As a small business owner there are so many things that you have to do to keep your business running smoothly. At times it can feel overwhelming trying to keep all the plates spinning so that your business continues to grow. The problem is that if you over do it, you and your business will suffer and you will do more damage than good.
Here are a few ideas that I use to try and achieve as much as I can for the business without reaching burnout levels.
Business Automation
Automation is a small business owners best friend. Always look for ways to automate tasks so that you are spending less time on them. Here are a few of my favourite forms of automation, that save me a massive amount of time each week.
Social Media Scheduler
Social media is so important for business these days however it can feel that you are constantly online posting. This means you are spending far less time actually working on your products or services. Buffer or Hootsuite are fantastic at saving you time without losing any of the interaction that you are trying to build with your audience. These applications schedule your posts to post automatically at specified times.
I use them to plan two weeks’ worth of content that will then automatically populate my social media accounts. This takes about half an hour every two weeks and frees me up to do other things. Please have a look at my blog post on how to use Buffer https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/the-buffer-app-my-social-media-timesaver/
Many of the social media applications also have a schedule feature. This feature will let you dictate when posts should be made within the application.
Otter
I spend so much so much time sat typing on the laptop, until I found Otter. Any documents that I would normally sit and type I now create using Otter. Otter is an app that I use on my phone, I talk and the app types. It saves so much time. I can talk in a natural manner and the app will type up a blog post, email or online product description.
Depending on your business and how much time you spend typing in a week this can save so much time. It also means that you can extend the amount of time that you can actually be productive. I can talk whilst in the car, when cooking or walking the dog. This means that several typing jobs can be completed at these times where otherwise work could not be undertaken.
Obviously there is a bit of editing that will need to be done following app creating the document. Punctuation, spellings and the mistyping of certain words will all need to be edited. However compared to the time that you would spend typing up the document in the first place this still works out as a time saver. Have a look at otter here https://otter.ai/login
IFTTT
One of my favourite apps that I use across my business and home is IFTTT. This app can save time in a range of places as well providing much needed reminders in other areas.
This app looks through other applications like your calendar or Instagram for example. When something happens in one of these applications IFTTT will then do something as a result of it. It is a bit difficult to get your head around. However if you create an account and just scroll through the existing applets you will be amazed by some of the things it is capable of doing.
One of my favourite things that IFTTT does for me is create pins. It will pin to Pinterest from a calendar appointment that I have created in advance. This enables me to schedule a whole month worth of pins all at the same time and this will happen automatically.
At the same time using the RSS feeds my IFTTT account will automatically post on my social media accounts when a new product is listed online or a blog post is published. This automation saves so much time as it is done when I hit save on a post or product it is then publicised across all my accounts. Have a look at all the available applets on https://ifttt.com/discover
Self-care downtime
If you are constantly working, overtime you will become less productive. If you have regular breaks through the day you will actually become more productive in the time slots that you are working. In the same way by having a day off or switching off from work for the evening will result in a better work rate when you return to work.
Particularly if your business is creative based sometimes inspiration comes a lot easier following a rest. Inspiration or writers block can often be cured by having a rest and coming back when feeling refreshed.
At the same time working too hard can lead to health ailments. Being ill or not feeling 100% can actually harm your productivity. You can’t get any work done if you are ill in bed. Therefore it is important to take a break and take care of yourself. This will ensure that you are most capable of working being productive. Have a look at my blog post on self-care for some inspiration https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/when-i-am-not-crafting/
Bitesize pieces
If like me you are constantly editing products online or reviewing blog posts there is a never ending list of things for you to be doing. To give you an example I recently started listing my products on a new online shopping outlet. This required me to upload around 100 products onto this new site. The thought of doing this was somewhat overwhelming, however I came up with a plan.
I set myself a smaller target that enabled me to chip away at this mammoth task. I set myself a goal of listing 3 items every day. This meant that I was working towards having all the products listed without sitting for hours trying to do it all in one go. At the same time I could spend time on other projects.
I always think that at the end of the day you are more likely to make a sale if you have 3 products listed than none. A little progress is better than nothing.
In conclusion
Being a small business owner is hard. A lot of people don’t realise just how hard. You will often be working all hours trying to make a dent in your to do list. Try not to be too hard on yourself and remember that you are doing the best that you can. A little progress is better than none. There will always be things that you think you should be doing, however you can leave that for another day.
Let me know if there are any other tactics you use to try and not become overwhelmed by the never ending to do list that we inevitably have.
