How can new businesses reduce inessential working hours?

For new business owners and self-employed workers, time management is crucial to achieving goals, but it’s often a challenge for many new to entrepreneurship. However, not using your working hours to improve business efficiency can impact work quality, business growth, and even mental health. As the New Tax Year begins, bringing financial goals front and centre, it presents the perfect opportunity to reassess business efficiency and work smarter so you can increase productivity, work satisfaction and long-term progression. In this blog, we’ll explore ways to improve business efficiency and how new business owners and self-employed workers can streamline business processes, delegate effectively, and free up time to focus on growth in the new financial year.

Why time is precious for business owners

The more time you put into a business, the more work you can generate and therefore, revenue. However, it’s not just the number of hours that influences business success, but also the quality of work conducted within that time.

After reviewing the past financial year, your goals will have likely changed, especially with tax changes like National Insurance contributions (NICs) increasing. To help accommodate these rising costs, you may need to reassess your workflow processes to maximise business efficiency and cut costs without limiting growth and quality. Additionally, there might be a greater focus on tasks that generate the most revenue.

Where business hours are often lost

There are many reasons why business owners end up mismanaging time, especially for those new to entrepreneurship and still finding their feet. Business efficiency is not always a skill that comes naturally, and often needs developing to allow for a better workflow.

Business owner burnout

An Intuit QuickBooks survey found that 19% of respondents worked 48 hours or more per week, while 7% admitted to taking zero days off in 2024. However, this type of lifestyle is not sustainable for most. Some might feel the pressure of being responsible for the business's success and take on too much. However, overcommitting to every opportunity can lead to burnout, putting you out of action for longer chunks of time if not addressed. You might not think adding a few extra tasks to your list here and there will make a difference, but it all adds up, prolonging your work hours. Multi-tasking is a common method for trying to increase productivity within a certain timeframe, but this often has the opposite result if you’re not giving sufficient focus to each task. 

Procrastination kills productivity

Without having a boss to answer to, some might find it hard to stay motivated, leading to procrastination. Others might avoid facing important tasks because of the pressure involved. As well as wasting time, reduced productivity can result in either missed deadlines or poor quality. This performance level can harm your professional relationships, reputation, and, as a result, your long-term growth. It can also impact your work satisfaction, increase anxiety, and create a poor work-life balance if you’re constantly trying to catch up on the time you missed. This mixture of emotions will only contribute to your tendency to procrastinate.

Lack of organisation

When busy, it may feel like there are not enough hours in the day to complete your duties, and organising your time might fall to the bottom of the priority list. Perhaps you’re waiting for a quiet period to get organised, but this time either doesn’t come or you’re too exhausted when it does. However, dedicating a small portion of time to managing your schedule can hugely influence your day-to-day practices and help to improve business efficiency.

You may assume you work better without restrictions of a schedule or organisation, but there are ways to manage your time while allowing for flexibility. 

How to increase business efficiency and save time this New Tax Year

Admin and organisation may not seem a priority when busy, but it’ll save you time in the long run. There are several ways to maximise your productivity and make the best use of your working hours.

Planning and forecasting

So that you know what to work towards, establish your long-term business goals and break them down into short-term milestones. Then, sort each task in order of importance and set realistic deadlines for every stage of the targets within an overall timeframe. Once you’ve identified the steps needed for each goal, produce weekly and daily to-do lists to help you stay on track and motivated. Reassess your progress monthly and/or quarterly and amend if needed. This can aid in implementing a manageable process efficiency improvement.

Delegate and outsource

Be honest with yourself about the workload you can realistically take on without letting the quality slip or becoming burned out. If your business hires employees, delegate the tasks you don’t need to oversee or that aren’t within your strengths and would actually be better assigned to someone with those specialised skills. If you’re self-employed and don’t work with a team, consider outsourcing certain duties to a third party, such as hiring an accountant to manage finances or IT services to handle the website. According to further research from Intuit QuickBooks, offloading financial management to an accountant can save up to nine hours every week. In the study, 77% of respondents also agreed that professional accounting services helped them save time in managing a business, and 11.5% even saw revenue increase. As well as outsourcing, you can look at reducing inessential working hours by using technology. For example, AI can automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks, like administration, and responding to customer service queries. Paid-for tools can also automate payroll, schedule social media posts, track expenses, send emails, and more.

