Time leaks are everywhere in small business. This week in Let’s Talk, our experts pinpoint where owners lose the most hours and what actually fixes it.
Time is the one thing small business owners cannot buy more of, yet most are losing it in the same places without always knowing where the drain starts. A task that should take ten minutes stretches into thirty. An invoice that should have been paid sits chased across three follow-up emails. A quick check of messages turns into an hour of context-switching between tools, tabs and threads.
For owners wearing every hat in the business, these are not occasional frustrations. They are the shape of the day. The good news is that most of these losses are fixable. The patterns are predictable, the solutions are practical, and owners who have tackled them are already seeing the difference.
This week in Let’s Talk, we put the question to our panel: where do most SMEs lose time in daily operations, and what can actually be done about it? From admin bottlenecks and communication overload to team handoffs that go nowhere, our experts share where the biggest losses hide in small business, and exactly what owners can do right now to start taking that time back.
Let’s Talk!
Kim Owen-Jones, General Manager Customer Acquisition, MYOB
“According to MYOB’s most recent Bi-Annual Business Monitor, many operators feel they’re running below their best. Around 45% of SMEs rate their productivity at just five or six out of ten, signalling clear room to lift performance and, in turn, resilience.
This is playing out against a backdrop of rising costs and compliance. Overheads (38%), red tape (37%) and higher taxes (34%) are now among the top concerns reported by SMEs, sharpening the imperative to make every hour count.
So where is the time actually going?
In most cases, it’s the operational work that sits around the edges of running a business: reconciling transactions, chasing invoices, entering data, switching between systems, compiling reports. Individually these tasks feel minor; collectively they can erode hours every week.
The Business Monitor and our broader SME insights point to three practical shifts that make the biggest difference:
- Connect the systems you already use.
When accounting, payroll and customer information are linked, data only needs to be entered once and can flow automatically through the business. - Automate routine work.
Invoice reminders, expense categorisation and standard reporting can run quietly in the background, freeing owners and teams to focus on revenue-generating activity. - Make the numbers easier to see.
When cashflow, margins and key costs are visible in one place, owners spend less time searching for answers and more time making decisions.
For most SMEs, productivity gains rarely come from one big change. They come from making the everyday work of running the business just a little bit easier – and using connected, digital tools to do more of it on autopilot.”
Ada Wang, SMB Lead at Intuit APAC
“Ambition isn’t the issue for Australian SMEs, execution is. The recent Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights Report shows 7 in 10 are focused on growth, yet many are still held back by manual admin and disconnected systems.
Tasks like chasing invoices, reconciling transactions and switching between platforms continue to drain time that could be better spent with customers or on strategy. Without a clear, real-time view of finances, it becomes harder for business owners to make confident decisions about where to invest and how to grow.
What stands out is the advantage SMEs have in agility. With fewer layers of complexity, they can adopt digital tools like QuickBooks and AI-driven automation faster, and start seeing impact sooner. That shift is already underway, with 69% now using AI across their operations.
Bringing invoicing, payments and financial insights into one place reduces complexity and gives leaders the visibility they need to stay on top of cash flow.
In a dynamic environment, the SMEs that will lead are those spending less time managing the books and more time building the business.”
Anthony Capano, Regional Director, APAC, Intuit Mailchimp
“SMEs often lose time to small, manual actions repeated throughout the week. Teams compile reports, move customer data between systems, build campaign lists, or check multiple tools to understand performance. Over time, these tasks add up and pull focus from work that drives growth.
The first step to fixing this is visibility. Businesses should review weekly processes, identify repeat tasks, and see where handoffs slow things down. From there, automation and AI can reduce manual effort and let certain tasks run in the background. When customer behaviour automatically updates audience segments or triggers timely email and SMS follow-ups, teams don’t have to rebuild the same workflows each time.
Time is also lost switching between systems. Bringing customer data, reporting and execution into one place helps teams move faster from insight to action. Mailchimp’s omnichannel marketing dashboard, for instance, combines email, SMS, automation performance, and ecommerce events into a single view so teams can quickly see what’s working and where to optimise.
