As a small business owner working with clients on different international time zones can be exhausting. You probably already know how it can take over your life. You have to work hard for long hours and make sacrifices, such as family time. It does not have to be like this though. Introduce some time management into your business, and delegate some of the tasks involved with other people.
Start by making a list of all the tasks you have to do. As well as dealing with your customers, there are suppliers to be dealt with too. Then there is your bookkeeping, accounts, website maintenance, social media, salaries and so many other things you are responsible for. Be ruthless over this and see how many of these jobs you could delegate or outsource to other people. Payroll outsourcing is an excellent place to start, as this can be a very complicated matter to deal with.
Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping and accounts, social media marketing and maintaining your website can all be very time-consuming, and you would have a lot more free time if you did not have to do them. Outsourcing takes away much of the worry over these matters too, as whoever is handling them for you will make sure they are done as and when they should be, while at the same time keeping them within the law for you.
Identify Where You Waste Time
Keep a log of everything you do for a couple of days, and how long you spend on each thing. Then sit back and look at them to identify if any of them are a waste of your time. For instance, do you spend hours answering emails when a member of your staff could deal with most of them? Are you are the phone for too long, or are meetings taking up too much time. Look at your list critically and cut back on any things that are not productive. Research has shown that the more productive a boss is, the more productive the workers are too, and that has to be an essential factor when you are getting rid of jobs that are a waste of your valuable time.
What Is The Most Productive?
It seems that 80% of results will come from the most effective use of 20% of your time. Go back to the list you made and reassess it. Look to see what things you do are the most productive and concentrate on those. This can be one of the most effective time management strategies, so have a clear idea of where your time can be used most usefully.
Log On And Log Off
You need to treat your company as you would a job. Regardless of which international time zones your clients are on, you should have a set time for starting and for finishing. As with any job, there will be exceptions when a bit extra time is needed, but as much as possible you should try to stick to your allotted hours. You have to have some time constraints in place, or the rest of your life will take second place, and if you have a family, you should not let that happen.
Outsourcing Your Content
If you are feeling as though you are drowning in the amount of work your small business requires, you might like to think about outsourcing some of your social media, blogs, web copy to an affordable copywriting service. Collaboration.