As a solopreneur, you are likely to perform numerous small activities during the day that can add up to a lot of time, especially when it comes to content creation.

For example, every time you tweet a link to a page on your site, you spend a few precious minutes creating that tweet. And every time you answer an email, you spend even more time (and probably more than you think).

You can save time on these common, albeit important, tasks by creating templates. Here are three simple steps to accomplish that.

Identify the Task

Think about the many tasks you perform each day or week. Do you send invoices? Do you post a lot of information on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook? Do you answer a lot of emails or send numerous communications to your contractors? What about blog posts and article writing?

How often have you thought to yourself, "I could get it all done but I just don't have the time..."?

It may be that the time has come to pay someone else to take tasks off your plate. But how do you know? When is outsourcing the best choice for your business?

Consider the following four questions carefully.

What Would You Outsource?

Before you think about your budget or more practical concerns, start by asking yourself, "What would I outsource if there were no obstacles?"

Asking yourself this question first helps you analyze your business's needs objectively.

Most word processing software programs don't come cheap. Even the most commonly used, MS Word comes at a hefty price tag if it's not preinstalled on your computer.

So if you're looking for a top-notch word processing software that is absolutely free, don't look any further than Google Docs, Google's web-based word-processing system. This system makes creating and editing documents quick and easy.

Perhaps most importantly, it makes sharing documents easy. If you work with clients or contractors on projects it can be challenging to track everything. One missed deadline or message can derail an entire project. Google Docs can help when used as a project management tool to help you stay on track.

So you've decided that you want to outsource some of your work? Congratulations!

You'll find yourself with more time to do the kinds of work only you, as a solopreneur and the boss of your business, can do properly.

That is IF...if you outsource effectively. Here are 7 tips to make sure you do so.

Tip #1: Choose the Right Task to Outsource

Before you begin looking for the right contractor, first take a moment to get clear on what specific work you want to outsource.

Ideally, outsourced work should be of a kind that's not directly part of your business's mission. You want to outsource tasks that lie outside your sphere of expertise, so you can focus on being a better CEO for your business and further your business's mission.

There are some days when it feels impossible to get motivated. Yet in order to achieve your goals, motivation is essential. Without it, nothing is accomplished. Responsibilities and tasks pile up. Life becomes overwhelming. Motivation becomes even harder to find.

However, with a few simple strategies you can motivate yourself every day. Here are seven. Even doing only one of them will help. Try all seven and you'll find yourself revved up and ready to go on a regular basis!

Understand what motivates you.

Some people are motivated by a sense of accomplishment. Other people are motivated by praise. Still others are motivated by money. It's even possible that you're motivated by something else. Understanding what you're motivated by will help. When you're feeling unmotivated, you can tap into that desire and get the kick-start you need.

For example, if you're motivated by money, you might kick-start your day by doing something that earns a profit. Or you might look at the task you're facing differently, if you realize that it generates income.

Think of it as your own automated, fully customized search engine service. That's Google Alerts, a service that generates search engine results, based on criteria provided by you, and delivers the results to your e-mail account.

And while some on the Internet use it to monitor their children, celebrity gossip or current trends, it's actually a powerful business tool that is both easy and free to set up AND can provide you with meaningful, business-boosting results.

Here are 10 important ways Google Alerts can help your business:

1. Monitor your brand and your reputation. You'll want to set up alerts for your business name, your personal name, website and blog names, product names and any other names unique to your business so you can monitor what is being said about you on the Internet. This gives you an opportunity to respond, express thanks and give links to your work.

Whether you sell a product or a service, it's important to be able to offer your customers a fast, easy and secure payment method. Credit cards are by and large the most convenient solution.

As a small business owner, you don't want anything coming between you and a sale. And it's a known fact that without an easy payment option, potential buyers will decline to complete the sale. The fees associated with accepting credit cards are minimal when considering you might not have a sale in the first place without offering that option.

Plus, accepting credit cards conveys a level of professionalism that increases trust in your potential clients and customers.

That being said, it's vitally important that you as the "merchant" make sure the payment process is safe and secure. You want to protect your customers and earn and maintain their trust in you.

Industry research shows that accepting credit cards can increase revenue by an average of 23%, making it not only a way to give your clients and customers additional payment options but also an opportunity to beef up sales.

Therefore, selecting the appropriate credit card processor is a critical business decision.

Narrow your search before you sign up or switch to a particular credit card processor. In addition to fast, secure transactions, here are 5 things you shouldn't do without when it comes to your merchant services provider.

