The reality is that business owners almost always have overflowing plates – from optimizing profits to hiring and everything in between. Running a single business is challenging enough, but what about multiple ventures?
If you’re good at time management and organization, you’ve got a shot, but focusing on a few key strategies can make the difference.
Read on to learn seven practical tips for maximizing profits and running a tight ship across multiple businesses simultaneously.
How to Successfully Run Several Businesses at Once
1) Tap Top Talent
There are only so many hours in the day. That’s why hiring the right people is crucial. As much as you’d like to, you don’t have to do everything yourself:
- Building and nurturing a network of qualified and effective partners/operators allows you to distribute key responsibilities of your operations, freeing you up to focus on what’s important for the long-term success of your businesses.
- Hiring highly qualified employees who can handle their work without much supervision will make running your business manageable. Websites such as Upwork and Fiverr are good sources.
2) Be A Stickler About Sticking to Your Schedule
If you add multiple businesses to your already full plate, you’ll quickly find your time consumed by boatloads of obligations:
- Being highly intentional with your time ensures you set aside time weekly to knock out essential to-do items.
- Keeping your schedule organized prevents you from overworking or burning out and allows you to devote your full attention to what matters most. To achieve business success, it’s pivotal to consistently do what’s important, not what’s urgent.
- Utilize tools or techniques that make sticking to your schedules easy. For example, the Pomodoro technique helps you manage your time by dividing your day into 25 minutes of focused work followed by 5-minute breaks.
3) Clear Your Mind with Cloud Storage
With multiple businesses, on any given day, you’ll contend with massive amounts of data files to keep it all humming:
- Storing your files in the cloud means you can quickly and easily access them from different locations, computers, or mobile devices, even when working mobile.
- With cloud storage, it’s easy to keep your data aggregated by business, so you reduce the risk of losing or misplacing data.
- Using the cloud to organize and store files also allows for efficient workflow. Even when you don’t have WiFi access, you can still get work done when you set up your Drive or Dropbox for offline use.
4) When In Doubt, Source it Out
Even if you know each of your businesses inside and out, bringing in qualified reinforcements helps ensure things keep moving forward efficiently. Outsourcing essential yet time-consuming tasks to pros frees up your schedule to steer and navigate the entire fleet:
- For example, a certified accountant can manage your books, while a virtual assistant handles your meetings and schedules.
- In general, it’s best to rely on experts instead of overloading yourself with insurmountable multitasking, which can burn you out before you even realize it or, worst-case, result in costly avoidable errors.
5) Give Time Tracking a Whirl
Time tracking is more precise than scheduling since it offers insight into the finer details of what goes into your workday.
- Prioritize specific tasks, assigning them low, medium, or high priority levels, then plan your day accordingly. This way, you’ll know when you’re lingering too much on one task.
- This strategic feedback loop can be harnessed and lead to more efficiency. For example, if meetings take too long, you can reevaluate your agenda and delegate when possible.
- Time tracking is also a great way to determine how long it takes to complete a task. This data is important when outsourcing or delegating tasks to team members.
6) Go Virtual with Your Mailbox
You’ll undoubtedly deal with many packages, mail, and inventory if you have multiple businesses. With a virtual mailbox, you can:
- Streamline your ops regardless of whether you have multiple offices, one headquarters, or no brick-and-mortar locations at all.
- No matter where you are, your business address remains the same. This helps ensure clarity since you’ll have only one listed address that suppliers and customers can use. And it’s good for branding and provides invaluable credibility with vendors and customers.
- All your shipping and receiving is handled digitally in one location, saving significant time and energy as you manage your day-to-day operations.
7) Choose Your Battles
It’s fun to handle multiple projects simultaneously but be careful about stretching yourself too thin. Being intentional with what you take on at any given time is important:
- If you spend too much time and effort on something that isn’t making a profit, don’t be afraid to raincheck. Success is built on small wins that pile up over time. Overextending can result in negative returns and losses in the long run.
- The best business ideas are profitable ones that you’re genuinely passionate about, but also have enough resources to manage.
- If you’re stuck on something and not making progress, have someone else handle it while you move on to the next project. Consider a virtual assistant that can handle some tasks for you so that you can focus on more critical aspects of your business.
You Got This
There’s no doubt overseeing multiple businesses is a challenge.
If you can swing it, the rewards can be worthwhile and transformative.
With multiple businesses, you will have multiple income streams, and successfully juggling several ventures is an excellent way to test yourself and expand your limits as an entrepreneur truly. All the while you are growing your breadth of knowledge, expertise, and contribution to the community.
You’re up for the challenge.
Let us know how we can help…
