6 Quick Tricks to Free Up More Time in Your Small Business

Success in business is always favoured, but there is one unfortunate by-product that comes with it, you tend to be much busier than before. Suddenly, there’s much more work, more meetings, more projects, more deadlines and more decisions to be made. All of this takes a toll on your personal life as you suddenly have a lot on your to-do list, preventing you from taking time out on other important things.

Thankfully, there are some ways you can free up more time in your business without impacting its success. Here are 6 quick trips to help you do just that.

1.     Automate As Many of Your Tasks as Possible

Most of the tasks that take up your time can probably be automated. Are you supposed to send out regular reports at the end of each month? Automate them. Do you have bills that need to be paid on a certain date? Automate them! These tasks may not seem very time consuming, but they all mount up and distract you from bigger projects. Automating things will free up valuable time that can be better spent elsewhere.

2.     Keep Track of Your Time

To better understand what activities are taking up most of your time, write down everything you do each day and the time you spend on each activity. Include everything such as breaks, social media, emails and calls. This way you will be able to figure out where are you wasting most of your time and can make decisions accordingly. Once you get a rough sketch of the time you spend on each activity, you can make a timetable and dedicate your time to all the important tasks by cutting out the time wasters.

3.     Prioritise by Urgency and Set Deadlines

It’s important to prioritise urgent projects and start working on them first, rather than worrying about the projects that are due next week. This will help you to keep your calm and avoid being haphazard. Also, you should set deadlines for each task and do your best to meet them each time. Deadlines motivate you to complete a project, preventing you from doing nothing when you should be doing work.

4.     Use Invoice Software

Invoicing is one of the most tedious tasks for any small business. It also takes a lot of your time that could have been better spent. Did you know that there’s invoice software out there that can actually take control of the entire process of invoicing from the beginning till the end? You can install online invoice software that not only manages things for you, but that also helps you to create better invoice designs that will increase customer satisfaction.

5.     Learn to Delegate Tasks

Although you may want to believe it, you’re not superhuman. You CANNOT do everything on your own. The idea is to find trustworthy people and delegate tasks to them. Not only will this help in freeing up time in your small business, but will also help you to complete projects within your set deadlines. Focus your energy on the more important tasks you have at hand and leave the rest to your team.

6.     Avoid Distractions

Checking on social media and looking at personal emails aren’t the only distractions we often fall victim to when trying to work. If you work in a busy office full of interruptions, try working from home a few days where you can get some peace and quiet. Avoid making any unnecessary phone calls and only take them if you know it’s urgent. Distractions take us away from the task at hand and can accumulate into hours of lost time.

With these quick and simple tricks, you’ll be able to free up a lot of time in your small business without affecting the profitability at all. It’s important to take time out for personal commitments so you can keep a balance between your work and personal life. If you follow the above advice, you should have some extra time to do just that!