By streamlining routine work and bringing systems together, SMEs can create more space for strategy, creativity, and improving the experiences that keep people coming back.”
Samantha Gibson, Senior Marketing Manager ANZ at Logitech
“Logitech’s research demonstrates that two-thirds of workers in hybrid offices currently face disruptions and distractions. According to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report, employees using Microsoft 365 are interrupted every two minutes on average by a meeting, email or notification.
No one understands this better than SME leaders, who often wear many hats in the business world and juggle a plethora of responsibilities at once. Constant distractions that disrupt productivity and workflow can waste valuable time in daily operations, extending the typical workday beyond 9am-5pm.
At Logitech, we know transforming your tech setup is one of the most effective ways to drive greater productivity. It can be as simple as investing in a noise-cancelling headset to reduce unwanted sounds in loud environments and remain fully focused on the task at hand.
Additionally, working with clear intention – especially in meetings – has never been more crucial to prevent disruption. We encourage SME leaders to set specific meeting agendas and work with their team to achieve actionable goals on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.”
Shaun McLagan, Group Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, Docusign
“For most SMBs, productivity isn’t killed by a single, glaring failure. It’s drained by tiny frictions in everyday tasks like chasing signatures, re-keying data between systems and hunting through email threads.
Fragmented steps create a hidden admin tax where the agreement process becomes a competitive disadvantage.
Businesses are rolling out ambitious AI plans to reduce admin, but still aren’t nailing the basics. Workflows are fragmented, with no clear owners, which makes it difficult to realise the benefits of AI, or measure time spent.
Solving this doesn’t require a total overhaul, but it does require intentional leadership. Business leaders must own the agreement lifecycle, mapping every touchpoint from quote to renewal.
By moving away from disconnected inboxes and shared drives where contracts get filed and forgotten, leaders can standardise templates and approvals within a single Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) ecosystem.
With Docusign IAM and CLM, SMBs can automate the preparation of contracts, routing and signing, use AI to flag risks and missing fields, and connect agreement data into back end systems. That cuts red tape, speeds up cash flow and improves compliance.
This shift returns high-value time to owners and teams, so they can focus more on customers, products, and growth.”
Fabian Calle, Managing Director, Small and Medium Business at SAP Concur Australia and New Zealand
“For many small and medium-sized businesses, time is not lost in big strategic decisions. It disappears in everyday administrative tasks. Travel and expense management is a common example. Employees spend hours collecting receipts, completing manual expense reports, and booking business travel across multiple platforms. Finance teams then chase missing information, reconcile claims, and review compliance.
These fragmented processes slow teams down and make it harder for businesses to see where money is going. Without real-time visibility into travel and expense data, leaders struggle to track spending, control costs, or identify inefficiencies.
Technology is helping change this. Automated travel and expense platforms let employees capture receipts on the go, generate expense reports automatically, and book travel within company policy. Platforms like Concur Request, for example, connect expense data and financial systems. This lets businesses gain a clearer view of spending while reducing administrative work.
AI-powered assistants can also help employees complete expense reports faster, while automated checks can flag policy breaches or potentially fraudulent claims.
Businesses that modernise these processes gain stronger visibility, better compliance, and fewer manual tasks. The result is simple: less time spent on paperwork and more time focused on growth.”
Tristan Ohlenrott, Head of Sales ANZ at TeamViewer
“Despite best efforts to streamline operations, digital friction, the everyday tech issues that slow people down, cause SMEs unforeseen issues every day. Disconnected systems, slow devices, and constant troubleshooting create hidden inefficiencies that disrupt workflows and delay decisions.
TeamViewer research shows 81% of Australian employees lose productive time each month because of these issues, around 1.3 days on average. For SMEs, that’s significant. It’s no surprise that 37% of businesses report revenue loss due to IT inefficiencies, and more than half say tech problems have delayed critical work.
When technology is unreliable or hard to use, employees spend time switching between tools, relying on workarounds, or asking colleagues for help. It impacts not just productivity, but morale and retention too.
