How to Spend Less Time on Email as a Small Business Owner
As an online business owner, it sometimes feels like I spend half of my day (every day) in my inbox, replying to emails, sorting emails, finding attachments, following up… seriously, emails can just take over your LIFE!
For me, the biggest time suckers were always:
Typing out the same things over and over again
Answering the same questions from different people
Going back and forth trying to find a time for a call
Receiving client copy, images and other project content through a million separate email threads
Trying to find something important that I know someone sent me three weeks ago
Obviously, spending some time in your inbox is inevitable when you run a business. But over time, I realised that a lot of the back-and-forth was actually pretty avoidable.
So I made it my mission to put a few simple systems in place to reduce as much unnecessary email as possible.
Here are all the things that made the biggest difference.
Add FAQs
If you find yourself answering the same questions again and again, that’s usually a pretty good sign that the answer should live somewhere on your website.
FAQs can save you so much unnecessary email and you can easily set up a full FAQ or Support page if you have lots to cover, or simply add a small FAQ section to your Contact page, Services page, shop or wherever those questions are most likely to come up.
👉 How to Create a Dropdown FAQ in Squarespace
The important thing is that you should always have (or mention) the FAQs on your contact page BEFORE the contact email or form. If you mention them after the form, people are much more likely to just go ahead and email you and not even see them.
You can also use your Contact page to point people towards other useful information they may have missed. Make it very clear, for example:
I’d love to help you out, but before you contact me via the form below check out the FAQ’s HERE and make sure I haven’t already answered your question.
If you’re interested in learning more about my services, the process and the pricing, check out the services pages HERE where I go into detail about all of that stuff!
Otherwise, go ahead a contact me via the form below!
Add a Booking Calendar
Another thing that made a huge difference for me was adding a booking calendar to my Contact page.
Instead of someone emailing to ask when I’m free, then going backwards and forwards trying to find a time that works, they can simply choose from the times I’ve already made available.
This is probably one of the easiest ways to eliminate the classic:
“Does Tuesday work?”
“No, how about Wednesday?”
“What time Wednesday?”
email chain.
I was reluctant to add this at first because I thought people might not use it, or they might book without contacting me first and then not show up.
But I was wrong.
People booked directly, they did show up, and some even commented on how easy it was to book in with me, even going as far as saying that was one of the reasons they did.
The key is having enough information on your website about your services, pricing and process that people feel confident booking a call without needing to email you first.
You cab use something like Squarespace Scheduling (Acuity) if you already use Squarespace, or a tool like Calendly if you want something really simple.
Both let people book around your actual calendar availability, and you can set things like working hours, buffers between calls, and booking limits.
Get Detailed About Your Services
When I first started out, I wasn’t sure if I should go into too much detail about my services.
By detail I mean things like:
Who the service is for
What’s included
How much it costs
What the process looks like
How long it takes
What happens next if they want to book
I thought maybe too much information would turn people away.
Well, it does turn people away. The wrong people.
If someone reads your pricing and realises it’s outside their budget, they don’t need to email you, book a consultation and wait for a proposal before finding that out.
If they read through the package and realise it isn’t actually what they need, they can move on or find a better-fit option.
There’s no point getting loads of enquiries that don’t go anywhere. They still take up your time.
The more useful information you give people upfront, the more likely your enquiries are to come from people who already understand what you offer and are genuinely interested in working with you.
More enquiries isn’t always the goal. Better enquiries are.
👉 How to Design and Optimize Your Homepage for Better Results
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Create Process Documents + Email Templates
This sounds super nerdy, but I swear it’s actually a time/lifesaver.
Once I realised how much time I was spending typing out the same emails over and over again, I started creating what I like to call process documents.
Basically, if there’s something you find yourself sending repeatedly, create it once and reuse it.
For shorter emails, you can save templates for things like:
New enquiries
Follow-ups
Booking confirmations
Missing content reminders
Testimonials
Project wrap-ups
Common support questions
You can keep these in your Notes app, email templates, project-management system like ClickUp or wherever is easiest for you.
