We’ve all heard the old adage that “time is money”. There is no place this statement rings truer than in the world of a small business owner. As a small business owner it is easy to get caught up in the day to day operations of running your business and lose focus on long-term goals.
As the leader at the helm of your business your time is worth more money to your company when you focus it on steering your ship along the right course rather than following where the wind blows you.
To be successful, you need to change your thinking about how you allocate your resources. These resources include; time, money and the people you have working for you. It sounds easy, and I promise it is if you follow my three step process.
3 Steps to Make More Time In Your Day;
- Take inventory of how you spend your time. Write down everything that you do for a week. What is it that you spend the most time doing? Are the items critical to your success? If so circle them.
- Identify the critical musts in your business. Take the items you circled in step one as your critical musts, meaning the success of your business is dependent on them. Ask yourself if anyone else can complete them? If so write their name next to the task.
- Identify what you are good at and what you like to do. Take the remaining items that you haven’t assigned to anyone else and rate them on a scale of 1-4, 1 being super easy, I love to do them and 4 being takes a lot of effort and energy to do them. The thought is that if you free up your time to focus on what you are good at you’ll be able to make more efficient use of your time. Anything that rates a 3 or 4 should be delegated to someone else.
For example, if you’re spending two hours a day scheduling client appointments (which is a critical must), is that really the best use of your time? Perhaps you could delegate the management of your calendar to your assistant, essentially freeing up those two hours for you to focus on business development opportunities that relate directly to your critical musts.
When we hear Return on Investment (ROI) we typically think of money. ROI is not just financial – it’s also looking at your time, energy, developing new habits, sense of accomplishment, reduced stress, etc. By making sure you are allocating your time and the time of those around you wisely you’ll gain both a monetary ROI and more time in your day.
For more ideas on how to Run Your Small Business Like a Big Business CEO; Huffington Post Article – 4 Effective Ways to Run Your Small Business Like a Big Business CEO
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