6 Steps To Running Your Online Business In Just 20 Hours A Week
20 hours a week - How DO I do it?
I’ve been running my business since January 2020 and it took me about 6 months of building a business I didn’t love, to realise I needed to be smarter with my time. I had revenue goals but I also craved more time-freedom.
Some background information for context:
Before starting this business I worked a 22.5 hour week as a marketing manager for 2 years since returning from maternity leave. Prior to having my daughter I had always worked full-time (37.5 hours).
My goal for running my own business was to be able to walk my daughter to and from school every day without using out of school care and to take school holidays off work. We have 5 weeks off in the summer here!
Over the past three years, I’ve worked out how to protect my quality time with family whilst growing a successful business that brings in more money than my old job. This is huge for me because I only ever wanted to match my pro-rated salary and now I’m making more money than ever and I have more free time.
How have I done it?
In this blog I’m sharing the 6 steps I took to hit a 6-figure annual turnover working maximum 20 hours a week.
Step 1 to working a 20 hour week in your online business: WHY are you doing this?
Why did you start your business? What was the vision? It’s time to remember why and I bet you didn’t imagine working all hours of the day and night and making so many sacrifices.
Next, ask yourself WHY you want to work 20 hours a week.
What do you want to do with your free time when you’re not working? Why is this important to you? Write this down.
By setting a clear reason, you will be able to focus on that and use it as motivation to make the necessary changes and implement boundaries at work.
Here’s why I started my business:
I knew with 100% certainty that I would not be using a childminder or out of school clubs for my daughter when she started school. This was my key motivating factor to leave my secure job (without any savings) to start my own business.
Spending quality time with my young daughter is my guiding light and motivator to work smarter, not harder. I need this motivation because I LOVE to work and I will let work creep into family time if I’m not careful.
In the early days of Cheer Up Marketing, I ended up with zero childcare thanks to the pandemic closing down nursery. This was extremely stressful for me but I had to make it work.
Those early days of working early mornings and late nights while my daughter was sleeping helped me to become very efficient. Being even more restricted in how many hours I could do focussed work taught me a lot about what to prioritise and what to eliminate from my ‘to do’ list.
Get clear on WHY you want to work less. Come back to this vision daily to help you stay on track.
Step 2 to working a 20 hour week: Understand how you spend your time at work
As a marketing manager, I would track my time and the time my team spent on projects. I carried this habit over into my own business.
I use the free app Toggl to track my time and this data has helped me to understand the following:
What tasks to outsource in my business
Trends related to time spent on marketing/lead generation activities and revenue coming in
What type of client work has the highest ROI in terms of time spent
Which client projects are most profitable
If you don’t know where your time goes, you can’t streamline. I time track every moment spent working in or on my business and I recommend you do the same.
Use this data to get smart about projects you take on in your business. You can turn down work if you know from experience it will be a nightmare client or take too much time and effort to complete. This frees up time and energy for better paying clients.
Step 3 to working a 20 hour week: Outsource admin tasks
Within the first 6 months of running my own business, thanks to my time-tracking I could see that time spent on admin tasks was adding up every week to more than I was comfortable with.
Admin tasks are deceptive because they might only take a minute or two to complete. Therefore you may tell yourself that there’s no point outsourcing because you will have to explain how to do the task, so may as well do it yourself.
This is control freak behaviour and if you want to work fewer hours, you need to force yourself to delegate.
I hired a virtual assistant (VA) to work 2 hours a week for me in the very early days of my business and I’ll be honest, the financial commitment felt a lot to me at that time. I quickly saw the ROI on that investment as my brain and creativity were freed from repetitive admin tasks.
Here’s what I outsource to my VA to save time in my online business:
Managing my email inbox
Scheduling social media posts
Creating images for social media
Posting these blogs
Creating invoices and client contracts
Sending reminder emails to clients
Booking in Zoom appointments
Approving new members into my Facebook group
Sending my bio and photo to guest speaker requests
Plus anything else that comes up!
Outsource before you feel ready because this will free up your time for more money-making activities. It’s a chicken and egg scenario.
Next, I hired an accountant. I could see it was taking me hours to collate invoices and keep track of money coming in and out. I did one tax return and decided it was not worth my time or energy to do another one ever again! This is not my zone of genius
My accountant set me up with Xero and she keeps on top of everything and does my tax return for me. Such a relief and has saved hours of my time plus mental energy and stress.
