Being self-employed is hard work. Sometimes I think those who aren’t self-employed don’t quite comprehend how much extra you have to do as a self-employed person. Especially if you are just one person in your business.

You are responsible for not only doing the actual work, whatever that might be in your particular business, but also the marketing, the accounting, the planning and forecasting and so on. It can be intense and stressful at times, that’s for sure.

What helps?

There are lots of ways to make things easier for yourself as a self-employed person. Some of these things are systems that take a bit of time to set up, but it’s often worth it because in the long run they save you time and streamline your processes.

For example, you could pre-schedule all your social media marketing content and set up an automatic newsletter for anyone on your mailing list. That way, if you don’t have any time to do any marketing for a few weeks, there is still some marketing going out regarding your business.

Being super organised helps too. You really do have to have good time-management skills to make being self-employed worth it. You could try to use a system such as time blocking, where you just focus on a particular type of activity for a block of time. So for example, it might be editing photos. Rather than editing as you require them, you would edit all your photos in one block of time. This can often save you time in the long run.

You could also use something like the Pomodoro technique, whereby you work to a timer and you cannot deviate from your task until the end of the timer. I find this really helpful to help stay on task when I have very limited time. If this sounds like something that could help you, you can either download one of the free apps available, or just use the timer on your smartphone to help.

What about getting help with your accounts? You could of course pay an accountant to do them for you, but, if your business is only small, you might discover the cost of this seems excessive. You could try something like sage business cloud accounting, and spend some time discussing your needs with one of their experts. You could take one of the many free online courses or webinars available, or even explore a few you tube videos on how other self-employed people manage their accounts.

When it comes to planning for your business, think carefully about how your particular brain works. Perhaps you need to draw a visual plan? In that case, consider buying yourself a large whiteboard. Perhaps you prefer old school pen and paper? Consider getting a nice notepad for all your planning. If you are all about the tech, you might work better with a clever app or planning software.

Being self-employed can certainly be stressful, but don’t allow the stress to take away the good things that being self-employed brings with it, like the flexibility and being your own boss.