10 tasks you spend too much time on which aren’t growing your business
Starting a business is never easy at the best of times. The odds are stacked against you so it takes good strategy, planning and dedication to make it work. In those precarious first few years, you have to put your heart and soul into the company, and very often you can’t afford to waste a single minute.
Which is why it is so frustrating when you have to spend time on the niggly but necessary little jobs just to keep things ticking along. Here’s our list of 10 jobs that you could really rather do without – the jobs that take up precious time when you should be focusing on growth.
- Maintenance
Painting and decorating, odd jobs, replacing light bulbs, all these little jobs you need to do to keep your workplace in good order all take up valuable time. Is it possible and cost efficient to employ a handy man? Or maybe you should look into serviced offices.
- Emails
Communication is the lifeblood of business but spending an hour or two each morning just wading through emails before work really starts east up productive time. Better filters and prioritising is the key.
- Taxes
They have to be done but you need a degree in accountancy to navigate the details of the HMRC tax system. So why not get someone with a degree in accountancy to do it for you?
- Accounts
For the same reasons as above, doing your own accounts can take hours or even days, when a pro could do it in no time for a small fee.
- Paperwork and admin
It’s estimated that 51% of small businesses spend more than a day a week just dealing with paperwork and admin. It’s also true that around half of all small business owners worry about admin – which eats up more valuable time.
- Quoting and invoicing
Quoting for new work and invoicing for jobs already completed is vital for any small business. However, it can take too much time writing up quotes from scratch and remembering exactly what it is you’re invoicing for. With quoting and invoicing software from Your Trade Base, you can significantly reduce the time spent doing it.
- Cleaning
Even small offices need cleaning and tidying, especially if they are customer facing. It’s all about creating good impressions. Paying a cleaner a few hours a week won’t break the bank and will free up some time to focus on the business.
- Endless meetings
It’s important to all be pulling in the right direction, which is why staff meetings are invaluable. But they do have a tendency to drag on. Restrict meetings to 30 minutes and have a strict agenda planned beforehand.
- Take a break
It’s all too easy to work through lunch, or grab a quick sandwich at your desk. It might seem like time saved but believe it or not, not taking the time to break is actually counterproductive. You need some time each day to let your mind refocus, you’ll be far more productive after a lunch hour.
- Over planning
As we mentioned at the start, it’s imperative that you plan well but it is possible to spend far too much time planning. If you’re spending hours each week creating templates, planning documents, and analysing information, then you’re not focusing your attention on growth. Learn when enough is enough. Sometime action is required.
By Dean Taylor
Back in 2010, Dean's building business was growing. He was doing great work, making people happy and enjoying being his own boss – but he was worn out. Not by the graft, but by the piles of paperwork taking up every evening. So, he got together with his cousin Adam, a web developer, and came up with a simple way to solve the problem – and help a whole load of other tradespeople too. They called it YourTradebase. Try it for yourself with a free 14 day trial. No strings. No credit card needed.
