Running a business takes a lot of time and sometimes it can be difficult to find enough time in the day for everything that you need to do. Instead of stressing out about constantly having a lack of time, you need to focus on managing your time better moving forward. Every business owner has the same number of hours available to them during the day. It’s how you manage this time that is typically the difference between a successful business owner and one that is constantly under pressure, scrapping to try to get everything done from one day to the next.
Time management is a skill that can be learned and with the right approach, you can take control of your schedule again. Time management is all about prioritising tasks, delegating where possible and finding ways to become more efficient with your business practices. Often, when you have been doing the same thing in the same manner for years and years, the thoughts of change can be overwhelming. However, as Einstein once said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”. So, if you have been struggling to manage your time as a business owner, now might be the time to make a change so you start getting more out of your days moving forward.
Let’s take a look at some useful tips to help you manage your time more efficiently as a business owner.
Use The Right Tools
Nowadays, there are countless tools that you can use to streamline virtually every aspect of your business. Cloud-based systems and various business software tools can be implemented with ease and will improve the efficiency of your business immediately. From managing your business finances to tracking inventory, managing logistics and staying on top of payroll, there are a multitude of tools that you can take advantage of. You can even simplify employee scheduling with the right software, manage your marketing campaigns and run your social media accounts with more efficiency than you ever thought possible.
Control Your Email
The average business owner gets north of one hundred emails into their inbox each day. Sitting down to reply to all of these messages is a job in itself and can take up a huge amount of your time. To ensure that you don’t allow emails to take over your workday, it’s important to put strategies in place to manage your electronic communications more efficiently. Reducing the volume of your emails is an important first step, which can often be achieved by simply unsubscribing from mailing lists. You should also aim to write shorter, more efficient emails and remove the “fluff” to reduce the time you spend on this task.
Prioritise Tasks
When you have a long list of tasks in front of you and limited time, you need to learn how to prioritise what needs to be done first. We can all be guilty of choosing to do the tasks that we enjoy first and leaving those that we don’t like to spend time on until later. While this might make your day a little more bearable, the reality is you are not going to get any further through your to-do list with this approach. In fact, if you focus solely on doing the jobs that you enjoy, those important tasks that you find more difficult but that are necessary to move your business forward might never get done.
Hire The Right Team
Your team is the beating heart of your business and without them, you can be sure that your business would not function as well as it does. Having a team in place that are well-trained and highly skilled will give you the confidence to delegate more tasks to your employees, freeing up more of your own time. What’s more, when you have a team that you can trust and that you know are capable, you can leave them to work under their own initiative, which means you don’t have to spend time checking on them or monitoring their progress. As a business owner with a constant list of jobs to do and limited time, having the right team in place can be a game-changer when it comes to managing your precious time more effectively.
Take Control Of Your Busy Schedule Moving Forward
Time is one of the most precious commodities that anyone has. However, for busy business owners, time is even more precious and you need to ensure that you use every hour of the day as efficiently as possible. Following the tips outlined above, you can quickly free up more time in your schedule to spend working on the areas of your business where your skills are most valuable. With more free time, you can also strike a better work/life balance which will allow you to have more energy and enthusiasm when you’re at work, benefitting your company in the long run.
