If there’s one thing you learn when you start your own business, it’s that there’s not enough time in the day. Gone are the days of putting your work down at the end of the day or taking off a few weeks for a vacation to come back to find everything has been ticking along just fine without you – unless you’ve got the right systems and time-saving hacks in place, you’re going to struggle to ever keep up with your ever-growing to-do list.
Fortunately, there are ways to save time and get more done so you can take more time to relax and spend time with your loved ones. Here are some of our favorites:
4 Time-Saving Hacks for Your Small Business
- Delegate
Don’t you just wish you could clone yourself sometimes? Well, the good news is there’s a better way to get more done – hire professionals to do it for you. It’s easy to resist delegation because you feel like you don’t have the spare cash to pay someone, or it will take you longer to train someone than it would to just do it yourself. While these arguments are valid, you’ve got to change your thinking. Your time is limited, and you are likely making far more than it would cost you to hire someone else to do a task for you, even if you decide to train them.
Secondly, you don’t need to hire someone as an employee and try to train them to be you – instead, look to hire freelancers and other companies to fulfill your needs. By outsourcing to other professionals, you’ll be able to hand a problem to them and they’ll solve it for you, using their experience to do a better job than you would (yes, you can do it all, but that doesn’t mean you should!).
- Find out what makes you money, and do more of that
Sounds crazy, right? After all, everything you do in your business is geared towards making you more money. The thing is, that’s not always true. If you spent all morning going through your emails, only responding to one or two that may turn into work, you’ve only tangentially been doing something that generates revenue for your company.
What makes the most money for your company may be promoting free learning materials on social media, or actively working on projects for your clients. When you take a close look at how your business generates revenue, you can focus on the products and services that produce good money for you and cut those that don’t produce money easily for you or outsource tasks so you can focus on doing what you do best.
- Try Work Sprints
You’ve likely heard of the Pomodoro method, but have you used it? Pomodoro sprints are incredibly popular with writers and people with ADHD, but you don’t have to be easily distracted to benefit from working in sprints.
Set a timer and focus on one task for a defined time, being strict to ignore any notifications, any non-emergency phone calls, and other distractions. When the sprint is up, get up, walk around, or do another task that has your attention before getting back into the thing you have to do. You’ll likely be surprised how much more productive your days get when you dedicate short bursts of focus on your tasks.
- Say ‘No’ More
Do you bend over backward for your clients, loved ones, or employees? While it’s amicable to be giving, you’ve got to think of your ability to give as a daily meter that runs out. If you say ‘yes’ to every request, you’ll quickly run your reserves dry, leading to a lack of creativity, high stress, and diluted focus. Find the things that excite you and say yes to them – if they aren’t something you truly want to do, say no. This one takes practice, but you’ll find you have more time when you streamline your life.
Delegating will change your business, allowing you to tap the expertise of those who have specialized in their area of business. If you need to outsource graphic design, branding, website management or design, social media, or photography, you can count on the team here at Pixel Parfait. With just one point of contact, you can get all your visual marketing needs taken care of. To learn more about us, click here.
