Having a successful business that's thriving takes a lot of hard work. Here's a key tactic for how to manage an online business successfully.

Work Smart: How to Manage an Online Business Successfully

There’s no shortage of people who are looking to start an online business that’ll allow them to leave their 9 to 5, retire their partner, and live the laptop lifestyle.

Many dive in with gusto and often make a ton of progress very quickly. But then they realize they aren’t sure how to manage an online business successfully.

The business they craved and hoped would set them free becomes the very thing tying them down. There’s so much more to running and managing an online business with ease than it may first appear.

However, with some strategic work and a smart, sustainable foundation, the challenge of how to manage an online business successfully becomes conquerable.

Let’s look at a key tactic that helps you grow your business and thrive at the same time.

Outsourcing For The Win

It’s very easy to feel like outsourcing is more trouble than it’s worth. When you do a task yourself, you can very often do it faster and better than if you handed it over to a team member.

But here’s the thing: The “I can just do it myself” phenomenon only considers this one time you’re completing the task. It’s not looking at how much time you’ll save in the long run by outsourcing the task. If you outsource a task that you do weekly, think of how quickly the time saved adds up over months, quarters, and years in business.

Also, this doesn’t include the opportunity cost of spending your time on these types of tasks.

The kind of work that could be outsourced so often prevents us from working on the truly important tasks that’ll positively drive the business forward. When you’re bogged down in day-to-day operations, it becomes very difficult to focus on the big picture planning that helps a business grow.

So, how do you start outsourcing?

Spending Your Time on the Right Things

One of the first steps I recommend is an “I hate list.”

This is a list of things that have to be done, but you loathe doing. Some might argue this isn’t strategic, but your mindset and happiness are intrinsically tied to the success of the business. If you’re stuck constantly doing things you hate, it’ll definitely have an impact on the bottom line.

Start paying attention to all the tasks you’re doing in a given day, week, or month. Look for repeatable, process-driven tasks that someone else could do with the right information. Often, these are often things like setting up a blog post, newsletter or sending a contract.

Another area to consider when determining how to manage your online business successfully is to assign a dollar value associated with the tasks you spend your time on. As the CEO, your time needs to be spent on high-value tasks that only you can do. If you could hire someone for $10, $20, or even $100 per hour to complete the task, it’s likely not something you should be regularly doing.

When it comes to revenue, consider whether the tasks are truly driving revenue or just eating up time. So often we convince ourselves we’re so busy we can’t do things we know are needed to drive the business forward. This resistance to doing the real work, though, is often fear-based and holds us back from true progress.

Also, remember that this isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. Business owners often think they have to have someone doing 20+ hours per week to start seeing a difference. It’s entirely possible, however, to kick off with a few hours per week — or even per month — and you’ll begin to see big shifts.

You CAN strategically learn how to manage an online business successfully one day at a time, one process at a time!

Having a successful business that's thriving takes a lot of hard work. Here's a key tactic for how to manage an online business successfully.