The fix starts with visibility – understanding where friction exists across your workplace to improve the digital employee experience (DEX). From there, SMEs should focus on simplifying systems and automating routine processes. AI is playing a growing role here, with nearly half of employees believing it can reduce friction by resolving common IT issues faster and streamlining workflows.
Ultimately, improving DEX is one of the fastest ways SMEs can win back time. When technology works seamlessly, employees can focus on what matters, driving productivity, performance, and growth.”
Ian Boyd, General Manager, Australia and New Zealand at GoCardless
“Chasing late payments is the single biggest time drain for Australian SMBs. Our Pursuing Payments report found 63% spend time chasing overdue invoices, averaging 1.5 hours weekly. That’s 78 hours a year: enough time to onboard a new client, launch a marketing campaign, or simply take a proper break.
It’s getting worse. Nearly half of business owners say they’re waiting longer for payment than a year ago. Many are waiting more than a fortnight past due. Some stretch beyond a month. To cope, a third have turned to credit cards or loans. Almost a quarter would write off more than 6% of annual turnover just to avoid awkward payment conversations.
The good news: this is fixable. For example, by using payment methods like Direct Debit that pull funds on the due date rather than relying on customers to remember. You can also set clear terms upfront and let software handle the follow-ups.
70% of SMBs say they’re open to technology that reduces late payments. The businesses that act on this won’t just improve cash flow; they’ll get nearly two weeks back every year to focus on what’s most important to them, be that business growth or time with friends and family.”
Brad Eisenhuth, CEO, The Outperformer
“Identifying where time is lost requires an honest assessment of your business maturity. Many SME owners remain trapped in the ‘hustle’ phase far longer than necessary because they fail to codify their value.
If you’re still heavily involved in daily client delivery, you haven’t built a business – you’ve created a high-pressure job. To scale, you must move from doing the work to designing the systems that allow others to do it.
Loss of momentum often stems from a refusal to outsource basic, repeatable functions like bookkeeping or sales administration. These are high-control, low-leverage tasks that stifle strategic growth.
Most leaders also lose most of their hours catching dropped balls for their team. This is rarely a personnel issue and almost always a failure of role clarity and leadership design.
To fix this, you need to categorise your daily actions by value. If a task can be systemised, outsourced, or delegated to a person with the right skill set, it should be.
True leadership is about removing yourself from the clean-up mode of low-value admin and focusing on the high-level strategic discipline that creates genuine, sustainable value. When you stop being the bottleneck, you finally start being the CEO.”
Aaron Bugal, Field CISO APJ, Sophos
“One area that often quietly drains time in small and medium-sized businesses is cybersecurity. Many SMEs deprioritise it, assuming their size makes them less attractive to cybercriminals. In reality, the opposite is often true. Smaller organisations frequently have fewer resources and less mature security controls, which can make them easier targets.
Most SMEs don’t have the budget or scale for a dedicated cybersecurity employee. Instead, responsibility typically falls to the existing IT staff. These teams are already busy managing devices, maintaining software, rolling out new technology, and dealing with day-to-day support requests. When cybersecurity incidents or alerts arise, attention shifts immediately, at the expense of other operational tasks.
This creates a ripple effect across the business. Routine IT support slows down, projects stall, and teams spend more time reacting to issues rather than improving systems or enabling growth.
One way to relieve this pressure is by bringing in external cybersecurity expertise. Managed security services or third-party specialists can handle continuous monitoring, threat detection, and incident response, allowing internal IT teams to focus on keeping the business running smoothly.
With the security workload shared, IT teams can resolve everyday issues faster, keep systems properly updated, and contribute more meaningfully to digital transformation initiatives. Ultimately, when IT teams aren’t constantly pulled into firefighting security problems, the entire organisation runs more efficiently – and more securely.”
Dr Anna Harrison, Founder, RAMMP
“Most SMEs think they lose time in operations. In reality, they lose time in decisions.
A typical small business can launch marketing campaigns, redesign websites or test new offers in a matter of days. What slows them down isn’t the work itself, it is the uncertainty around whether the effort will actually produce revenue.
