Running one business can be very difficult without the proper experience and organizational skills. Running two or more businesses just exasperates this difficulty exponentially.
While difficult, it is not impossible to juggle multiple businesses at the same time. Joseph Jedlowski has experience in this field and has been the CEO and owner of multiple companies in his career, many times having to manage multiple businesses at the same time.
We asked Joseph Jedlowski to share with us his best tips for running several businesses without burning out or giving up. Here are some of his best tips:
Stay Organized
Staying organized is crucial, no matter how many businesses you operate but it becomes more important as the number of businesses you run grows. Jedlowski recommends having a single workspace or office in which you manage both businesses.
This allows you to organize your time and avoid having to waste any navigating between offices. He also recommends creating detailed lists and being consistent with utilizing them.
Prioritize
Joseph Jedlowski emphasized the importance of prioritization. Prioritize not only which business you are focusing your time on, but which problems you are giving your attention to.
Not all problems are created equal. Some need to be handled immediately, while others can go further down your list.
This advice rings especially true when multiple businesses are involved because there will be many more little problems to prioritize. Those lists we mentioned earlier will help quite a bit with prioritization.
Making to-do lists and checking off problems as they are fixed will give you confidence and motivation, while also helping you stay organized.
Delegate
You don’t have to do everything alone. Having a team of people that you can trust to run things for you is vital to being successful without burning yourself out.
It will help you stay motivated knowing that you have trusted people holding down the ship. It’s important to delegate but Jedlowski also says you have to make sure not to be lazy.
You need to keep up with every aspect of your company and make sure you know what’s going on even if you’ve delegated certain facets to someone else.
Balance Your Time
When running two or more businesses, you have to make sure that your time is being used well between all of them. Not to say that you should dedicate the exact same amount of time to each business, as some may require less than others.
However, it is important to make sure you’re not spending more time than you’re supposed to on one. Joseph Jedlowski recommends using some kind of timer or stopwatch (along with detailed notes) in order to track how much time you’re spending on each business every week.
Store these in a document and compare them periodically to figure out if you need to make some changes in your workflow.
Rely on Experts
As a business owner, you should definitely be managing the core aspects of your business. However, there are some things that you could easily outsource to professionals and integrate new technologies into your business.
Especially when running multiple businesses, having pros that can manage the day-to-day aspects of the companies while you handle the big picture stuff is invaluable. Staying motivated is much easier if you’re not always bogged down by the little things of every business you’re running.