Running
a business usually means putting in over 40 hours a week. In fact, if you’re the typical entrepreneur,
you have more ideas you want to implement than you have time for! That’s when proactive, strategically executed
prioritization can make all the difference.
So Hard to Choose
If you
have lots of ideas in your head or on your “to do” list that are not getting
done, you’re certainly not alone. Here’s
a process for helping you decide what to do first, next, and not at all.
Step
1:
Write down all your ideas, tasks, “to
do’s,” projects, and even items you need to do on a daily basis. Use a spreadsheet and list each item in a row
by itself. Later you’ll want to be able
to sort the list, so we recommend using Excel or another spreadsheet
software.
Once
you have everything down on paper, you will be amazed at how much this
unclutters your thinking. You will also
have all your great ideas captured so you don’t forget them. You might also get very overwhelmed, but
don’t stop now. Relief is on the way.
Step 2:
Add some information about each item, creating four additional columns:
A. Is this
item about working IN your business (client work, overhead, etc.) or ON your
business (new products or new services, developing procedures, hiring more
staff, marketing, creating new partnerships)?
B. Is this
item revenue-generating? Or will you
lose revenue if you don’t get it done?
C. Can you
delegate this task or does it have to be done by you?
D. If you
were to hire someone to do this task, how much would it be worth per hour?
Step
3:
Analyze your choices. Once you have these additional items filled
in, you can go wild with opportunities.
Here are some very cool eye-opening activities to try:
- Separate
tasks that are working ON vs. IN your business.
There is never enough time to work on your business, so force it by
blocking out a few hours or a half-day a week and do it, no matter what. It might be the best way to make progress in
your business.
- Sort
the list by how much revenue the task could generate or how much potential it
has, and decide how to prioritize from there.
If you need help calculating the ROI, return on investment of an idea,
we can help you calculate that.
- Take a
look at what you marked “not able to delegate,” and ask “why not?” Does a procedure need to be written? Do you need more staff? Does your staff need training? Or do you need to learn to let go? Whatever it is, and especially if there are a
lot of these items, get these roadblocks tackled so you don’t become the
bottleneck in your own business.
- Sort the list by “column D” above, the market value you recorded for the task. Then ask yourself what your hourly rate is. How many tasks are you doing that are below your hourly rate? Hiring someone to do your lowest level tasks could very well be another item you need to add to your new “to do” list!
This
last one is really important, because it can so strongly affect the
profitability of your business. The last
thing you want to do is go backwards and give yourself a demotion with a pay
decrease, but that’s exactly what you’re doing each time you do a task yourself
that’s at a low market rate.
Step
4:
Prioritize with confidence. With all of this information in an organized
spreadsheet, you will gain the clarity you need to make some powerful decisions
about how to spend your time.
Time
There’s
nothing more precious and scarce than our time.
Every day, we have a choice about how to spend it, but too often we get
caught up in the urgent, but not important, daily fires. This exercise helps us take a step back and
look at what’s important instead of what’s urgent.
