UK sole traders: what admin task steals the most time each week?

bizbud26

Hi all,

I’m researching workflow friction for UK sole traders/non-employing business owners basically. Where time gets burned during a normal week. This is not a promotion. I’m trying to understand the real day-to-day reality before building anything.

Would love your input:

• What part of running your business steals the most time each week?

• What do you currently use to manage it (WhatsApp, email, notes, spreadsheet, calendar, accounting app, etc.)?

• What have you tried that didn’t work?

Nearlyold

Kinda depends what you mean by "stealing" the most time. Most of our time went on providing the service that earnt the money.  We used off the shelf software that helped  with regular service scheduling  (or one offs) which linked to monthly/one off billing/accounts.

hareng

Getting the addresses, packing and writing the jiffy bags out.

Addresses can be in 2 emails, 2 paypal, Private messages on 2 accounts or even from phone calls.

Calender takes too long so does accounting apps in which case would have to enter and do everything twice.

ProcessMatters

For me it’s not one big task, it’s the fragmentation. Info scattered across emails, WhatsApp, bank apps and notes, then having to mentally reconcile it later. Invoicing and expenses aren’t hard, they’re just constantly interrupting actual work.

I’ve tried spreadsheets, accounting apps and “one tool to rule them all”, but they tend to add another layer rather than remove one. What works best is keeping things deliberately simple and batching admin into one block, otherwise it leaks into every day and feels heavier than it should.