Why am I spending all my time on admin instead of billable work?
Running a solo business means spending a massive chunk of working hours—up to 31%—on unpaid tasks like emailing internal teams, renewing licenses, and chasing documents instead of client work. This administrative burden leaves service providers feeling constantly busy yet broke at the end of the month.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Tracking time spent on tasks using a timer
- 2Setting timers when sending quotes and following up systematically
- 3considering resigning
- 4escalating issues up the chain of command
- 5performing the disputed admin work to avoid conflict
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I spend most of my time calling cities and emailing internal teams to get documents needed to renew business licenses. Its really admin work.”source ↗
“I dont do tax calculations, i dont do provision, i mostly just do this.”source ↗
“But Im afraid if i leave this job i will never get hired again bc ive job hopped too many times already.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Getting disciplined at work for missing billable hours targets
- 15Why are teachers expected to be available 24/7?
- 29Doing higher-level work without a pay raise
- 12Why can't employees ever use the self service portal?
- 2How to delegate repetitive tasks without giving too much system access
- 4Is it normal to have no work to do at a new job?