That uncertainty creates a pattern: teams launch something, wait for results, adjust, relaunch and repeat. Weeks disappear in cycles of activity that feel productive but rarely resolve the underlying problem.
The real inefficiency is not knowing where the breakdown occurs in the buying journey.
In many cases, SMEs assume they have a traffic problem, so they spend more on marketing. But the issue is often trust. If a potential customer arrives and doesn’t quickly understand the value, the credibility or the next step, they simply leave. More marketing just sends more people into the same broken experience.
The fastest way to recover time is to diagnose the buying journey before investing further effort. When businesses identify exactly where trust breaks down – whether that’s clarity, proof or friction in the decision process – they can fix the root issue instead of constantly trying new tactics.
The paradox for SMEs is that the quickest way to move faster is to pause long enough to diagnose the problem properly.”
Loughlan Dalton de Burgh, CEO and Co-Founder, Pretty Privilege
“Most SMEs don’t realise how much time they lose to inconsistency, especially in how they deliver customer experience. At Pretty Privilege, we’ve seen firsthand that when processes aren’t clearly defined, teams end up reinventing the wheel every day. Whether it’s onboarding partners, managing member perks, or handling customer requests, small inefficiencies tend to stack up fast.
A big one is overcomplicating decisions; spending too long perfecting an offer, a campaign, or a partnership instead of getting it live, learning, and iterating. In a fast-moving, experience-led business like ours, speed often matters more than perfection.
But the fix is twofold – systemise what you can, and simplify what you can’t. Build clear frameworks for repeatable tasks, from partner outreach to member communications, so your team isn’t starting from scratch each time, then empower people to make quick decisions within those frameworks.
Ultimately, time is lost in hesitation and lack of clarity, but the SMEs that win are the ones that move quickly, stay consistent, and focus their energy on delivering real value to their customers.”
Darren Guccione, CEO, Keeper Security, Inc.
“Most SMEs don’t lose productivity in one obvious place, but rather, it’s often lost in the gaps between systems, particularly when it comes to access. Employees rely on multiple applications to do their job, and when access is fragmented – through scattered credentials, manual approvals or limited visibility – work slows down. Time is spent logging in, resetting passwords or waiting for access instead of moving work forward.
As businesses grow across cloud and SaaS environments, that friction compounds. More systems mean greater complexity, and without a clear way to manage who has access to what, teams end up working around the system rather than through it. The fix is to simplify and control access at the foundation. Centralising credentials and access management, automating approvals and enforcing least-privilege access removes that friction. When access is managed properly, workflows accelerate, IT is no longer a bottleneck and the business can scale without carrying that inefficiency forward.”
Rebecca Nordqvist, Head of Operations, Excite Media
“SMEs lose time in lots of operational areas, but beyond the obvious, manual tasks that could be automated, the two biggest culprits are not knowing which metrics actually matter and underestimating opportunity cost.
Many business owners make decisions by gut feel rather than looking at numbers that truly matter: customer lifetime value, acquisition cost, or the profitability of different products and services. Checking your instincts against clear metrics doesn’t just save time, it frees up mental energy to focus on decisions that genuinely move the business forward.
Opportunity cost is the other silent time-sapper. As your team grows, it’s tempting to continue to do everything yourself, to keep a pulse on every part of the business. But your time is finite, and some tasks are better off delegated, or even outsourced. Focus on the work only you can do, and trust the people you hire to handle the rest.
By aligning decisions with meaningful metrics and respecting the value of your time, you’ll cut down on wasted effort, make smarter business choices, and finally stop letting the small stuff eat your day.”
Satya Upadhyaya, Marketing Technology Leader, ANZ
“Most SMEs don’t lose time because they lack effort or execution capability. They lose time because their operating systems are fragmented, specifically across decision-making, prioritisation, and information flow.
While it’s compelling to argue that ‘decisions’ are the bottleneck, the deeper issue is decision quality under poor visibility.
