What Do Entrepreneurs Do to Get More Done?

June 23, 2021

By Jason Eisenberg
Community Program Manager for Office Depot

What is something all business owners have the same amount of, regardless of how long they’ve been in business? Technically, it’s time – we all have 24 hours a day to accomplish what we want (minus sleeping). Yet, each business owner utilizes their time differently with some wearing every hat in their business making sure nothing falls through the cracks (and working 12+ hours to do it), and others who seem to knock everything off their to-do list by 5 pm. How do you become the latter?

A few small business owners shared with us what they do to save time to get more done in their business, which allows for growth as well as self-care by not burning the midnight oil for your business. 


1) Find your one-stop shop

@writtenbynikki

If you are an online business that ships your products to customers regularly, @writtenbynikki, owner of an Etsy shop and her own calligraphy business, shares her secret on how she turns her orders around so quickly and efficiently.

“I’m able to purchase all of my materials in a one-stop shop! From bubble wrap, card stock, poly bags to tape and boxes to get items to [my customers] safely. These services are so important to a business like mine.”

Nikki explains having one place where she can get all of her fulfillment needs for her business saves her time and gives her a quick turnaround time when shipping multiple products. All of her product, packing and shipping supplies and professional printing done in one place – and all can be done online.


2) Simplify your work processes

@haleyhoffmansmith
When @haleyhoffmansmith says be a minimalist and simplify, she means discard the excess in your business processes. For example, a major pain point she had was using as many as 24 notebooks for her notes, only to have a hard time finding them later.

“I could never find my notes from past client calls or a genius idea I'd scribbled down last Tuesday afternoon.”

]She simplified by getting rid of the 24 notebooks, and started using just one Rocketbook Fusion notebook, which allows her to jot down notes, digitize those notes in something like Google Drive, and then erase the notes in her Rocketbook so she can use it again. Haley also utilizes a dry erase board for organizational purposes that she can glance at and gets her workbooks printed for her so she doesn’t have to, which helps save time in the end.


“Office Depot OfficeMax is basically my sidekick for all of these needs. As a creative whose strong suit is NOT staying organized, I feel 10X better and clearer using these resources!”

3) Delegate and get more done

@sweetloisconfections

While many small business owners may not have the luxury to hire employees to delegate tasks to, there are other ways to assign tasks to others while you work on other aspects of your business. The owner of @sweetloisconfections explains how marketing and promotions are imperative to her business and as busy as she is, cannot print her cards and marketing herself.

Instead she designs and purchases her marketing assets online and goes about her day until she is notified the order is ready. If ordered by 2pm, often times she is able to get these fulfilled in the same day, allotting more time for her to get more done.  

“Thank you to my friends over at @officedepot for making this part a breeze.”


If you would like to discover more inspiration on how other business owners are saving time and getting more done within their business, check out our Discover Depot page and if you’d like to be potentially highlighted in an upcoming feature, visit here to learn more about the #DiscoverDepot Ambassador Program.

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All content provided herein is for educational purposes only. It is provided “as is” and Office Depot does not warrant the accuracy of the information provided, nor does it assume any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein.