6 Time Management Tips for New Entrepreneurs

Aug 29

Just six years ago, I set out on a mission to start an online business. I started my business with the simple goal: to stay home with my son. I had just given birth to my son, and I decided I didn't want to go back to work.

This was a shock to my husband and me because I always imagined I would be working up the corporate ladder and working a typical nine to five.

But if you are a mother or a caretaker, something just changes. I suddenly had this desire to start my business.

I was still working my nine to five so I had to be super strategic with my time. Luckily. I'm addicted to time management and productivity hacks. And as a Virgo, I think it's pretty natural that is just how I normally structure my time.

So as I started to build my business and find these time management hacks, I shared them with my community.

I shared them with my audience and they served them at a high level, but I found that so many of them started to ask about those early days.

The reality is that starting your business requires a lot of dedication and discipline, and some of the hacks I used then are different than now.

STARTING AN ONLINE BUSINESS

When I was starting my business, I really wanted to be able to replace my corporate income. We were going down to one salary as a family so I was very determined to make those strategic choices.

You really have to have an honest conversation with yourself when you’re starting a business.

How badly do you want it? One of the things that I was constantly reminding myself of was the life that I was creating and the reason that we were doing this.

I wanted to start my business because in the beginning I just wanted to be home with my son. I was having that new mommy love.

But the reality of it was my husband and I had always dreamed of traveling the world. We were living off of a decent salary, but I was in nonprofit - not the wealthiest of areas.

I loved the work that I did, and we had all these dreams about buying property, traveling, all of the things that have been in the works for six years now. So when I was making the decisions to spend money on my business and not on my fashion or get my nails done or things like that, when I was making the decision to not watch Netflix so I could write emails, when I was waking up early, when I was making these choices, not sacrifices, choices, I always kept the vision of the life that I was creating in my mind.

And I still do that today, even when I'm going through these periods of life, when business is demanding more from me, I'm always thinking about the life that I'm creating for myself and my family.

So please know that these tips and these tricks are definitely going to help you structure your day, really focus on the things that are gonna move the needle forward, and optimize your time at the highest level.

But it really comes down to you making a choice that this is what you want, dedicating your time and energy to it, and making it a priority.

We always say that you have this much time in a day, we all have the same amount of time. And one thing that I've realized is that when we prioritize the things that we really want to do during this season, somehow we are able to create more time around us.

It's absolutely magical. When we sit down and really audit all the things that we're doing, we remove the things that aren't contributing to where we wanna be, or what we need in this season. Magic happens.

So please, if you haven't already, take the time to dedicate yourself to growing your business.

These are some of my top tips for you if you are just getting started in your business or consider yourself a new entrepreneur.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #1: OPTIMIZE YOUR TIME

Most likely if you are just getting started, you're juggling a lot of different things. When I was starting, I was working a nine-to-five job and I had a new baby.

So I was also navigating motherhood and trying to build a business on the side. Many of my clients are working full-time jobs, caretakers, working part-time jobs, or growing multiple companies.

What I always recommend to them is to optimize the time that you do have available.

For me, this looked like using my commute to work to listen to podcasts and to listen to audiobooks.

This was really helpful for me to get into a mindset, to learn new things, to ultimately increase the education that I had around branding and marketing specifically, that I could then implement in my business as I was getting started.

Then on the way home, I would use that time to actually record social media posts, notes for things that I was working on, and even emails.

My favorite hack was to use the voice recorder on my phone. Just set it down while I was driving and just freely talk. The quality of the recording didn’t really matter because I was going to transcribe it. But what it allowed me to do was use that hour time that I was commuting home with my sleeping baby in the back seat, to create content for my business.

I would also utilize the time when we would go for walks. Once I left my job, my son and I needed to get out of the house a lot. So we would take frequent walks to, and from the park near our home. Every time we were walking, I had my headset in and I was recording content. I would record blogs, emails, social media posts, all of those different things that I was using to promote my brand new business.

I would do those while I was doing other things in my life. It's my favorite hack and a great example of optimizing your time.

