Time Management for Small Business Owners

As a business owner, you might have days when projects keep piling up before you can complete them. Other days, you're burdened with too much free time. You can't predict the future and plan for every possibility. Still, time management strategies for small business owners help you stay busy, keep your projects on track, and quickly recover from setbacks.

Get Started Right Away

Businesses can lose days of valuable time to procrastination. When you receive a project, start planning right away. Staying ahead of schedule gives you extra time if you experience a setback. You'll also have more opportunities to review, inspect, and polish your project before delivering it to the client.

If the project looks overwhelming, try breaking it into simple steps with their deadlines. Once you achieve each goal, you'll experience a sense of satisfaction, making it easier to keep pushing forward. Don't stop working if you're a few weeks ahead of schedule. It's better to complete the project early than forget about it and scramble at the last minute.

Delegate Tasks

If you're a perfectionist, trying to do everything yourself is tempting. However, everyone has strengths and weaknesses. When you struggle with a particular task, you could save time by delegating it to an employee. They'll complete the task more efficiently, and you can focus on projects that reward your strengths.

Sometimes, business owners take on projects that aren't their responsibility. If you're busy with menial tasks, the company might miss out on your high-level expertise. You can hire others to answer phone calls, send emails, clean the office, manage payroll, and take care of taxes while focusing on your leadership role.

Remember the 80/20 Rule

According to the 80/20 rule, 80% of your results come from 20% of your processes. This doesn't mean that the rest of your efforts are useless or that you should shrink your workforce to a skeleton crew. However, it could help you narrow your focus to your most effective policies and eliminate extra steps.

For example, when you review your social media profiles, you might find that you have thousands of followers on one platform and struggle to find an audience on another. When you study the second platform, you may learn it doesn't appeal to your core demographic. As a result, you'll stop wasting time on this site and focus on the profiles that reach the largest audience.

This also applies to your workflow. Your business may have unnecessary steps, tasks, or purchases that take up time without enhancing your profits. Try reviewing your workflow and looking for redundancies, then streamlining the process as much as possible. This will save time and make your coworkers' jobs a lot easier.

Time management even applies to your clients. Browse your website and look for issues, such as extra clicks, empty pages, and slow loading times, that make it harder to place an order. Customers have less time to change their minds when it's fast and easy to purchase.

Invest in Technology

Technology makes it easier than ever for small business owners to utilize time management strategies. Many programs can automate basic tasks, such as gathering documents, tracking expenses, approving requests, and adding dates to your calendar. This frees up hours for your coworkers without replacing their jobs.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can automate tasks such as drafting emails, generating images, creating graphs, and brainstorming ideas. You can find dozens of free or affordable AI tools online, and some integrate with software that you're already using. However, AI can make errors, so avoid relying on it too heavily. A human employee should review your work before you move to the next step.

For payroll, look into time tracking apps that allow employees to clock in, log their hours, request time off, and more. These apps track your employees' hours to reduce the payroll manager's workload, allowing them to focus on other goals. Plus, the added convenience gives your workers more flexibility.

While at it, check out project planning tools that condense your plans, documents, and conversations into one dashboard. These tools give you a place to view graphs, track your progress, send announcements, distribute tasks, and check in with employees, which makes project planning a breeze.

Stay Focused

Technology is a useful tool, but it can also become a distraction if you're not careful. Some businesses jump on the latest advancements, thinking they've found a goldmine, only to see a loss on their investment when the technology fails. When considering upgrading your workflow, look for trustworthy, reliable products with a history of proven results. Otherwise, you could waste employees' time with unnecessary changes and training courses.

Likewise, keep an eye out for other distractions that lower your productivity. Social media is a significant distraction that could easily burn up an hour or two. If you must use your phone for work, try deleting your social media apps or logging out before you clock in.

Build a Content Calendar

Time management is essential for social media. Your followers expect a steady stream of high-quality content, and if you stop posting for a few weeks, they might wonder if you went out of business. A content calendar helps you plan, distribute tasks, and post about once or twice daily to build a steady following.

You can use software, a digital calendar, or a traditional print calendar. Once you've found your template, you'll schedule daily content. For example, Monday could look like this:

• 10 A.M.: Instagram post announcing our Memorial Day sale
• Content type: Image with caption
• Assigned to: Shelly Davis

Start your calendar at least a month ahead of time to give yourself plenty of time to produce high-quality content. If you stick to dry advertisements, you probably won't find an audience. However, a combination of videos, infographics, photos, blog posts, questions, and live streams could lead to an impressive following.

Cultivate a Positive Work Environment

Surprisingly, your work environment is just as crucial as your calendar. You could have a clear, cohesive schedule with strict deadlines and achievable goals, but if your employees are stressed and overworked, they might turn in subpar content after the deadline. A positive atmosphere is the key to running a productive business.

To start, avoid micromanaging your employees. If you can trust them with a project, they probably don't need a supervisor hovering over their shoulder and directing every move. Giving them freedom shows that you trust their judgment, boosting their morale. They'll also enjoy coming to the office daily when they can relax and complete projects on their terms.

When you set expectations, avoid holding your employees to impossible standards. Demanding perfection might temporarily increase productivity, but eventually, your coworkers will suffer from burnout. People might drop out during the project, forcing you to hire new employees and push back your deadlines.

Additionally, give your coworkers opportunities to take breaks, review their progress, and plan their next steps. Make sure you celebrate their achievements and encourage them to reach their goals. This will help them learn from their journey instead of obsessively racing toward the final product.

Set Boundaries

Sometimes, working overtime is inevitable. However, if you find yourself working long hours all the time, you probably need to set boundaries. Longer hours don't necessarily mean better time management. You're probably headed toward burnout, which could force you to step back and adjust your business strategy.

Set your work hours, and stick to them as much as possible. This can strengthen your time management skills by encouraging you to schedule tasks within a specific timeframe. You'll also avoid burnout and feel refreshed instead of stressed when you return to work every morning. When you're not on the clock, ensure employees and clients know you're not available for work-related calls.

Limit Multitasking

Multitasking might seem like an efficient way to get more done, but when you're trying to juggle multiple projects at once, the quality of your work might suffer. Try setting aside time for each project and focusing on the tasks one at a time. This helps you produce your best efforts and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Choose Meetings Carefully

You've probably heard the phrase, "This meeting could have been an email." Meetings take up a lot of time because they require your entire team to stop what they're doing, walk to the meeting room, wait for it to start, and sit for an hour or two. While they provide an excellent opportunity to speak to coworkers face-to-face, they could also slow down productivity.

Before you schedule a meeting, ask yourself if you genuinely need to speak with everyone in person or if an email will do the job. When meetings are unavoidable, ensure you arrive on time and offer a clean presentation with no filler. Invite only the essential employees, and let the rest of your team keep working.

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With new technology on the horizon, time management strategies for small business owners are constantly changing. Subscribe to our newsletter for business growth and stay on top of the latest updates. You'll also get tips and advice from small business experts that help you succeed.

For more information, schedule a 15-minute discovery call with E-Marketing Associates. We'll discuss your current situation, products, and services that could drive conversions, increase web traffic, and multiply your profits.