7 ways to unlock time for your business

 

 

Business owners: do you feel you never have enough time in the day?

There are so many hours in the time. There’s a mountain of paperwork, fires to put out, and day-to-day operations. And that’s without actually working on your business and its growth!

Time poverty – as it’s nicknamed – can be caused by both internal and external pressures – from operational challenges and poor planning, to rising costs and skill shortages. On average, more than 30% of business owners with up to 20 employees are working up to 50+ hours per week! But skipping lunches and burning the midnight oil isn’t a sustainable fix.

After working with hundreds of businesses, our business advisors share 7 techniques that could help you unlock precious time for your business.

 

Ways to unlock more time as a business owner

 

1. Stop the telephone tag

All those ‘tag’ mins add up. On average, it takes 17 mins to coordinate and book a meeting. Even if you just have 8 meetings per week, that’s over 2 hours just trying to get who you need in a room or on a call.

Here, online booking tools are gaining popularity. It’s making meetings easy as well as increasing productivity. It’ll also make sure you’re not promising time you don’t have or that ‘quick chat’ doesn’t turn into hours.

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

Send a link and have clients book directly online. Adding a questionnaire into your booking process can also help you be prepared.

 

2. Delegate, Delegate

You’ve heard it before: delegation is key. And as much as we hate to sound like a broken record, it’s true. According to research, delegation could save you up to 6 – 8 hours per week. 

It also has non-time benefits, increasing team productivity, reducing stress, and enhancing team engagement levels. To set your team up for success, ensure your team has all the tools and support they need to be successful. This could be setting clear processes, setting up logins, or providing examples so they know what you expect.

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

The key to good delegation is matching tasks to the right person and their strengths as well as clearly communicating expectations.

 

3. Know your top money makers

Do you know what your highest dollar productive activities are?

This insight could be game changing, making sure you’re focusing on what is going to drive profit. You might be getting admin tasks ticked off or emails out, but is that making you money?

Money-making activities generally focus around sales and marketing – that is getting money in the door. But not all sales and marketing has the same weight. For example, instead of chasing multiple small jobs, focus on winning that one large project.

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

Start a time audit to understand where you’re spending your time. This is an exercise we often do as part of our business reviews, and is often a big eye opener for our clients.

 

4. The right people, in the right places

While delegation is a great start, it’s important to think long term. Can your existing team keep up with the extra work, or do you need someone in to support you and your team longer term?

For many business owners, hiring internally seems like the best option. Especially when you don’t have the right skills inhouse. But in 2025, there’s lots of flexible outsourcing options available. This could be hiring a virtual assistant, a project manager, or using virtual services such as a virtual CFO service.

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

A responsibility matrix or operational review can be a great way to understand business and people. If you’re not sure, we can step through this together.

 

5. Self-imposed deadlines

Procrastination is one of the biggest productivity killers for business owners. And without clear timelines, you run the risk of it never getting done.

By giving yourself deadlines, you’re keeping yourself accountable. Sharing these with your business advisor, coach or team also increases the chances of you keeping it. Giving yourself deadlines not only reduces procrastination but also improves productivity and your creativity. It also helps you prioritise tasks more efficiently.

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

It’s easy to move deadlines in your head if no one knows about them. Get them out of your head and into the real world, whether that be on a calendar, document or office whiteboard.

 

6. Get your team involved

You’ve built an amazing team. But are you working towards the same goals?

Sharing your business goals drives action and ensures you’re working towards the same outcomes. It also creates more engagement, better communication, and stronger collaboration — leading to faster progress and fewer daily fires to put out.

Add in clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and your business will be running more smoothly overall. You’ll also feel less inclined to ‘jump in’ when things aren’t done as everyone will know what to do when.

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

Start by creating plans and setting tasks to reach your goals together. Your team will also be more likely to step in and help if they know the bigger picture.

 

7. Don’t over engineer it

When you’re the expert, it can be easy to overcomplicate things. By simplifying processes and implementing automation tools, you’ll free up time to focus on more important tasks.

Documenting processes can be another time saver, creating efficiencies and reducing manual errors. By knowing it will be completed to the standard you need, you’ll also be more inclined to delegate it.

 

Our business advisor’s tips for applying:

Review your operations regularly and identify time-consuming tasks that are bogging down you and your team. This is something we do with our clients at least annually.

These 7 strategies can help you not only gain valuable time back in your time but also unlock the work-life balance you need to thrive as a business owner. To avoid overwhelm, we recommend focusing on one improvement at a time and define clear goals to get there.

Is the thought of reviewing your time filling you with dread? 

This is completely normal, and one of the reasons we developed our business improvement program. Working together, we’ll analyse what’s eating your time and create an action plan forward.