How to run a business? – free up more of your time

How to run a business and do more of what you want (and less of what you don’t!) 

When discovering how to run a business – one thing’s for sure…….it’s time-consuming.

No matter what type of business you own, your time will soon be maxed out by admin tasks such as invoicing, marketing and meeting new customers. You need to free up more time to run your business.

This lack of time impacts you in two ways. Firstly, you always have that feeling of not being able to get what you want done whilst at work and secondly, you have less time to do the things you enjoy outside of it.

So you are left feeling behind whilst at work and unfulfilled outside of it.

But how can you change that?

Automate Admin Tasks

All too often you’ll find yourself spending hours on important admin tasks such as bank reconciliations and invoicing. These are a drain on your time and don’t actually make your business any better.

However, the time these tasks take can be significantly reduced if you automate them. Better spreadsheets, accounting systems, uploads, and system integration can turn some of these time-consuming activities from hours into minutes with a simple click of a button.

Single Tasking can be better than Multi-Tasking!

You start doing one task, switch to another before remembering a third, moving on to that, and then going back to the first.

Sound familiar? You waste endless hours going backwards and forwards between tasks but doing none of them properly.

Research has shown that sticking to one task is not only more time-efficient but also improves the overall quality of your work. Rather than forcing your brain to split its attention in half, let it focus on the task at hand. Once you have completed that task well, you can move on to the next.

How to run a business – Planning

You have loads to do and it’s all kept inside your head. By Friday, you’ve realised you haven’t completed all your business tasks so you spend most of the weekend working to make up for it.

You need to plan ahead. Spending an hour at the end of each week planning the following week in advance will allow you to allocate enough time to ensure you get everything completed. This way, by the time you get to the end of the following week you’ll have a much greater chance of achieving all you wanted.

Then you will be able to take the weekend off work!

80/20

We’ve all heard of the 80/20 rule; that 80% of outputs come from 20% of the inputs (effort in your case). So, how does this work in practice? A great way to benefit from this is to look at the list of your tasks each day, choose three that are absolutely vital and make sure they get done, even if that means nothing else is. By the time you get to the end of the week, you can then be assured that the most important tasks will have been completed.

How to run a business – Email Discipline

Technology has completely changed the way we work, mostly for the good. However, it has also led to an interruption culture. For example we can be working away and then find ourselves distracted by an email notification appearing in the bottom right of the screen. These distractions reduce our efficiency and have a detrimental effect on the quality of the work we produce.

To alleviate this, allocate specific time slots in the day to go through your emails. During these times focus on reading and replying to emails, creating actions, and incorporating them into your plans. Outside of these slots, your email program should be shut down. Your day will then be email interruption-free so you can concentrate on the task in hand.

Being a business owner isn’t easy. You can end up working all hours whilst still finding yourself behind. This will have a negative effect on both your business as you’re unable to focus on what’s important and also your personal life as you have less time to spend with friends, family, and having fun.

Taking some of the above steps above on board could help you take back control of your life by freeing up more of your time.

Outsource your accounting tasks with THP Chartered Accountants

So to free up more time to run your business, why not get the ball rolling by automating some of your admin tasks?  Speak with a member of our team here at THP Chartered Accountants to discuss how we can help with your accounts and bookkeeping.  We have accountancy offices in Wanstead, Sutton, Chelmsford and Saffron Walden. Alternatively call us to discuss our cloud accounting solutions, and how they could benefit your business.