So what I want you to think about are those moments when you're commuting or you are on your way with the kiddos to the park, or maybe you're making dinner or you're washing your face before bed, can you use those little pockets of time to get those ideas in your head out and document it so you can then use them within your business.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #2: BULK SCHEDULING

You might have heard me talk about this before. If you've seen any of my videos on YouTube. I love to talk about bulk scheduling, especially as it relates to content creation because I think it's an incredibly powerful, overlooked tool for optimizing your time to create the most amount of content in a very short period.

But you can really do this with everything. I recommend that new entrepreneurs have one day a week where they create content. This is typically two to three hours a week, one specific sitting. For me, it was Sundays when I was working my nine to five. Once I left my nine to five, I switched that to Monday.

You’re sitting down, writing your content, recording your videos, or your podcast, getting it all scheduled for release for the week, and repurposing your content, if that's something that you're doing, all in that one period of time.

This allows you to then not worry about content the rest of the week, not worry about getting your social media post up every single day or posting your blog. You are completely done pretty early in the week.

Another thing is that you can bulk your client interactions.

If you are doing consulting, coaching, or anything, where you're doing a one-on-one call or group, calls with your audience, you want to try and schedule those on the same day every single week, and try to do as many as possible.

This was a lifesaver for me when I was working my nine to five, I would essentially work with my clients on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the evening. So those were the only two days that I did.

Once I left my nine to five and I had more availability during the week, but of course there was a baby on my hip, I was more focused on a specific day of the week that I knew my husband was going to be home and I would have that support.

So I did Wednesdays and Wednesdays were pretty much the only day that I allowed my clients to book times with me. If that wasn't available, I still did Tuesday evenings and I would alternate my weeks.

I would pretty much have five calls on a Wednesday, but then the next Wednesday I wasn't doing anything. I still do this in my business today.

I book my coaching days, my mentoring days, and my group calls for Brandmerry Academy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which leaves me Mondays and Fridays for really focusing on my business.

Another thing that you can bulk schedule is your admin time.

Think about the spreadsheets that you have to make, anything that you're tracking, looking at your numbers, your finances, anything like that. It's going to be really hard to do that and then jump into something creative.

You're going to waste more time trying to focus and switch your brain. Choose a specific day, which I like to call your CEO day, where you're focused on admin tasks, which include money, scheduling things, maybe contracts, invoices, all of that stuff. You'll find by actually creating specific days to focus on one area, you're able to get more done.

In addition, it really helps you schedule your time when you have a million things happening, not only in your business but also outside of your business.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #3: ASK FOR HELP

Look for opportunities where you can outsource, whether that's paid or just, via a family member or a friend, so that you can gain a few extra hours every week to work on your business.

Some of the things that my clients have used are grocery delivery. How much time do you spend driving to the grocery store, picking out all this stuff, and then coming back home? You could be using that time to write emails to your audience or market your business.

Another thing is having someone clean your home. How much time are you spending doing that on the weekend? You could be using it to grow your business and make money in your business.

Another thing is if it's accessible to you, you can also ask for help from friends and family. So if you are with a partner, how can they support you during the week and take some of the things that you are doing off of your plate so that you can dedicate that time to your business.

One of the things that I did is that one of my cousins had a new baby and was looking for support and I was home from my job. So I would take her daughter on Wednesdays and she and my son would play. And that was my primary focus. And then on Fridays, she would watch my son, which gave me a whole day on Friday to dive into my work.

Are there opportunities for you to do that as well? If you are a caretaker, if you have children, how can your community support you during this time?

One of the things that can be incredibly helpful is to do a time audit. So take one week and write down all of the different things that you were doing during that time and how long they are taking you.

This is a fantastic way to see right in front of you where your time and your energy is going and where you might be able to outsource.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #4: USE A TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

We really love ClickUp here at Brandmerry. It is literally, if it's not in ClickUp, it's not happening in our business. But I also use it for my personal life as well.

