The Harsh Reality for New Business Owners: How to balance Admin, Marketing, and Finance with Your Passion

Starting a small business often comes with dreams of spending your days focused on what you love—whether it's crafting a product, offering a service, or developing creative solutions. But as many new business owners, quickly realise, the reality often looks very different. Rather than dedicating all your time to the core of your passion, you may find yourself tangled in a web of administrative tasks, marketing strategies, and financial management.

This shift can be frustrating and disheartening, especially when you’re eager to live off your passion. However, understanding that these tasks are an essential part of running a successful business is key to building something sustainable. In this blog, I’ll explore why this realisation can be so challenging and provide tips for navigating the administrative slog without losing sight of your original vision.

The Reality: Running a Business is About More Than Your Product

For many entrepreneurs, the initial excitement of starting a business revolves around doing what they love. Maybe you're passionate about baking and dreamed of opening a bakery, or you're an artist hoping to sell your work full-time. However, as soon as the business takes off, reality hits: you’re not just a baker or an artist anymore—you’re also the bookkeeper, marketing manager, customer service rep, and operations coordinator.

Why This Happens:

• Admin is the Backbone of Every Business: No matter what industry you're in, tasks like answering emails, managing invoices, and organising your schedule are critical to keeping the business running smoothly.

• Marketing is Essential for Growth: Without dedicated time spent on marketing, even the best product or service won’t gain traction. Marketing takes effort, creativity, and often trial and error.

• Finances Keep the Business Afloat: It’s not enough to have passion if you can’t keep track of cash flow, manage expenses, and forecast revenue. Managing finances is crucial to ensuring your business survives long term.

  
  

Why It Can Be a Hard Slog

Most new business owners don’t start out with dreams of managing paperwork, social media planning or analysing budgets. It can eat up hours of your week leaving little room for the work that truly excites you.

While you may be an expert in your product or service, you’re likely not trained in accounting, marketing, or operations. It takes time to develop these new skills, and the learning curve can feel overwhelming. Trying to juggle so many different roles can lead to stress and burnout.

Navigating this harsh reality

Although admin, marketing, and finance are inevitable parts of running a small business, there are ways to balance these tasks without losing sight of why you started in the first place.

1. Time Blocking: Prioritise Your Passion

One of the best ways to stay connected to your passion is by time-blocking. This approach ensure that certain parts of your week is reserved for specific tasks including your core business and passion.

Example: Set aside mornings for your creative work and afternoons for admin tasks. By dedicating focused time to your passion, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed by the admin side. I work and feel better when I don't push out hard or less enjoyable tasks. If I procrastinate, that little voice in the back of my mind keeps on reminding me and it causes me unnecessary stress. So for me, Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings are my "not so fun tasks" days.

2. Automate and Outsource Where Possible

As your business grows, look for opportunities to automate or outsource some of the tasks that drain your time and energy. For instance:

• Accounting Software: Use tools like Xero or QuickBooks to simplify financial management. I haven't used QuickBooks personally but I can't recommend Xero enough, it is very intuitive and easy to use. If I can use it anyone can.

• Virtual Assistants: Hire a (virtual) assistant for tasks like email management or social media scheduling.

• Marketing Tools: Automate social media posts. Buffer or Hootsuite were some of the platforms i have used in the past but i find the majority can be done directly from meta. Depending on your database you can schedule email campaigns with platforms like Mailchimp or through your website.

Outsourcing or automating these tasks can free up more of your time to focus on what you love. Don't forget Ai, it doesn't replace the work but it can definitely help. Just make sure you develop the memory in your voice and with your knowledge. I will write another blog about Ai and how it can enhance your work.

3. Learn the Basics—Then Delegate, leave it to the experts

While it’s essential to understand the basics of all aspects of your business, you don’t have to master everything yourself. For instance, learning the basics of bookkeeping is useful, but once you can afford it, consider hiring an accountant to take care of the day-to-day financial details.

Similarly, learning the fundamentals of marketing helps you create a strong foundation, but once your business reaches a certain level, hiring a marketing specialist can take this burden off your plate.

4. Create Systems and Processes

Having clear systems and processes can help streamline administrative tasks and make them more manageable. Establish routines for common tasks, such as:

• A weekly review of finances and cash flow.

• Batching administrative work like responding to emails or scheduling social media posts.

• Creating templates for common communications, invoices, or marketing materials.

By systematising routine tasks, you can complete them more efficiently and free up more time for the work you’re passionate about.

Embrace the Slog as Part of the Journey

While it can be disheartening to realise how much time goes into managing the business side of things, it’s important to remember that these tasks are part of building something sustainable. The admin, marketing, and finance work you do today helps create the foundation for long-term success, allowing you to keep doing what you love.

Rather than seeing admin work as a distraction from your passion, try to view it as a necessary investment in your business’s future. By finding ways to streamline your workflow, automate routine tasks, and outsource where possible, you’ll be able to strike a balance and continue growing your business in a way that reflects your passion.

Contact me for a confidential conversation about how I could help you to spend more time on your passion.