1. Business Acumen

It's all too easy to end up with a payment solution that doesn’t fit your specific business needs. Choose a processor that can—and will—do more than just sell you a merchant account.

As a solopreneur or small business owner, you will either be handling customer service issues yourself or overseeing a customer service team (or team member).

So it pays to spend some time considering your customer service processes and procedures—and the underlying values—before an issue develops.

Believe it or not, most of the customer service interactions that go wrong are based on complete misunderstandings between the client/customer and the person handling the complaint. Any customer who complains is already on edge. Simply keeping a positive, upbeat attitude and watching how you say things can avoid escalating the situation.

Here are six important ways to handle customer service concerns that provide the best possible opportunity for a satisfying result—for the client/customer AND for you.

Listen

You might be surprised that most customers tell you what issues they want to be resolved if you simply listen to what they're saying. Listen without comment or interruption. If they're tight with information, ask open-ended questions designed to elicit answers beyond yes or no.

When you're the boss and business owner, disaster planning takes on a whole new meaning and urgency: if you go down, your business stops.

As a solopreneur, you know you need a plan for times when natural disasters or emergencies interrupt your business. But how do you go about actually creating such a plan?

Identify Your Likeliest Scenarios and Risks

The first step in disaster planning for any small business is to make a list of the likeliest disaster or emergency scenarios, and the individual risks that each scenario presents.

How do you go about identifying the risks? Here is a three-step approach:

1. Make a list of all reasonably possible scenarios, then categorize your scenarios as “not likely" to “moderately likely" to "very likely." Include any significant natural disasters or weather emergencies applicable to your geographic area, as well as the personal scenarios that would render you unable to work as you usually do for an extended length of time.

The object of any business is to grow and make a profit (not necessarily in that order). For the small business owner, growth may be hindered by the stamina in your body. If you are handling all of your daily tasks alone, growth may not be possible in the way that you'd like to see it. Consider hiring a virtual assistant for help.

What Is a Virtual Assistant?

Unlike a jack-of-all-trades, a virtual assistant is a master of them all. These contract business professionals makes their living by meeting the needs of other business owners like yourself. Their skill set can comprise everything from bookkeeping to marketing and customer service to website design.

Those who categorize them as "glorified secretaries" are way off the mark. Virtual assistants are proving themselves to be invaluable to small and large companies, and online and brick and mortar businesses, as well.

Even as a busy solopreneur, you can enjoy all the benefits that come from having a support team backing you up, supporting you in your decision-making and freeing you to concentrate on your passion for your true work.

Hiring actual employees, even part-time or temporary ones, may not be in the budget right now, but that doesn't mean you can't still get necessary support, if you know where to look and how to approach potential team members.

As a solo business owner, you have several options. Below, you can read more about five of those options at different price points, ranging from free to a few thousand dollars annually.

Mastermind Groups

Popularized by coaches and consultants within the last several years, mastermind groups consist of a number of individuals with similar experiences, situations and goals who support each other in pursuit of those goals.

Finding the right outsourcers can make your business run faster, more efficiently and more easily. However finding those outsourcers can be a daunting and tough process.

Here are 5 steps to make sure you find the right people for the right task:

Know What You Want and Need

Before you contract with anyone—maybe even before you begin looking at or placing ads on job boards—take another moment to jot down for yourself what traits, skills and experience level your ideal contractor would possess. Be willing to negotiate on these points, of course—it's rare for any employee or contractor to measure up to the boss's "wish list"!—but look at this list as a starting point.

Your business isn't making money as fast as you think it should. Or your career isn't progressing as quickly as you'd like.

Both are breeding grounds for frustration and discouragement, which can be deadly enemies of success.

In fact, many give up before they reap the rewards from their efforts. The reality is, however, that everyone goes through discouragement from time to time. How you get through it is what will determine your success.

So how do you overcome frustration? Here are five strategies you can try:

Step Back

Taking a break will enable you to look at the situation with a clear head. This will make you less attached to the outcome, and will probably help you see things about your situation, or your business, that you couldn't have before.

If you sell products—physical products or "soft" products, such as software, apps, membership in a program or class, or information products including ebooks—you're going to need some way to sell those products from your website if you want to compete in today's market.

And to do that, you're going to need a shopping cart.

What Is a Shopping Cart and How Does It Work?

Shopping cart solutions may vary in many respects, but at their core, they're just bits of code or scripts that are either installed on your website, or that connect your website to another site. Their purpose is to allow customers to browse inventory, make selections, and complete the process of purchasing your items.

Sounds simple enough, but within that broad definition, there are a number of factors and features to consider, which can confound even the savviest solopreneur.