Sole Traders have the toughest time of all those in business, as a sole trader you must show up every day come rain or shine, provide customer service, do the accounts, work on new products and services as well as get the sales in and try to find some time for the family.
Things can get hectic and feel overwhelming to say the least.
We all have the same amount time but its what we all do with that time that makes the difference.
Here at Admin Made Easy Ltd we understand this and have put together some helpful tips to make your lives a little less stressful:
1. Plan and Prioritise
First on the list is plan and prioritise. Many of us are not as good at this as we like to think. We end up spending too much time on unimportant tasks when really, we need to be focusing on getting new customers or clients and keeping those we have already happy. Try to spend at least one hour each morning on tasks that help with this such as answering their emails or calls and looking at the company figures to see where your focus needs to be.
Keep a to do list and put on the list the tasks that need to be done in order importance and whether these are weekly, monthly or yearly tasks. Your weekly tasks need to be the priority so start working on those first
2. Use a diary
Use a diary whether it’s an electronic one or a good old-fashioned paper one, either will do as long as you get into the habit of using it and stop relying on your memory to remember everything you must do. Diarise all the important tasks that need to be done and schedule or write yourself reminders before the deadline date to make sure you have the time to complete the task and its done before the deadline, this is particularly important for those monthly or yearly tasks as these are the ones that tend to get pushed back and forgotten about.
3. Learn to say no
None of us like to say no especially to customers, you don’t want to disappoint them and let’s face it some of us really struggle with saying no, we just don’t want the potential confrontation or feeling like we have let someone down.
The problem we have in saying yes to anything and everything is that we end up over committing ourselves and letting customers down in the end. Saying yes to everything means saying no to lot of other things.
Again having a diary is a good way to assist with saying no, you can check what tasks or appointments you have right there in front of you, if you don’t have your diary to hand get into the habit to saying you have to check your diary first, this will give you time to see whether you can fit in what you are trying to achieve.
4. Schedule notifications
We now live in an age of instant receipt and response, by this I mean texting, emails, social media. As soon as we receive an email or text or notification, we instantly feel compelled to respond and waste valuable time in doing so. Most of these notifications however do not need an instant reply. Start limiting yourself to checking your emails, texts and notifications just 3 times a day morning, noon and mid-afternoon. This way no response will ever be waiting for longer than a few hours and you can then focus your attention on the important things you need to be doing without constant interruptions.
5. Outsourcing
Finally, the most valuable thing you can do of all to save you time is outsource, you can pretty much outsource anything these days for very little cost, from outsourcing bookkeeping, social media assistance, copywriting, assistance with general administrative tasks, managing diaries and customer service, the list is endless.
If you follow all the tips above you should soon find yourself having free time again whether you spend that with the family or just for yourself, which is just as important as running a business, in fact the happier and less stressed you are the more profitable and productive your business will be.
If you need help managing your time more effectively get in touch with us here at Admin Made Easy Ltd, the admin team you can afford but cannot afford to be without.