The idea isn’t to make every email feel robotic. You can still personalise them. It just means you’re not typing the exact same paragraph from scratch for the fiftieth time.
For longer information, I love having a couple of more detailed documents ready to go:
Inquiry Document
I created an Inquiry PDF for each of my services.
It was basically a “thanks for contacting me” message, plus links to all of the useful information someone should look through before moving forward.
For example:
Hey! Thanks so much for contacting me.
This document contains a few helpful links so you can learn more about [service name].
You can head over to my website, learn a little more about Big Cat Creative, and check out the full Service page where I go into the pricing, process and package details.
If it sounds like a good fit, you can book a complimentary consultation here.
They may have already seen all of this on the website, but they also may not have, and it’s worth making sure they are as familiar as possible with the service details before they book a consultation. (If you think wasting time on emails is bad, try wasting time on consultations and drafting up proposals for people to then be totally shocked by the price of the quote!).
It’s also such an easy way to say “thanks, learn more about me here, learn more about the service here, book a consultation with me here”. I just attach the file, write a short email message with it and send it back.
Welcome Document
The other document I created was a Welcome Guide for anyone who had officially booked. This one was a complete lifesaver!
It listed, step by step, what the client needed to do next, how to do it, important dates and loads of other helpful information.
Basically, I took all of the questions and regular back-and-forth that happened during every project and put the answers in one place.
Your Welcome Guide could include:
What happens next
What the client needs to send you
Important deadlines
Where they should upload files
How communication works
How feedback should be submitted
Common FAQs
Anything else they seem to ask on every project
Everyone’s version will look a little different depending on what you do.
So start paying attention to the pain points that come up over and over again with your clients. Write them down, turn them into a guide, and make sure every new client gets a copy.
Use Google Drive or DropBox
Please, for the love of your inbox, do not have clients send an entire website worth of copy and images through email attachments.
Google Drive and Dropbox are both great for keeping everything together in one place.
For a website project, for example, you might create one main client folder with separate folders for:
Brand files
Website copy
Photography
Testimonials
Products
Blog content
Other documents
Then explain exactly where everything needs to go inside your Welcome Guide.
If I didn’t do things this way, I can only imagine how many emails would be going backwards and forwards with copy and images attached. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about how chaotic that would be.
Everyone knows where everything lives, you know you’re working from the latest version, and you don’t have to spend 20 minutes digging through your inbox trying to find one random attachment.
Use Forms
This is another one that can save so much back-and-forth, especially if you need the same information from every client.
Instead of emailing a giant list of questions, send them to a proper form or questionnaire.
You could use:
Google Forms
Typeform
Your CRM or project-management platform like Clickup
Forms are much easier to keep organized, and you can make certain questions required so you’re not constantly following up for the one important thing they forgot to answer.
They’re great for:
Initial enquiry forms
Client questionnaires
Website content collection
Project feedback
Testimonials
Appointment intake
Offboarding surveys
The more information you can collect in the right place from the beginning, the less time you’ll spend chasing it later!
The biggest thing I’ve learned is that if the same email problem keeps happening, you probably need a system for it.
If people constantly ask the same question, add the answer to your website.
If you keep typing the same response, make a template.
If scheduling calls takes five emails, use a booking calendar.
If client files keep getting lost, give them one place to upload everything.
None of these changes are particularly complicated, but together they can save you so much time in your inbox and make your whole client experience feel a lot smoother too.
And that means more time for the work you actually want to be doing... and significantly less time searching your inbox for an attachment someone definitely sent you at some point.
Want more email marketing trips? Check these posts out!
Our go-to tools & techniques for scheduling content
Should you use Squarespace Email Campaigns? Pros and Cons
How to add an email sign-up form to your Squarespace site
How to get started with Email Marketing: a simple guide for beginners
Why you NEED an email list
