How To Save Time And Stay Organised As A Small Business Owner
I’ve just launched a course on how to run your business more efficiently, and it’s a super quick course, so even if you are stuck finding time for things, you should hopefully be able to fit it in!
As a little bit of a taster, I thought I would just mention some of the things I do to save time and keep myself organised as I’m working throughout the week - some of these I may have mentioned in previous videos, but I don’t think I have said all of them before, or at least not in as much detail. So hopefully there will be something here that you will find useful!
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Schedule/’to do’ list
The first thing I can’t live without to keep me organised is a schedule/to do list.
Usually, on a Sunday evening, I will do a general plan of how I’m going to spend the week. Because I’m not doing vinyl orders every day now and I’ve got things like making these videos and designing, and trying to complete some home projects, I try to assign each day a general focus.
So maybe Monday will be an orders day, and then Tuesday I will have a design day, Wednesday a video filming day and so on…
I also have a weekly plan Trello board in which I put the plan for each day. I’ll give each one their general focus, and then add more tasks in there that I need to get done that day.
It might be the specific video I’m going to film, or just generally ‘make orders’ and ‘drop off at post office’. And if I have more general tasks that need doing that week like ‘doing a food shop’ or ‘putting pictures up’, or any appointments, or if I’m seeing friends or family, then I will put those in too. Then I know what I need to work around.
Obviously, as the week goes on these will get tweaked, but for me, I’ve tried loads of different ways of keeping a schedule and making lists and this is the one that works best for me. I just find Trello really easy to use, especially because I have other boards on which to put all of my video and course ideas, and other things for my business which I can just pull into my weekly plan when I need to.
Because I give every day a focus it means I’m not multitasking too much as well and I can get in a bit of a better state of flow.
Time Planning
I’ve very recently been trying out a Pomodoro timer to try and make myself concentrate for 25 minutes at a time, and then take a little break. It really is helping me focus on specific tasks without getting too distracted.
Also relating to planning my week, and to save time, I only go to the post office twice a week at the most, (although sometimes I will send things with my husband as well). I tend to make it a rule not to do any dropping off or letting customers pick things up from my house unless it’s a close friend or family member, in which case I’ll usually just give them it when I see them anyway.
I used to go to the post office every day which was actually okay as it was a 4-minute walk from my house (yes I timed it!) - but customers started to expect it. So whenever I wanted a day not making orders or didn’t have time to go out, I would get repeat buyers assuming I would be able to make and send something that day for them. So I soon learned to be a lot more strict with that and turn down last-minute things more often.
I also try to only answer customer messages at the beginning and the end of the day, rather than stopping and starting tasks.
In the beginning, I was really paranoid that if I didn’t answer a message straight away I would lose a customer, and that probably does happen sometimes if they message lots of different shops with the same question. But most of the time, if people want to buy something from you then they don’t mind waiting overnight or a few hours for a reply.
Just as answering messages like this, I find breaking tasks into their own chunks of time is a lot more effective for me. I’ve read so much stuff saying that it is so much more effective to focus on one thing at a time and succeed at that before you move on to the next thing. And whilst I’m not very good at doing that generally - I like to have multiple projects and goals that I’m working towards at the same time - I am getting a lot better at it when it comes to individual tasks and giving my attention to those.
There’s some kind of stat which I can’t find the exact number for, which suggests that if you focus on one thing you can give it 100% attention, but f you’re working on two things at the same time, you’re giving each one less than 50% attention because of the time it takes to switch between the two. Or something like that…
If you know what I’m talking about let me know, I can’t find it anywhere but I’ve definitely read it!
Refining supplies and designs
There are also a few things I try to spend as little time on as possible. Although it took me a little while to find exactly what I wanted to order, I buy the same type of vinyl, transfer tape and packaging and I only ever bulk buy, so the amount of time I spend ordering supplies is very minimal.
I also add a new line of designs, choose the fonts and then I don’t change them or look for new fonts again until I add another set of designs. So although I do have an unhealthy obsession with collecting fonts, I don’t spend much time searching for new ones until I have like a new design day.
I think just trying to keep things simple and not offer too many decal types and designs saves me a lot of time searching through my templates.
Learn how to say ‘No’!
I think learning how to say no to things is a big one when it comes to saving yourself time too, because there’s nothing worse than saying yes to something that you basically lose money on, and then resenting it as you’re making it.
Automation
I automate quite a few things but there is a lot more info about that in my new course, as well as a ton of other links, tips and ideas if you need a bit of a helping hand with saving time, becoming more efficient and managing your time better. So do check that out!
New Skillshare members can access my course free for one month!
And finally..
If I know it’s going to be a busy week of work I also try to be a bit more organised personally and think ahead. I either meal prep or buy in things that I can make quick meals with (or make my husband make all the meals for the week!) And I try not to schedule too many other things in that week either.
Let me know if you have any other good tips and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more videos like this.