Research shows that knowledge workers spend up to 20-30 percent of their time searching for information or reconciling conflicting data, while SMEs report that more than 60 percent of strategic initiatives fail to meet expectations due to unclear goals, misalignment, or poor tracking. In smaller organisations, this problem is amplified: the same people making decisions are also executing, often without structured feedback loops.
What looks like ‘slow decisions’ is usually something else – a lack of operational clarity. This can include decisions made on incomplete or lagging data, constant reprioritisation due to unclear strategic anchors, rework caused by misalignment between teams (marketing, sales, ops), or activity mistaken for progress because outcomes aren’t clearly defined.
SMEs believe speed comes from doing more, faster. In reality, speed comes from removing ambiguity. When teams know what matters, where to act, and how success is measured, time stops leaking, and starts compounding.”
Greg Wilkes, CEO of Develop Coaching
“Most SMEs don’t lose time on big decisions. They lose it in the cracks.
Let’s be honest: it’s the constant back-and-forth. Chasing info. Fixing mistakes. Answering the same questions twice.
I see it every week. A $1.2m contractor in Brisbane was losing 6–8 hours a week just clarifying drawings, RFIs, and who was doing what. Not bad people. Just no structure.
Most of that lost time sits in day-to-day delivery, where poor coordination, unclear information, and reactive decision-making slow everything down.
Here’s where time really goes:
- Poor handovers
Jobs start without full info. Site teams guess. Mistakes follow.
Fix: a simple pre-start checklist. No job starts without it. - No daily communication rhythm
Teams drift. Issues stack up.
Fix: 10-minute daily huddle. Same time, every day. Non-negotiable. - Rework from unclear scope
Variations creep in. Margin disappears.
Fix: tighten scope, document changes immediately. - Owner bottleneck
Everything comes back to you.
Fix: delegate with clear SOPs. Train once, stop repeating.
The trade-off? Systems take time to build. But firefighting takes longer.
Sort this, and you don’t just save time. You protect margin. And that’s the game.”
Pred Dragila, CEO, Fat Zebra
“Running a business is complex enough without the added friction of chasing down support from your service providers, which is one of the biggest time drains I’ve observed for SMEs. When payments or transactions hit a snag, that downtime costs you customers and revenue.
Many global service providers have a local presence but no local support. You’re left navigating offshore call centres and ticket queues while your business sits idle. From our vantage point of handling one in five transactions in Australia, we know that’s not how it should work.
SMEs should look for partners who are genuinely invested in their success, not just transaction volume. Real, on-the-ground support from people who understand how local businesses operate can make all the difference, because getting back to doing what you do best as a business matters.
At Fat Zebra, we’ve built our business around uncomplicated commerce. That means one platform, simple integration, and a local team ready to help. We firmly believe merchants should have the knowledge, tools and support they need to navigate the challenges payments can bring and make informed decisions. When issues arise, our customers get answers fast so they can focus on growth, not troubleshooting.”
Rafie Faruq, CEO and Co-Founder, Genie AI
“Most SMEs don’t lose time on the big strategic decisions. They lose it in the small, repeated tasks that sit between getting real work done.
Things like chasing approvals, rewriting documents, checking terms, back-and-forth emails, and managing spreadsheets that no longer reflect reality. None of it feels critical in isolation, but together it slows the whole business down.
A common example is contracts. The same types of agreements come up again and again, yet teams still start from scratch, send documents back and forth, and wait on external input. What should take hours ends up taking weeks.
The fix isn’t hiring more people but rather tightening the system.
Start by identifying the workflows that repeat every week. Standardise how they’re handled, define what “good” looks like, and remove unnecessary steps. Then bring in tools that can execute those processes consistently, whether that’s automation, templates, or AI that works from your past decisions.
SMEs regain time when there are fewer decisions, less duplication, and faster execution.”
Seamus Phan, CTO, McGallen & Bolden Pte Ltd
“Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) are the economic backbone, yet they sometimes remain tethered to archaic, time-draining habits that stifle growth. To scale in a digital-first world, these businesses must shed three primary ‘time-wasters.’
