Why nailing time management can work wonders for side hustles and start-ups
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Posted: Fri 28th Feb 2025
8 min read
"Time is the scarcest resource and, unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed."
So said the late Peter Drucker, a renowned management consultant, and it's certainly true for businesses.
Understanding the influence effective time management has on your future success is vital. And while time isn't a commodity, you need to treat it like a precious resource.
If you're keen to set up your own business but want to begin by dipping a toe in the water, starting with a side hustle is a good way to go.
However, that might mean having to juggle it with a full-time (or part-time) job. This is where good time management skills will be most beneficial.
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Starting with a side hustle
When it comes to working out how much time you should spend on a side hustle, there's no standard answer.
A better approach is to come at it from a more bespoke angle that considers:
what the side hustle is
any personal commitments that you need to take care of
How much time should you spend on a side hustle?
If the plan is to go into full-time business at the earliest opportunity, dedicating more time to a side hustle is a good idea.
If it's a longer-term goal, however, there's scope to spend less time on it but dedicate a few hours each week to stay on track.
The side hustle you choose will affect when you work on it. If it's a service-based side hustle – such as landscape gardening, washing cars or web design – you may need to work set hours on a regular timetable.
If your side hustle focuses on a product (like baking cakes or creating a new gadget), this might lend itself to a more flexible work schedule.
But if going all-in with a business is the longer-term goal, you can devote less time to it each week. (That said, you do need to spend some time on it, otherwise your progress will stall.)
And it can be tricky to balance personal commitments – such as caring for a young family or taking care of parents – while trying to focus on getting a side hustle up and running.
Finding the sweet spot between existing commitments – whether they're related to a job or to family – and working on a side hustle might take a bit of time to get right.
And sometimes, like a seesaw, one side might take priority over the other. Being aware of this will help when it comes to managing your time effectively.
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Business coach Nuno Soares delves into practical strategies for managing your time, such as daily logging, time blocking, deep work and achieving "inbox zero":
Moving to running a business full time
There are no hard-and-fast rules for turning a side hustle into a full-time business. However, there are a couple of indicators that might help.
If the average monthly income you're generating from a side hustle is higher than the salary your job is paying, that shows you might have a viable business.
At the same time, you do need a source of funds when running a business, whether it's for recruiting employees, adding new products and services or scaling up operations.
If you have enough income coming in to support these (remember, business loans and grants are available too), moving from a side hustle to a full-time business can definitely be an option.
Delegation and outsourcing protects time
There's a trap that many first-time founders fall into: believing they must do everything for their business to succeed. Actually, the opposite is true.
When considering a time management strategy for a side hustle or a full-time business, there are two things that can help: delegation and outsourcing.
While it might take time to delegate tasks properly (say, to a new employee), the benefits are clear – like more time for you to focus on other tasks such as developing and selling products or delivering services.
And the more you do it, the better skilled you get at further delegation as your business grows.
Not sure what to outsource? Consider things like admin jobs, brand design tasks and managing social media channels.
Effective delegation saves time and frees you up to engage in more strategic thinking or more valuable activities.
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Using tools and resources to make the most of your time
There are numerous tools side hustlers and founders can use to manage their time.
One such example is the Eisenhower Matrix, developed by former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
It organises tasks by urgency and importance, classifying them into four quadrants:
Urgent and important tasks (do them first)
Not urgent, but important tasks (schedule them)
Urgent, but not important tasks (delegate them)
Not urgent and not important tasks (don't do them)
Another example is the Pomodoro timer, which is based on the Pomodoro technique developed by university student Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. Users of the Pomodoro timer break down their work into 25-minute increments with five-minute breaks.
There are a lot of time management tools you can use too, such as:
AI-powered solutions can also save time. You can use AI software to streamline financial processes such as bookkeeping, expense tracking and financial forecasting.
As a result, you'll spend less time on financial admin and more on your business's strategic growth and innovation.
For a small business to be successful, effective time management is a must. Simply put, you achieve more in less time – and with less stress. You can manage your time effectively by prioritising jobs, delegating tasks and using productivity tools.
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