I so wish that someone would've told me early on to start using a task management system for all the things that I was doing at the beginning of my business. It would've saved me so much time just diving into work every day.

I only had these little pockets of time, which I'm sure you also have as well. So you wanna utilize that time to its full capacity.

You can just simplify the entire, “what should I be working on” process by starting to use a task management system. There are so many free options out there. ClickUp is our favorite. There's also Asana, Trello, or monday.com.

What you really want to focus on is getting every task that you have into the scheduler with a start date and an end date so you don't miss any of your deadlines.

You can also set up recurring tasks. If every month you need to do something in your business, get that set up so it reminds you. It's so easy to miss those individual pieces so having monthly, weekly, or even daily recurring tasks is fantastic.

I also have found that having a task management system really simplifies what I need to do every single day.

What I do is get on my computer first thing in the morning and in ClickUp, there’s a homepage where I can see everything that is due today or coming up next. So it really takes the mystery out of what I need to work on to grow my business.

A side note on that: Schedule every single thing. Every tiny task that you have to do, every big thing that you are doing in your business, whether that's a live video or a class or a challenge.

And I even recommend in your Google calendar or your iCal to schedule those individual pockets of time, you’re gonna be working on your business as well as all the other life things that you have going on.

It's just a fantastic way to remove the overwhelm every single day, because you can look at your schedule and know what your focus is during that moment.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #5: SCHEDULE TIME OFF

Remember in the beginning, when I talked about optimizing your time, that is essential, but you don't want to be working every single hour of every single day.

If you're working a nine to five, you're basically waking up, maybe thinking about your business, going to your nine to five, thinking about your business, coming home, taking care of life and diving into, yeah, your business and I totally get it.

You do want that dedication to getting things done and prioritizing, but I have found that even taking one day away from focusing on my business can actually help me creatively. Even though I’m off or taking a break, I get the best ideas. So I'll just jot 'em down and circle back to them.

So do yourself a favor and get into this routine of taking at least one full day off in your business.

Now, maybe that's Saturday or Sunday for you, which is pretty typical, or maybe it's a Wednesday. It literally doesn't matter, but schedule that inside of your calendar as well. And if you can keep it consistent every single week, that's really going to help you with your time management and your productivity.

This is something I recommend you continue to do as you grow your business as well.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #6: FOCUS ON ONE PROJECT AT A TIME

I know when you're starting your business, it can feel like you have a million different things that you need to do. Let's say for example, that you want to create your website because you've been following me long enough to know how important a website is. You want to implement that SEO, you want to have a blog, and you're really focused on those evergreen content strategies.

Give yourself a set period of time to work on your website.
Make it a priority, add it to your task management schedule, put a deadline on it, and even put the time that you're going to be working on that particular task into your calendar.

Allow yourself that focus time to get it done. This is going to allow you to get it done faster and in a more efficient way. Y

ou can absolutely get your website done in 30 days or less if you are fully focused. If you're not, you might do a little bit here and a little bit there. And before you know it, six months have passed and you still don't have a website.

I know that it's not 100% possible to focus on one thing and one thing only every 30 days. We have a lot of moving parts in our business. Marketing is definitely one of them. But if you can choose one to two days every single week, where that is your main focus, focusing on a specific project is going to allow you to get it done much faster.

And I have found that this focus is really important as you continue to scale your business.

The amount of things that you have to do doesn't necessarily go away. Even as you hire your team, you're going to think of new creative things to do in your business. So really focusing on one project or one offer, at least every 30 days can be one of the best ways to optimize your time.

I know that starting a business can be a lot of work. I have been there and like you, I was not just starting a business. I was juggling a lot of different things, expectations, and responsibilities at the same time.

I want you to know that it is possible, but there are going to be some things that you're going to have to adjust, and definitely making it a priority is going to save you a lot of time in the long run.

Inside my program, Brandmerry Academy, I provide a step-by-step roadmap of exactly what you need to do in order to grow your business.

It is a one-stop shop for branding, systems, and marketing that can support you to getting to six figures in your business. You can check it out brandmerryacademy.com.

P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class