First, many firms still waste precious time on manual and repetitive data entry (including on paper). Some firms spend time duplicating physical receipts into spreadsheets due to a lack of trust or expertise in cloud systems. I would recommend such firms adopt scalable, user-friendly financial tools or open-source software (OSS) to automate bookkeeping, depending on their appetite for developing in-house knowledge.
The ‘social commerce’ culture leads to fragmented communication where employees juggle inquiries across WhatsApp, Line, Telegram, and email. I would suggest such firms consolidate communications into a social CRM and deploy RAG-based AI chatbots to handle routine queries, freeing humans for other tasks.
Micromanagement seems to remain a bottleneck amongst many hierarchical, family-run firms, where even the most minor decisions must be passed up to top management. Collaboration and project management platforms will solve this problem with clarity, ease of management, and accountability for business leaders and employees to see tasks to conclusion efficiently.”
Jarrod Kinchington, Vice President, Pacific Region, Smartsheet
“Most SMEs lose time through manual, disconnected processes. When work is managed across siloed apps, documents, and spreadsheets, teams can spend hours searching for updates, manually entering data, or completing repetitive tasks instead of moving projects forward. Smartsheet research shows this fragmentation can cost workers nearly 12 hours a week ‘chasing data’ rather than acting on it.
By centralising work on a single, unified platform, SMEs can simplify their tech stack and automate repetitive processes without replacing the tools they already use. It’s about building a digital ecosystem that connects data from disparate systems into a single source of truth. In turn, decision-makers can get a holistic view of business health and automate the manual tasks that eat up time, allowing them to turn ideas into measurable results faster.
Our customer, Little Guy Australia, which manufactures camper trailers, has automated its production and stock reporting with Smartsheet. When the team completes a component, marking it “done” automatically updates inventory counts across 25 related parts, providing a clear, real-time picture of resources and saving the business 10 hours per week, which can be put towards securing sales.
By connecting people, processes, and data in one place, SMEs gain hours of productive time each week, and a streamlined operation where decisions happen faster, compliance checks run smoothly, and everyone can focus on growing the business rather than managing the paperwork.”
Janty Mohammed, Co-founder at AIIMS Group
“Most SME owners lose time because their systems weren’t built to scale.
The three biggest culprits I see every day: manual lead tracking on spreadsheets, reporting scattered across five platforms nobody checks, and follow-up processes that live entirely in someone’s head.
When we built AIIMS, we made a decision early — systematise everything that doesn’t require a human touch, so humans can focus on what actually moves the needle. We run our entire 101-person global operation through integrated CRM workflows, centralised file management, live performance dashboards, and now our own internal AI. Nothing falls through the cracks because the system won’t let it.
For SMEs, the fix isn’t hiring more people. It’s building infrastructure that works while you sleep. Start with your follow-up process. Automate it. Then your reporting. Then your quoting. Do those three things and you’ll recover hours every single week — hours you can reinvest into growth.”
Tim O’Sullivan, Co-Founder and Director, Bae Juice
“Most SMEs don’t lose time because they lack effort, it’s more the fact that they are trying to do everything alone. One of the biggest inefficiencies is spending an hour (or more) stuck on a problem that someone in your business or network could solve in 10 minutes.
It’s a common trap. Founders feel they need to figure things out themselves, whether it’s a tech issue, supplier challenge, or marketing decision, but that solo grind compounds quickly across a week.
The fix is simple, but it really makes a huge different. Leverage your network and build one intentionally, or surround yourself with people who are experienced, responsive, and willing to share knowledge. A quick call, message, or intro can turn a two-hour task into a 15-minute solution.
It’s a nice cycle to be in; asking for help, then passing on that advice when it’s your turn. The same applies internally. A strong, approachable team that communicates well can remove friction before it builds up. SMEs that prioritise collaboration over isolation move faster, make better decisions, and free up time to focus on what actually drives growth; speed often comes down to who you can ask, not just what you know.”
Morgan Wilson, Founder & Director, creditte accountants & advisors
“Most SMEs don’t lose time because people are inefficient. They lose time because the business hasn’t been structured to protect the owner’s time.
