Five tools that will free your time to focus on the things that really matter to your business

But with the right smart technology in place, you can save hours every week that you used to spend on routine tasks, make unproductive time useful, and have more time to spend on activities that grow your profits.

These tools are surprisingly affordable - some of them are even free. And they will automatically take a lot of the pain out of your day so that you have more time to spend with your customers or on improving your products and services. Here are a few ideas that can you save time and money. 

Get networking

Social networks such as LinkedIn can be a fantastic way to grow your professional network, putting you in touch with prospective customers, business partners, and future employees. Once you invest some time in creating a professional profile for yourself and your business, you can start introducing yourself to people with whom you could do business in the future. And by creating content on LinkedIn, you can also easily keep your professional contacts up to date with the latest happenings in your business and share posts that help to strengthen your relationships with them.

Keep learning

If you don't have time to read as much as you'd like to, why not catch up with the latest business thought leadership while you are stuck in traffic? Audible is a great tool to use to download the best business books, or simply download informative podcasts by top business strategists and listen to them while you're driving.

Get there quickly

There's no bigger waste of time than getting stuck in the traffic and missing an important meeting. Use Waze - the world's largest community-based traffic and navigation app - to keep up to date with real-time traffic and road info and direct you to your destination, while avoiding traffic snarl-ups. 

Share files

With Dropbox for Business, you can easily share your documents on various devices or even with others for collaboration. You can also download Dropbox on your smartphone, so that you can easily access that important presentation or price list while you're on the road. Best of all, Dropbox for Business is as easy to use as the consumer version, but more secure.

Automated payroll solutions

If you're not already doing so, you should consider using payroll software to automate the processes of printing and distributing payslips as well as paying your employees each month. It will save you lots of time because you'll no longer need to use Excel spreadsheets or paper to process leave applications, calculate hours employees have worked, or do the sums around deductions and tax -the software will do it for you.

What's more, with the right solution, employees can even upload or check their leave balances and update their personal information from their mobile devices, saving you time and sparing you inconvenience. The software is really affordable today – the Sage Pastel Partner Flex solution, for example, costs as little as R135 per month for 10 employees. For such a small investment, you'll be able to stay SARS compliant without the hassles of updating complex Excel spreadsheets each time there is a change in legislation or the tax tables.

For more information, visit www.pastelpayroll.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook and on Twitter.