How To Find The Time To Startup Your Next Business As A Serial Entrepreneur?

For a serial entrepreneur such as yourself, time is money, and time is your most valued property.

So, given your super-busy schedule, just how can you go about finding more of it to start up your next business? Listen to this episode of the Startup Streams Serial Entrepreneur Podcast to find out how…

As the saying goes, “You CAN do anything, but you SHOULDN’T do everything”. It is important to manage your time as best as possible as a serial entrepreneur. You know this, and we know this - that’s why our podcasts are small 5-7min long bitesize chunks of information, ready for you to action - not some lengthy 2 hour long interview you need to sift through to find the golden nuggets. 

Use the following tips and tricks, many of which I personally use, to make sure you control your time, and not allow your time to take control of you.

Set daily goals

Let’s begin with something simple. Set daily goals, write them down and make them known. Rumour has it that Elon Musk, the face of serial entrepreneurship, schedules his days into 5 minutes slots! Well, that’s how to do it! Doing this means you will stay laser-like focused throughout the day and not get side tracked.

You need to know what to do each day in advance. I personally write my weekly to-do list on Sunday after double checking my Google Calendar to make sure I know what to prioritise throughout the week. Writing them down means that you won’t forget anything and making them know keeps you accountable. 

Keep yourself accountable

Do you remember the golden days on Instagram, whereby everyone seemed to be posting images of their meals, 3 times a day? Although this did get boring and tedious for the most of us, I remember hearing from friends that this kept their diet in check - if they were posting what they were eating, they were less inclined to post pictures of junk food which kept them eating well. You can use the same social pressures to your advantage by letting those in your close circles know what you wish to accomplish this week. It keeps you accountable, and in turn more likely to be more productive.

Keep clean and tidy

Keep clean and tidy. This means keeping organised where you work. Keep your work space bright and fresh, with extra lamps if need be, and keep your desk space clear - no junk left on the desk. A friend of mine is a manager who works from home and has to make sure he removes his guitar from his workspace if it’s there, as he knows it’ll be winking at him the entire time he is at his desk. Make sure that you remove any obstacles which may affect your work flow. 

Automate, automate, automate

Next, automate as much as possible. Technology is your friend and being able to automate your tasks has never been easier. As a Shopify store owner, I have installed a web hook app to allow messages to be fired off the right people on my team so the right people get notified when a certain action is made on our website. This has saved us a bunch of time as we no longer need to manually check customer information as what we need is fired over to our email as soon as it is available - all automatically. How can you implement something similar for your business? 

How much can you outsource? 

Next tip, you may consider hiring a VA or finding a business partner. A VA, or virtual assistant, can be easily found on platforms like UpWork. A VA can help you with low-skill, time consuming tasks. I often use a VA I have found on Fiverr to help me with market research, scraping emails and to find social media account data. 

Yes, this does cost money, but weighing that against time saved, allows me to work on far more important aspects of my business, makes it so worth it. If you can’t hire a VA, why not try to find a business partner? I mentioned in our last podcast “How to create your co-founding team”, how to decide on the type of people you should pattern with. The benefit is that you are not paying anyone upfront to work on your business and offsets some of your burden; the downside being that you will be giving up equity instead. You need to weight up the pros and cons accordingly.

Make use of your daily commute

Make use of your commute. Did you know, that according to the TUC, the average Londoner spends just over 79 minutes a day commuting to and from work. 79 minutes! That’s an insane amount of time! But how many of London’s commuters properly make use of this time I wonder? This 10+ hours per week of travel time can equal time for learning skills, managing their business or indeed listening to this Serial Entrepreneur Podcast to learn how to start up and managed multiple businesses. Do you currently commute to your job? Can you truly say that you are making the most of your time?