We see this constantly. Owners become the default problem solver for everything – approvals, client questions, pricing decisions, team issues. It feels productive, but it quietly creates a bottleneck.
Another major time drain is disconnected systems. When information sits across spreadsheets, emails and different apps, teams spend hours chasing answers instead of moving work forward.
The fix usually isn’t hiring more people. It’s buying back the owner’s time through better structure.
Start with three questions:
- What decisions truly need the owner?
- What processes can be standardised?
- What information should the team see without asking?
When those three areas improve, the owner stops firefighting and the team can move faster with more confidence.
For most SMEs, the biggest productivity gain isn’t working harder, it’s buying back the owner’s time.”
Walter Scremin, CEO, Ontime Delivery Solutions
“Many SMEs lose time from being distracted by issues outside of their core business.
It doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not intentional. But any small business must watch out for fringe operational demands which gradually encroach on their core business.
For example, I’ve met countless SMEs weighed down by the responsibility of managing their own transport delivery fleets, even though they didn’t get into business to become a transport company.
They find managing fleets a constant headache, and are often relieved to hand this responsibility over so they can focus on what they are really passionate about. Whether its transport, technology, hiring, or marketing, anything that might distract from your core business can be outsourced, often with more effectiveness, by going to specialists.
In delivery transport, permanent vehicle hire avoids the pain and distraction of establishing and managing your own high-performing transport and logistics division.
Most importantly, it gives you time back to focus on your core business.”
Amber Daines, Founder and Chief Communicator, Bespoke Co.
“Most SMEs don’t lose time in undertaking massive tasks.
It is the quiet, everyday inefficiencies that chip away at productivity. The biggest culprit is usually manual, repetitive tasks: invoicing, scheduling, reporting, WIPs or chasing approvals. When these processes rely on people rather than systems, they create unnecessary back‑and‑forth.
Communication is another hidden drain. Too many meetings, unclear briefs, and scattered channels mean teams spend more time clarifying work than doing it. Add outdated tools or systems that don’t talk to each other, and you have a perfect storm of wasted hours.
Fixing these starts with visibility. Here are my 4 tips:
- Map your workflows and pinpoint where delays consistently occur.
- Then simplify: automate what you can, standardise what you can’t, and streamline communication into fewer, clearer channels.
- Even small changes like templates, shared dashboards, or automated reminders can free up significant time.
- Finally, empower your people. Train them in the tools you expect them to use and encourage a culture where inefficiencies are flagged early.
Life inside SMEs move fast, but they thrive when their operations save time and create time for more creativity.”
Muthukumar T, Partner, Befree
“The answer, in my experience, is almost always the same: owners are spending their best hours on work that keeps the lights on, not work that moves the needle.
The biggest culprits? Finance admin, payroll, chasing invoices, and the endless back-and-forth of scheduling and correspondence. These aren’t complex tasks, but they’re relentless, and they quietly consume the time that should be going into customers, strategy, and growth.
The fix isn’t working harder or adding headcount – both are expensive and slow. The smarter move is to be deliberate about what actually needs you. Map out a typical week and honestly categorise where your hours go. You’ll likely find 30-40% of your time sits in repeatable, process-driven tasks that a skilled external team could handle just as well, often better.
Businesses that make this shift don’t just get time back. They get clarity. When you’re not buried in the day-to-day, you start seeing your business differently – and that’s where real growth begins.”
Maria Kathopoulis, CEO & Chief Marketing Officer at UNTMD
“Most SMEs don’t have a productivity problem. They have a systems architecture problem.
Information sits across emails, spreadsheets, messaging platforms and disconnected software. Teams spend enormous amounts of time simply moving information between systems.
This creates three major inefficiencies.
- First is duplicated work. The same information is entered multiple times across different platforms.
- Second is delayed decision-making. Leaders wait for reports rather than seeing performance in real time.
- Third is internal friction. Teams spend hours clarifying information that should already exist in one place.
The solution is not more tools. It’s fewer, better integrated systems.
