Are you “investing” your time working ON your Business

or

“spending” it working IN yourBusiness?

 

The biggest challenge the majority of business owner face today is that they are so busy working IN their business that they cannot see the full potential of their business.

 

All too frequently I look at businesses and think the owner is doing well, only to discover whilst talking to them, that they are not earning as much, (when their income is converted to an hourly rate), as their top employee’s.

 

For example: Last year we had a Client who each week was doing the manual roles himself.  When asked how much would it cost to employ someone to do theses jobs he was doing, he replied “ about £500 per week”.  I then asked how much extra business he could generate if he spent this same time in a week looking for new customers. He said he could generate about £5,000 worth of new business in a week. Let’s do the maths???

 

It’s obvious, looking from an outsider’s perspective, that the logical thing for the owner to do is employ a cleaner to work IN the business so that the owner can work ON the business.

 

How much mundane work are you doing that could often be completed by a someone else.  Think about your business.  How much work do you do that could be done by a junior or a casual, or maybe even a semi retired person?

 

  • What are your opportunity costs?
  • What value do you place on your time?
  • How much extra business could you generate if you employed someone to do the day to day work?

 

Then think about what would it mean to your customers and your business if you were “freed up” to:

 

  • follow up enquires that haven’t been chased up;
  • socialising with customers encouraging them to come back;
  • phoning existing customers;
  • The bottom line is you could be spending time on vital sales and marketing, but you’re bogged down doing the day to day, time consuming, physical work that someone else could be doing;

 

Do you analyse your time and evaluate yourself and your time?

Use professional advisers to help you in areas that you aren’t an expert in.  Get yourself a competent accountant and hire a bookkeeper, these sorts of people will save you time and money.

When we get involved in business, most of us do so with little or no assistance at all. Yet “a business” as an investment can and does, when well managed, outperform every other type of investment.

Best way is to look back on the previous year.  Think about the results achieved and how it could have been done differently and what adjustments for the forthcoming year you will need to make to obtain the results you require.

Then make a plan for the forthcoming year next year and look at what assistance you require to obtain the desired result.

 

Remember above all else, that time spent working on your business is far more important than time spent working in it.