In Part 1 of this blog, I talked about marketing automation to buy back time and increase revenue. In part 2, I’m going to help you assess whether or not you’re investing your time into your business in the best way possible; and touch on the subject of feeling guilty with the spare time you’ll have.
Before I start, remember this old saying: “Jack of all trades, master of none”.
As for time poor by core tasks… This one isn’t as simple as automating marketing systems and business processes. It comes down to a lot of things. Most commonly this happened because of the belief that only YOU can do the task exactly how you want it (very common and very limiting).
Our businesses are in many ways like our babies; we started its life, we grow it to be well behaved, respected and a valued member of the community. Most importantly we love it!
This love we form for our businesses can be compared to a controlling mother who has trouble letting go their child and allowing them to grow.
The thing most people don’t realise is that by trying to control their business, their stifling its growth and in turn may suffer from burnout, loss of relationships, revenue… just to name a few. Then a whole lot of nothing will happen which is the exact opposite of what you were trying to achieve.
Today I’m going to work with this new client to get back his time and work-life balance. Initially, we’ll look at six things:
1. What does a day in the life look like
2. What tasks are adding little value and outsource them to the right people with greater expertise (outsourcing doesn’t mean sending a task of shore. It can also be local or internal)
3. How does he do these tasks
4. Why does he do them
5. What does he really want to be doing in his business
6. What would an ideal day look like
This sounds relatively simple. It is… If you’re willing to let go and trust in the ability of others, share knowledge; let go of the fear that working hard means value. This can be VERY challenging for some people.
Giving the tasks to the right people to buy yourself time, and balance may require some extra training of staff or briefs for external providers. But once this is done your ship will sail more smoothly and not to mention change the culture of your business! Because you’ll be happier, better rested and have more focus to work on your business not just in it.
If you’re feeling time poor in your job or business ask yourself those questions, I asked my client. Be honest! Sit down run them through your day, list out all your tasks and mark them as essential and non-essential to your goals. Give the non-essential tasks to someone else, if time is money then pay someone! It’s the simple 80/20 rule if time management. $25 of someone else’s time could give you $500 of yours and 4 hours back into your life.