Choosing to create and run remote business is an adventure, but is time-consuming. If you’re hoping to travel and enjoy more of your day, you need to figure out how to make more time to build remote business to create the lifestyle you want. Ready to dive in? Here are some ways to free up more time.
Pick the Right Remote Business
Not all remote business offer the income, flexibility, and lifestyle you want. For example, high-level consulting can be a win if you’re only committed a few days a week. However, it could also mean your clients expect ongoing attention and service. A copywriting business can also offer flexibility, but comes with deadlines and meetings to develop projects.
What about an ecommerce business? It could tie you down to inventory and fulfillment needs, or you can use a drop shipping, white-label method. Using a fulfillment center or print-on-demand service takes the inventory, production, and shipping out of your hands so you can focus on enjoy your life while running a remote business.
Outsource
Just like dropshipping or print-on-demand, outsourcing time-consuming tasks in your business frees up tons of time. Chart out your day or turn on a time tracker like Toggle to see where you spend the most time in your day. Tasks including:
- Email management
- Customer service
- Blogging
- Social media content creation
- Bookkeeping
- Inventory research
- Website design and maintenance
All of these tasks can easily be outsourced and reduce the time it takes to scale your remote business. Digital Nomad Designs designs and develops Shopify and WordPress sites with a focus on the user experience.
Remember other tasks in your daily life can be outsourced as well. Instead of spending time grocery shopping or cleaning, you can hire someone to do it for you, even when you’re on the road. When you let someone else help you in your business and home life, you get to take your hands off of your business and connect with your travels.
Use a Project Management System
Whether you outsource and build a team or work as a solopreneur, project management systems are essentials. Tools like Monday.com, Trello, and Airtable all help keep track of tasks and deadlines. You can assign tasks or keep tabs on what you need to do next. When you can clearly see what you need to do in your remote business, you can focus on getting as much as possible done without guessing what’s next.
Streamline Your Systems and Processes
Your remote business needs systems and processes to succeed and free up more time. If you’re new to business building, sit down and look at the tasks you do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Create a system for everything you can, including:
- Responding to customer emails
- Creating new product descriptions
- Consolidating your inventory receipts
- Sending customer follow-ups
- Writing and deploying an email campaign
Once you have systems in place, you’ll spend less time playing everything by ear. It’a also easier to outsource when you have a process for everything in your remote business.
Batch Your Work
You’ve probably already noticed you work more productively with less distractions and multi-tasking. Research shows that you can improve your focus by 98% when focusing on a single task. When you multitask al day, it could take 50% longer to complete your projects.
Make a commitment to focus on a single task or project by batching your work. Schedule your ecommerce inventory updates and product descriptions for one day or the afternoon. Chart out a different time to batch together time spent on social media or following-up with customers.
Focus on Revenue-Generating Tasks
At the end of the day, a business that doesn’t sustain or make money is a hobby. If you want to build a remote business with limited time, it’s essential to hyper-focus on revenue-generating tasks. Setting aside a little time for social media updates is fine, but committing days to growing your audience when it doesn’t convert to sales isn’t productive.
Instead, identify which tasks lead to sales and growth. It could be hosting a webinar that leads to a sales pitch, an email marketing campaign for an upcoming launch, or creating YouTube tutorials about how to use your products.
Embrace Slow Travel
Making more time in your business also means slowing down. Instead of squeezing out all the productivity you can as fast as possible, think about slow travel. Spend weeks or months in a new destination and really get to know the area. You’ll have plenty of time to see and experience your new home away from home while building your remote business.
