Going paperless and keeping your documents professional and protected is a business must! By saving files to PDF, you can share sensitive information with clients in password protected documents. PDFs also allow you to share images and hyperlinks to display business concepts, ideas and strategies. They’re especially useful because they use less data, can compress large files to smaller sizes, and allow you to sign and share the most critical documents electronically. No printing out and scanning back is required!

A social media footprint for your business is as important as having something to ‘sell’ – but setting up that footprint can make you drag your heels, especially if it’s not your thing. If you can’t afford to retain a professional social media expert (and no, your teenage son/daughter isn’t it!) making regular posts will require investing in a good scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Buffer. This way, you can stay active and consistent on social media without sacrificing time from your workday. Plan and schedule your posts in advance to maintain a consistent online presence. It also helps to market your small business on digital platforms such as Yep! South Africa’s digital marketplace that provides a scalable solution to help grow your business and its local reach.

When you’re at the helm of your own business, especially in the early days, you tend to have to do everything and do it all at once. That’s impossible! So you’ll need to make a habit of scheduling and prioritising your time. By creating manageable systems to help you run your business processes, you can stay in focus and on top of those critical tasks that bring in the bucks.

Using these time-saving tips could make a real-life difference to how your small business runs. They’ll also help you gain some work-life balance and take the ‘ugh’ out of getting through your day. Who knows, ‘tycoon’ may actually be in your job description sooner than you think.