In the very beginning, you probably took care of everything in your business. 
As your business starts to grow, you have an increasing workload.
How often do find yourself with a to-do list that you don’t ever reach the bottom of?
Many of us start our own business because we like the idea of the freedom and being our own boss.
We see flexibility to spend our time with family, taking time out to enjoy a hobby, the financial independence and calling the shots ourselves.
So, you had the original idea for your business, came up with the business name, planned out the finances, sorted out your branding and set up a website. You (hopefully) had written a business plan, done some advertising, and did a grand launch. Then congratulations you found your first customers, made that first sale of your product or service, and off you went.
But then there are only so many hours in a day, so much energy to give in a week. Your business started rolling and you gained more orders or bookings and some recommendations brought in some more enquiries.
So, you’re busy keeping up with estimates, working on current projects, and replying to suppliers. The email replies get later into the evenings – you’ve had a busy day doing the ‘doing’. You try and keep up with the paperwork, promise yourself you will religiously file receipts and enter the bookkeeping entries. The weekly accounting slips to monthly, you’ve missed a deadline for a payment date and you forgot to message back the connection who reached out to you.
Can an extra pair of hands behind the scenes alleviate some of the must-do tasks?
Don’t let standards drop.
The last thing you want to do is let your clients down. You pride yourself in providing great service, your clients chose you because of how and what you said you could provide. You want to keep your focus on the job at hand and continue giving your best to every customer.
Following up with potential clients takes time and providing the same level of attention to each and every new enquiry to build your customer base is paramount.
But, at the back of your mind is how much there is to do at the end of the day. The unanswered calls, and voicemails you should respond to. The emails in an overflowing Inbox, that you try and keep on top of, the calendar dates for appointments, meetings, industry events as well as Birthdays and the car’s service.
Despite your best effort, as you get busier things can start to slide and tasks may slip through the net.
Slave to the rhythm
You’re developing your business steadily and constantly, but with your focus on the work and the increasing time that you need to spend on the necessary paperwork and essential admin it’s becoming a juggle to fit everything in.
It’s not the best use of your time if you’re trying to do it all yourself.
How many of those mundane tasks are you taking on in your business that aren’t producing income?
Avoid becoming the bottleneck and slowing business growth down.
Use your time productively on the activities that bring the greatest impact on your business. If your marketing activities and lead generation grind to a halt because you’re too busy maybe now’s the time to bring in help.
Take a look at the everyday and repetitive tasks you do and work out what you can outsource.
What’s eating into your time, that you don’t need to be doing?
Are you working on tasks
- you don’t enjoy doing?
- someone else can do it better?
- that don’t create revenue?
Our delegation tips can be a starting point to work out what you can take off your to-do list.
A virtual assistant can take the day-to-day, tedious tasks off your plate. You may also find there are tasks that you don’t have the skills for – maybe it’s setting up new apps to use for project management, blog writing for your website, or the workings of the email marketing tool for your monthly newsletter.
So, if you would like a to-do list that you no longer have to cross off yourself, bring onboard another pair of hands.
We’d be happy to have a chat about how we can shorten your to-do list.