Step 4 to working a 20 hour week: Accept you can’t do it all
My ‘to do’ list is massive. I have dozens of emails I will never get around to responding to. I’m a busy working mum, wife and friend with social commitments, school stuff to remember AND I love to read books, go to the gym plus I’m learning how to play guitar.
I will never have enough time to get everything done.
I have had to make peace with feeling uncomfortable about my neverending ‘to do’ list and all the balls I’ve dropped in business.
I suggest you also work on accepting that you can’t do it all.
It’s time to focus on the tasks that are moving you towards your revenue goals and ignore almost everything else.
Once you have some time-tracking data, you will start to understand where your time at work goes and where you are spending too much time. HINT: how long do you spend scrolling social media?
I spend roughly one third of my working week on my own marketing and I’ve seen that when I don’t market my business, I make less money. Therefore I prioritise marketing and lead generation over the tasks that don’t produce revenue.
I have never made more money by answering all my emails and social media direct messages.
At the end of every day, I still have a massive ‘to do’ list, but I remember WHY I’m choosing to close my laptop and finish work even when I’m not done. I am running this business to spend more time with my daughter and to have some time for myself.
Come back to WHY you are in business and let some balls drop, It’s fine.
Step 5 to working a 20 hour week: Control your calendar and use time-blocking
When you start your working day, you must know what you are doing as soon as you sit down to work. Do not start the day by opening your inbox and replying to emails. This will distract you from the activities that will grow your business and bring in revenue.
Every Sunday night, I sit down for 45 minutes and plan the week ahead. I know what client calls are coming up and what marketing content needs to be created. I put the time in my diary to get my marketing and client work done.
Guess what happens every Sunday night? I realise by looking at my diary that I don’t have time to do everything. This forces me to focus on the tasks that make a difference to my business.
This is how I approach time-blocking in my business:
I put in school holidays and block them out for zero client calls
I put in when I’m going to the gym and getting my nails done
I put in 45 minutes for lunch every day
I put in client calls
I block out time for client work - I operate in my zone of genius so this doesn’t take long to do a great job
I put in time for sales calls
I put in guest speaker slots, podcast interviews etc
I make sure there is time for content creation (blog, emails, social posts)
With a 20 hour week, my diary fills up quickly.
I work flexible hours so I will put in time for content creation of an evening or weekend so that I can fit in my gym time during school hours. This is important to me. I have plenty of time to be with my daughter when she is home from school and in the mornings before school.
Step 6 to working a 20 hour week: Take breaks and practice mindfulness
This one will feel counterintuitive because when you are rushing to get things done so that you can enjoy quality time with your loved ones or on your hobby, you won’t want to pause at work.
However, I have found that by taking regular breaks during my short working day, I get more done.
I take 45 minutes for lunch where I either go for a walk or read my book. I do not answer emails whilst eating my lunch because this makes me feel rushed and I’m less productive as a result.
I take mini meditation or mindfulness breaks where I sit or lie down on my office sofa to do a 5 minute meditation. I admit that I don’t always want to take time out to do this because I feel busy. But I now know that these mini breaks make me feel calmer and like I have more time in my day.
Rushing through your 20 hour work week won’t help you to get more done. By resting your mind, you will be more productive.
Conclusion - How To Implement a 20 Hour Week In Your Online Business
The 6 steps I’ve shared in this blog are:
Focus on WHY you started a business and what you want to do with your free time
Track your time
Outsource and delegate
Accept you can’t do it all - it’s time to make peace with your long ‘to do’ list
Control your calendar and use time-blocking
Take breaks and practice mindfulness
I’m aware this approach is different to many systems and methods touted by time management gurus. The responsibility lies with you to get clear on why you started your business and how you want your working life to look.
A big part of working fewer hours comes with accepting you can’t get everything done and this will feel uncomfortable. I still feel pressure to attack my ‘to do’ list and inbox every day, but I resist it. Instead, I focus on a small number of tasks that directly relate to making money in my business.
This has perhaps meant I haven’t scaled my business as fast as others, but I’ve read more books! I’ve visited friends and family. I’ve taken my daughter on day trips and I’ve been there for her during her first 2 years at school.
I’ve created a 6-figure business working 20 hours a week, largely on projects that I enjoy.
My definition of success is being a present parent and having the energy to keep myself fit and healthy. I’m a successful entrepreneur!
I hope this blog inspires you to look at why you are working so many hours and to make some changes to create more space in your mind and time freedom in your week.
Please comment to let me know which of the 6 steps you will implement first.