Do you have time suckers in your business?
Identify those time suckers to help future you
When you are in your business on the daily, it is hard to see ways to make things easier or more streamlined. It becomes about taking the orders, making the sweets, packing, emailing, on repeat.
Maybe you started your business for flexibility, life/work balance, or maybe it was purely for the love and you’ll figure out the other stuff later.
“Everyone can tell you the risk. An entrepreneur can see the reward.” - Robert Kiyosaki
Your reward is making your business work better for you and your life. That is part of the beauty of being an entrepreneur. The endless possibilities and ways to do things to make your business a success.
Here are 3 things that you can do right now to help the future you in your business:
Identify your top 3 business TIME SUCKERS - email responding? Taking orders? Prepping ingredients? Marketing? Selling? etc.
Now put those TIME SUCKERS into categories and break them down into a step by step process. Write it out and explain it like you were talking to a friend who had no idea what you do in your business. Don’t skip this step - it is valuable information. When we write things down it allows our brains to focus on the task at hand and be present.
Now that you have broken down your TIME SUCKERS - it is evaluation time. Get really honest with yourself. Are there times of the day that these tasks are easiest for you? Are there certain days that make the most sense for these tasks? Do you really need to respond to emails at all times of the day? Go forth and time chunk those tasks.
Now that you have gone through the above steps you’re probably wondering now what? Now you identify what steps you can eliminate or adjust and then you break the task down into specific time chunks. Each of the TIME SUCKERS you identified need to be done in your business and as much as you would like to hire out for the ones you hate, perhaps you aren’t at that stage yet.
Let’s break down an example of what this could look like in your business.
Perhaps you have identified email as a huge TIME SUCK in your business. Email isn’t your favorite, but you know it has to be done. Start by setting up an auto reply to emails so people know it was received and don’t continue to harass you.
Things to include in your auto reply -
A quick thank you for them reaching out
An estimate on your return email
Links to info on your website about ordering or such
Sign up for your email list button - if you have one (you should - hint hint)
Best Regards or some other professional signature
After you have set this up, now pick a time of day or 3 days that you reply to emails and give it a time limit. Whatever feels most comfortable to you. Do not forget to start that timer - do not rely on your ability to know when the allotted time is up. If you are anything like me you think every task takes 30 minutes and when you look at the clock again 2 hours have passed.
The key here is to help you avoid doing this task everyday and not allow it to consume more time than it deserves. Yes customers are important in your business, but unless you time chunk it, you will spend endless time doing this task that isn’t always moving the needle in your business. Customers are getting acknowledged (thank you auto reply) and will be answered in a timely fashion. It also gives you a chance to look over their questions and price out things without feeling the pressure to just give them a number.
Perhaps you’re thinking nah, I can’t time chunk and breaking down my time suckers won’t help me. I’ve been there. Writing this blog post for instance - I set a timer on my writing day and time chunked it into manageable pieces so that I could get it all done. I took my allotted breaks and the time I spent on this post was 100% better than if I just sat and wrote until I was distracted or had to take a break.
Time chunking keeps you focused on a task and encourages more productivity in my experience. And remember little changes add up to big time savers in your business.
Feel ready to tackle those time suckers? Let’s gain you some time back in your day? Click the link below and get started!
Need help to break down your time suckers - that’s my jam. Let’s do it. Click the link below to get started.