Home > Leadership > Best Practices >
3 Essential Time-Saving Tips for Business Owners
By: Ryan Sorensen
Running a successful online business can allow for time flexibility and earning power, things which are hard to come by these days. But if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having quit your job with the soaring hopes of gaining back some freedom—just to create a business monster that consumes you for 12-15 hours a day—don’t lose hope. Here are a few small tips we recommend following that will help get your life back.
Hire Out Tasks
As much as it may hurt for some of you to read this, giving up control of parts of your business is the key to freeing up your time. As an entrepreneur, you should focus on what makes you the most money, i.e. niche hunting, negotiating better prices with suppliers, building new partnerships, optimizing on-page conversion rates, building an affiliate program, etc. There are thousands of capable and affordable article writers, web developers, traffic specialists, and copy writers who’d love to help you with everything else.
Inside Perspective: As web-based business brokers, one of the most common questions we see from buyers is, “How much time is spent by the owner maintaining the business?” More automation equals higher multiples when it’s time for an exit.
Work from a System
Breaking your business down into simple to follow steps within a replicable system is critical for the long term growth of your online business. Why? The simple answer is scalability. Once you get over the hump of creating your first successful business, you should now have a template for repetition that is built on manageable tasks. And if you haven’t been keeping a record of what you do, now is the time to start.
Don’t Think, Just Do
Be honest with yourself on this next question. How many times have you—when a seemingly insurmountable task is staring you down—stalled for an hour or more browsing the internet while arguing with yourself on doing it? If you are deeply striving for business success, please trust that the thing you are afraid of doing becomes comfortable as soon as you get over the initial hump. Here’s the trick: Don’t think about it, just do it. You’ll feel accomplished once it’s completed, which helps keep motivation and spirits high.
Also, don’t forget the power of Parkinson’s Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available to complete it. In other words, put a deadline on any important task that needs to get done. Just like the fun days of study cramming in college, with a deadline you somehow figured out how to finish it in the most efficient way possible.
Gaining the freedom of time and income should be a goal of every entrepreneur. Turn these tips into daily habits and you should see an improvement in both categories.
Published: July 22, 2013
3347 Views
3347 Views