When core platforms such as CRM, finance and project management are connected properly, information flows automatically and teams regain time to focus on higher-value work.
Operational simplicity is one of the most underestimated competitive advantages in business.”
Kylie Bishop, Founder & MD, Incredible U
“In my experience, SMEs lose time in daily operations for two main reasons:
- People are stretched by “all the things” or easily distracted by “new shiny things”. Without the structure that large organisations can leverage, SME owners and staff wear multiple hats and switch back and forth from task to task all through the day. This quickly and quietly erodes productivity.
- Systems of work aren’t documented or consistently followed. This is even more common with casual or flexible teams, where onboarding is often light or non-existent. The result? Repeated questions, inconsistent quality, double handling, and shortcuts being taken that result in errors. Lost time and frustrations aplenty!
My practical solutions below foster a culture of “do it once well and go home safely each day”:
- Document simple, repeatable, and consistent processes (AI can help), and define who owns what. This keeps people focused whilst reducing friction.
- Start new and positive conversations with your team as you reset quality standards and give people time back in their week. This improves morale whilst increasing accountability.”
Trent Bowes, Production Manager at Revolution Print
“In the manufacturing sector, time isn’t just a concept – it is a physical asset. Every moment a machine sits idle, or a staff member wanders the warehouse to locate a tool, productivity and profitability are eroded.
To combat this, we apply Lean Manufacturing principles, specifically targeting the wastes of waiting, transportation, and motion. We replaced our historically ‘organic’ workshop layout with a strategic 5S Framework. By ensuring every workstation is equipped with essential tools within arm’s reach and positioning raw materials at the start of the production line, we have dramatically reduced transit time.
Furthermore, we are currently digitising our shop floor tracking. By updating job statuses in real-time through our print software, we eliminate the need for manual floor searches. This allows our team to provide clients with instant, accurate updates, turning operational efficiency into a superior customer experience.”
Catie Paterson, Director, Blue Kite HR Consulting
“Beyond the usual suspects like admin overload, SMEs often lose time in subtle, overlooked ways:
- Decision Paralysis: When too many options or stakeholders stall progress, hours are lost debating instead of doing.
- Fix: Set clear decision-making frameworks and empower the right people to act quickly.
- “Always Available” Culture: Constant interruptions – emails, messages, unscheduled calls – fracture focus and productivity.
- Fix: Establish “focus hours” where deep work is protected, and communication is paused unless urgent.
- Reinventing the Wheel: Teams repeatedly create documents, templates, or processes from scratch.
- Fix: Build a shared resource library so everyone can access and reuse best-practice templates and checklists.
- Unclear Success Metrics: Without clear goals, teams waste time on low-impact work.
- Fix: Regularly review priorities and align tasks to measurable outcomes.
- Neglected Wellbeing: Burnout leads to mistakes and slower work.
- Fix: Encourage breaks, model healthy boundaries, and invest in wellbeing programs.
Addressing these hidden time drains can unlock surprising productivity gains and create a happier, more focused team.”
Tim McLain, Director, Market Enablement & Activation, Lexin Solutions
“In my experience, small businesses frequently fall victim to ‘performance punishment’ – where the most capable team members are penalised for their expertise with a constant stream of low-value interruptions.
Operations typically stall in three distinct areas:
- Lazy’ noise’ like directionless meetings and chat,
- Repetitive admin tasks such as manual reporting, and
- Chronic context switching caused by the ‘quick question’ culture.
When your best talent spends 60% of their day like this, they eventually burn out or take their knowledge elsewhere. To fix this, you must insulate your high-performers and give them the power to say NO.
Start by enforcing a strict meeting culture. If there’s no agenda or clear decision required, decline it. Create blocks where all communication tools are closed to allow for deep work. Stop allowing your experts to be a constant helpdesk – teach the rest of the team how to ‘fish’ by documenting key processes into simple, searchable formats. If you provide your people with the tools that match their output, functionality will keep them engaged, and the businesses will keep growing.
It’s all about giving your team the structure and the clear expectations they need to focus on high-value judgment calls rather than just clearing the noise.”
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