Four tips to make the most of your time as a business owner

Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.

There are many valuable assets in any business – but time is one of the most vital. All business owners know the feeling of wishing that they could turn the clocks back or add another hour to their day. Rather than wishing for more hours, here are four tips to make the most of the time you do have, 

1. Automate: There are plenty of processes in your business which do not actually need to be performed in the way they are. A lot of business owners fall into the trap of trying to be in charge of everything at once. However, this is an unrealistic approach to have and ultimately it causes you to waste more time. One of the most powerful solutions here is to automate many of your processes. You might be surprised at just how many can easily be automated. You may also be surprised at how effective this solution can be. 
2. Outsource: All business owners know about outsourcing as a viable option. Yet, relatively few do it in the early days of having a business. This can be because they are being too precious about their business. This is easily done, but if you want things to progress, you need to let go of that approach. Similarly to automation, outsourcing can be a great option for anything which you don’t absolutely need to do yourself. If you start to look, you will notice that this means you can outsource a great deal. For example, using an Outsourced IT Provider can prove to be particularly helpful, as can outsourcing your accounting.
3. Simplify: A useful rule of thumb in business is that simpler is often easier. The more basic and bare-bones your operations are, the easier they are. If your business starts to clog up time again, then it might be worth simplifying the processes to the bare minimum. This can be a great test of a business’ strength if nothing else. If you are afraid to do this, consider taking the gradual reduction approach. In this way, you should find that your business can survive with much less than you thought. What’s more, it should free up a great deal of time fast.
4. Hire The Best: Ultimately, if you’ve grown beyond a solopreneurship,  it is the people working for you who determine how well the time is used. Be sure only to hire passionate hard-workers and you will find that time is used much more logically. If you don’t want to take any of the other steps, hiring someone even part-time is always a possible way of freeing up time.