3 ways business owners should invest in themselves

As a business owner, especially when you’re just starting out you have to play many roles within your business. Whether that be admin, accounts, HR, marketing as well as trying to bring in revenue. More often than not, this means you will be investing the majority of your time into your business, leaving little time for yourself, family and friends. As you are building your own business you will probably be working harder than you ever have before.

Many businesses don’t make it past their first year, and this is due to the pressures and stress that business owners find themselves under, especially during that first year of business. Having to sacrifice quality time with loved ones and spending less time on hobbies and interests means that your whole world revolves around your business. This doesn’t just affect you, it affects others around you too and that’s when it becomes overwhelming when you get added pressure from those around you who are craving your previous time.

So how can you overcome this and try your best to get some kind of balance?

Plan your time more efficiently

Do you find that you move from task to task and don’t always get things completed? Plan out your time each week so you become more productive. Having an action plan will mean that you will accomplish more during the week and you will complete tasks more efficiently, freeing up time for you to get the right balance.

Create yourself a to do list. There is some great task management software out there to help you, such as Trello and Asana. They offer free plans so it doesn’t even have to cost you anything to use. Seeing your tasks mapped out in front of you will help you to achieve your goals for the week. Seeing your tasks get ticked off one by one so that you see your progression in front of you will keep you motivated, in turn making you much more productive.

Use automations

Most software nowadays has various ways of creating automations through integration. Take the time to review the automations available to you within the software platforms you use. You may think that researching your software isn't a valuable use of your time, but you will be surprised at how much time you will save once you have your automations in place. If your software doesn’t have the capability to integrate with the software you need it to, check out Zapier. It can pretty much do most things, why not give it a go and free up some time for yourself?

Delegate

You may not have the financial capacity to employ someone when first starting out in business, but there are other ways of getting some support. By outsourcing the jobs you don’t enjoy, or the jobs that eat up your time but don’t bring in the money, this will free up your time to invest into other areas of the business in order to generate more revenue or you can use this time to get that work life balance.

Do you find it difficult to make time to do your bookkeeping? This is one of the first things you can look to outsource. Bookkeeping is an important aspect of your business, it gives you an insight of funds readily available for your business and it can help to plan your future growth. However, the time you are investing into your bookkeeping isn’t generating you new income, so by outsourcing this, not only will it free up your time but a professional bookkeeper will highlight areas in which you need to invest or cut back spending.

Get in touch now to discuss the options available to you.