Being an entrepreneur is never easy.
Although you may choose when to start work and what tasks to complete, chances are, by the end of the day, you’ll have done very little of what you intended to.
This is because you’ll have spent most of your time in the office dealing with unexpected situations and putting out fires.
This is common for business owners, but shouldn’t be the norm.
Here are 6 effective ways to prevent this to accomplish more during your business day.
1. Automate Any Repetitive Tasks
Non-core tasks that can be done quicker and easier by a computer should never be done by an employee. By automating these tasks, you take pressure off your valuable employees and give them more time to handle work that is of the highest importance.
There are a number of functions you could start to automate, including posting on social media and ordering supplies for the office.
TOOL TO TRY: SmarterQueue for social media automation.
2. Learn To Let Go
Despite what some people claim, no business is too big or small to start outsourcing. This is the best solution for tasks that need completing by a person, but don’t necessarily need to be handled by anyone in your business, like content creation and accounting.
By outsourcing these jobs, you cut down your company’s to-do list, but still receive the high-quality work you need.
TOOL TO TRY: FreshBooks for accounting automation.
3. Cut Down On Paperwork
Paperwork can pile up quickly in offices, making it difficult for you and employees to find the documents you need. To remedy this, you should move all of this paperwork onto the cloud instead.
For receipts, you can do this using a cheque scanner API. This clears away all of the unnecessary clutter in the office and allows you to find files and documents with ease.
TOOL TO TRY: MileIQ for an automated mileage and receipt tracker.
4. Look After Your Technology
When you plan to use technology to store work and even complete it for you, the last thing that you need is something breaking down.
For this reason, it’s important that you keep on top of maintenance schedules and have computers and other devices checked over regularly by professionals. This should keep everything running as it should and avoid costly repairs.
Additionally, keeping track of how you’re spending your time on technology is extremely important.
TOOL TO TRY: Strides app for goal and habit tracking.
5. Help Others Help Themselves
As the owner of your company, you probably have people coming to you for help a lot. While you may be okay with this, it can cost time that you can’t afford to lose.
Because of this, you should create an FAQ section on your website for your customers to look through when they have a problem. You can do something similar for your team too, just in an employee handbook instead.
Also, make sure you’re helping yourself by preventing site crashes, make sure you’re hosting your website on the best server.
TOOL TO TRY: BlueHost for the fastest site possible.
6. Plan Fewer Staff Meetings
Although you may want to keep employees updated on the goings on in your company, there is rarely a need to hold staff meetings every day. More often than not, very little gets accomplished in these meetings, causing you to waste time unnecessarily.
For this reason, you should consider sending out entire company emails instead and reducing meetings to once a week.
TOOL TO TRY: ConvertKit for the best mass email service provider.
To manage your time better and do more with your work days, follow the advice above to simplify your business and maximize your time!