You’re running a business. You’re already wearing ten hats - from head of sales to customer support to the person who changes the toner in the printer. Marketing is just one more thing on an impossible list. You know you need it to grow, but finding the hours in the day? That feels like a pipe dream.
When I reached out to small business owners to better understand their habits, the feedback painted a stark picture of this reality. Out of 49 small business owners I spoke with, a massive chunk (21 respondents) spend less than five hours a week on marketing. That’s less than an hour a day. Even more telling, six respondents aren’t doing any marketing at all.
If this sounds like you, you aren't alone. But it raises a tough question: Can you actually grow a business on less than an hour of marketing a day?
Let’s look at the reality of the situation, why time is such a scarce commodity, and most importantly, how you can make those precious hours count.
The Reality: The "less than 5 hours" trap
Spending less than five hours a week on marketing is the norm for nearly half of the businesses I spoke to. On the surface, this makes sense. When you are deep in the trenches of delivering your product or service, marketing often feels like a "nice to have" rather than a "must-have."
But here’s the catch: inconsistent effort leads to inconsistent results.
When you only have a few hours a week, you end up in a reactive cycle. You post on social media only when you remember. You send an email newsletter only when sales dip. You tweak your website only when a customer complains about a broken link.
This "stop-start" approach kills momentum. The feedback highlights that businesses in this bracket struggle significantly withcontent creation and consistency. They can't produce enough quality content to stay visible, and they often feel like they are shouting into the void because the algorithm punishes inconsistency.
The danger here is missed opportunity. While you are busy workingin the business, your competitors who are carving out 10 or 15 hours a week for marketing are slowly eating up your market share. They are the ones staying top-of-mind, building trust, and capturing the leads that could have been yours.
Why 5-10 hours is the sweet spot for many
The feedback showed that 17 respondents manage to find 5–10 hours a week for marketing. This seems to be a more sustainable sweet spot for a sole trader or a very small team.
With 5–10 hours, you move from "reactive" to "proactive."
- You have time to plan: Instead of panic-posting, you can schedule a month of content in advance.
- You can engage: You aren't just posting; you're replying to comments and building relationships.
- You can measure: You have a moment to look at your analytics to see what actually worked, so you don't waste time on what didn’t.
However, simply throwing time at the problem isn’t the answer. If you spend 10 hours a week doom-scrolling on LinkedIn or tweaking the colours on a Canva graphic, you aren’t marketing. You’re procrastinating.
The goal isn’t just "more time." It’s "better time."
How to optimise your limited hours
If you’re stuck in the "under 5 hours" camp and can’t see a way out, don’t panic. You don’t need to suddenly find 20 extra hours in your week. You just need to be ruthless about how you use the time you do have.
Here is a practical framework to get more ROI out of your limited schedule.
1. If you do one thing, make it SEO
If your time is limited, focus on making your business easy to find on Google. Most people search online when they need a service or product—if you're not visible, you’re invisible to potential customers. Start by claiming your Google Business Profile, making sure your website is up to date with accurate contact details, and adding relevant keywords that your ideal clients might search for. Even basic SEO can make a huge difference: it’s a one-off investment that keeps paying off long after the work is done. If there’s only one marketing activity you can commit to, make it being easy to find in search engines.
Key resources for getting started with SEO:
2. Pick one social platform and master it
It’s tempting to show up everywhere - Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest - the list goes on. But this approach spreads you too thin and wastes time. Choose one channel where your ideal clients actually spend their time.
If your work is B2B, go all-in on LinkedIn.
Sell boutique products to consumers? Focus on Instagram.
Mastering just one platform well is far more effective than having a scattered presence across many. You’ll save time and see results faster.
Mastering one platform takes a fraction of the time of managing five poorly.
2. Focus on "High-Impact" activities
Not all marketing tasks are created equal. Use the 80/20 rule. Twenty per cent of your activities will bring eighty per cent of your results.
Low-Impact (Time Wasters):
- Obsessing over the perfect logo size.
- Browsing social media feeds "for research".
- Writing content without a strategy.
High-Impact (Revenue Drivers):
- Sending a direct email offer to your existing list.
- Asking happy clients for referrals or Google reviews.
- Creating one piece of helpful, problem-solving content that answers a specific customer question.
If you only have three hours this week, spend them on the high-impact list.
3. Embrace "B-Minus" work
Perfectionism is the enemy of execution. Many business owners spend four hours writing a single blog post because they want it to be perfect. The truth is, the more often you do something—writing, posting, sending emails—the more comfortable you get and the better the quality becomes over time.
Get comfortable with "good enough." A B-minus email that actually gets sent is infinitely better than an A-plus email that sits in your drafts folder for three months. Speed of implementation matters more than polish.
4. Leverage tools and templates
You should never be starting from a blank page.
- Templates: Use tools like Buffer or Meta Business Suite to schedule posts in batches. Do all your social media for the week in one hour on Monday morning.
- Automation: If someone fills out a contact form on your site, they should get an automatic reply. You shouldn't be manually typing "Thanks for your inquiry" every time.
5. Know when to outsource
There comes a point where your hourly rate as a business owner is too high to be spent resizing images.
If you are spending five hours a week struggling to write a blog post that a professional could write in 45 minutes, you are losing money. It might be time to hire a freelancer or an agency to handle the execution while you handle the strategy.
Outsourcing doesn’t mean losing control. It means buying back your time so you can focus on sales and delivery.
The Bottom Line
From my conversations with small business owners, it’s clear that time is the biggest barrier for marketing. But the solution isn’t always finding more hours—it’s about removing the friction from the hours you have.
If you are currently spending zero hours on marketing, start with one hour a week. Use that hour to contact five past clients. If you are spending five hours, audit that time to ensure it’s focused on revenue-generating activities, not busy work.
Marketing doesn’t have to be a 40-hour job. It just needs to be consistent, targeted, and honest.
