Small business owners often have no option but to do everything themselves and this means working long hours.
Take a look at these five easy ways you can save time, increase productivity and reduce your stress levels!
Plan
Set aside some time to plan the week ahead. Research shows that setting aside 1 hour per week to plan ahead can save you up to 10 hours of doing! Planning your schedule helps you prioritise, manage goals and client expectations as well as reducing stress. When planning your week ahead some suggestions to consider are;
- Prioritise.
- Set realistic deadlines.
- Focus on your goals and objectives.
- Stick to your schedule.
Meetings
Meetings can often be time consuming and sometimes held out of habit rather than necessity. Make sure the meetings you attend are of value to your business and meaningful. Don't be afraid to say NO if you feel your time is better spent doing something else.
Technology can really help you save valuable time these days and there are many apps available to help you schedule meetings and events in your diary. Apps such as
Calendly can help reduce back and forth emails and allow your customers to book time in your diary at allocated slots. Google Hangout and Skype are a great alternative to face to face meetings, cutting out valuable travel time and expenses.
Social Media
Make sure your Social Media updates complement your marketing strategy and schedule regular updates to keep in contact with your customers. By using social dashboards like
Hootsuite or SproutSocial you can save time managing all of your social media marketing efforts from a single dashboard.
Top Tip: Many people struggle with Social Media content. Don't reinvent the wheel, use content from your website and a clear call to action with every update.
Getting Paid
Setting up direct debits, filling in paperwork and calling customers for bank details can be a pain the neck and very time consuming. Try using an online payment service like
GoCardless so you can take online payments from your customers. This automated payment collection service will help you get paid on time as well as reducing time chasing payments or bad debt!
Invoicing
Have you ever delivered a project to a client and told them you'll invoice them once you're back in the office? Many small business owners aren't aware that there are cloud accounting apps available to them that allows them to invoice from their smartphone or tablet as well as taking payment on to go too! Cloud based accounting software like Xero and
QuickBooks can give you the flexibility to invoice on the go. Getting an invoice to your clients sooner can get you paid quicker and increase cash flow! What's not to like about that?
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