re at the office every moment of the day. With your phone and laptop constantly chiming with notifications regardless of what time it is, it can feel like you’re stuck working literally 24/7. So whether you’re starting your business from scratch, or simply dealing with a severe lack of free time, a few of our tips below should help you regain some of your private life and make you generally more efficient. Get your brand up and runningFirst and foremost, if you’re looking for more free time to spend on yourself with friends and family, you should make sure that you’ve fully developed your business so that you’re not constantly required to deal with issues day in and day out. This means things like making sure you have your team ready - or that you at least have some contractors on hand when you need them. A website, as well as payment systems, should also be totally primed and ready to go so when you do make a sale or get a new client you don’t want to be fiddling with all of the technical aspects trying to set up a new payment option each time. Planning out your business schedule is also an essential here. Make sure that you have a daily or weekly plan and factor in free time there too. It might sound counterproductive or a little too ‘workaholic-like’ but adding free time into your schedule is one of the best ways to ensure you get it.
AutomationSome of the most time-consuming tasks are ones that can easily be automated - or greatly sped up by automating them using specialised software. Sole trader and smaller businesses in particular deal with a great number of expenses along with having to monitor and control marketing activities, technicians and more. Not only will these tasks cost you precious personal time, but also money. You’ll be spending valuable work hours on tasks that can be automated for a fraction of the cost, whilst you can be working on more profitable tasks. Programs like ServiceTitan have been designed specifically to automate tasks like technician management, marketing ROIs and even financing.
Take Advantage of Your Smaller SizeNot many small businesses owners realise that their smaller size can be used as an advantage. Being small means a lot of control, unrivalled efficiency when compared to larger companies and it also means business plans and directions can be changed at a moments notice without having a major impact on many people. So how do you use this to your advantage to save time as a business owner? You take the time to hire correctly, change business workflows that aren’t totally optimised and you improve upon every process until it runs as time and cost-efficient as possible. A smaller size also means you can be more direct and friendly with your customers as well as understand their needs a lot more in-depth. You’ll be more easily able to develop workflows that work for you and your customers this way, so save time by doing it.
Hire an AssistantIn a similar category as automation is taking the time to hire a virtual, or contractor assistant. Don’t waste time on tasks that you know can easily be completed more efficiently by someone who knows what they're doing and has a liking for it. Traditionally business owners would have an assistant or secretary with them at all times to take notes, phone calls and do other everyday tasks. It’s now the late 2010s; so that’s done digitally via instant messaging and VoIP calls. The most effective places to look for these assistants is online job boards, personal CV websites as well as freelancing websites. You’ll be able to sort through plenty of candidates that are skilled enough for your needs and actually like what they do. Being successful doesn’t mean doing everything yourself, getting help makes you more efficient and frees up your time as a business owner.
Take Work Where it Works for YouFinally, you don’t need to be stuck at work all day every day. Chances are that most of your daily tasks are done on a computer - or even a phone. Take advantage of these devices and take your workplace anywhere, that way you won’t feel trapped at work and out of personal time. If you have things that you need to do at home, take your work home with you. You could even do prep at home for work the next day and make your day a little shorter and give yourself the chance to leave earlier than normal.
|
||||||||||||||||||
|