Set boundaries

The most important way to improve business efficiency and take charge of your business on a personal level is perhaps to look at reducing your own working hours.

To avoid burnout, establish a routine that provides a healthy work-life balance. Decide on the working hours you’re comfortable with that allow you to progress towards your goals and meet deadlines without sacrificing your personal life and wellbeing. It's a good idea to set breaks throughout the day and have enough time outside of work to rest and recharge. If work arises that would put your balance out of whack, consider how important the job is and if it’s worth sacrificing your free time or another task for. While remaining flexible with your schedule keeps you open to new opportunities and growth, some jobs simply won’t be possible to complete or might be too far away from your priorities to justify using the time.

Create a motivating environment

As the space around you can also influence productivity, create a dedicated workspace, if possible, to help you get into this frame of mind. Try to keep it clear of clutter that could steal your focus and make it difficult to remain organised. Consider how you could change your environment to best suit your work style and boost concentration levels, such as:

• bright, low, or natural lighting

• noise level (e.g., music, radio, podcasts or silence)

• cold or hot temperature

• colour use in the decor

• office layout

If it’s just you working in the business, make the necessary adjustments tailored to your productivity. If you work as part of a team, discuss how you all work best and try to find a compromise. 

Build productive habits

If you struggle to focus, identify the common time blockers and find ways to work around them. For example, limit access to your phone if that’s a frequent distraction. It might be helpful to block out time on your calendar, too, for specific tasks, or to set a timer to add a sense of urgency to your day and hold yourself accountable. It’s also worth identifying your work habits and behaviours so you can work around them and maximise your output. So, if you’re more alert in the mornings and hit the afternoon slump, begin your day with the tasks requiring more concentration and end it with tasks needing less brain power. A flexible working arrangement can also help any employees find a schedule that suits their lifestyle to enhance efficiency. You may prefer to ease yourself into the day with a small task that helps you enter the productivity flow for the more difficult jobs. Alternatively, you might find it motivating to start with the hardest task, to set a positive tone for the day of having achieved something important. To keep motivation high, try to get into the habit of celebrating your successes, especially if you’re part of a team.

How to best use the extra time

Once you’ve maximised business efficiency, you may find a few extra hours in the day unaccounted for. So, what is the best use for this additional time? Depending on your goals and priorities, various options can contribute to business growth.

Increase quality and output

If you previously sacrificed work quality to meet deadlines, you may want to spend more time refining the output. Enhancing the quality of your goods and services can improve your business reputation and relationships and attract more customers. Once you’ve fine-tuned the quality, you may have enough time to expand your offerings to increase your business revenue.

Set buffer time aside

If you have some free time but not enough to drastically change your schedule, it might be worth keeping that available as a buffer in case any ad-hoc tasks arise. This extra time can act as a backup for any emergency jobs and allow you to remain flexible.

Set new goals

Additional time could help you meet deadlines sooner and add new goals to your business plan. For example, you could:

• Further optimise your workflow and implement processes for efficiency improvement

• Spend more time on customer service

• Conduct industry research

• Expand your or your team’s skillset

• Scale your business for expansion

• Invest more in brand and marketing

As with the initial goals, set realistic deadlines and avoid putting too much on your plate.

Enjoy the perks of being your own boss

You don’t necessarily have to put the unaccounted time back into your business. In the Intuit QuickBooks study, a quarter of respondents claimed more time off would make them more satisfied with their lives. So, if your plate is full, you’re on track to meet your goals, your business is financially healthy, and you don’t feel particularly motivated to increase your targets, take full advantage and relax. 

Now that the New Tax year has begun, act now on improving your operations and plan while your financial goals are fresh in your mind. It may feel counterproductive to spend time managing your time, but it will make a huge difference to your day-to-day routine, work-life balance and long-term business growth.

Sample and Methodology 

In November 2024, Intuit QuickBooks commissioned an online survey of 3,000 UK consumers aged 18+. The survey focused on consumer and entrepreneurship trends and predictions for 2025 among three cohorts of respondents who identified themselves as business owners (n=410), former business owners (n=473), and consumers who have never owned a business of any kind (n=2,117). Percentages have been rounded to the nearest decimal place, so values shown in data report charts and graphics may not add up to 100%. Responses were collected using Pollfish audience pools and partner networks with double opt-ins, random device engagement sampling, and post-stratification based on census data to ensure accurate targeting and results. Respondents received remuneration.

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