Time is
the most precious resource on the planet, but sometimes we don’t treat it that
way. In our businesses, it’s
important to get everything done, but we can also get overwhelmed with all the
little things that need to be done to take care of customers. One of the big differences between
highly successful entrepreneurs and less successful ones is how they manage
their time: the more successful simply
value it more and treat it as the scarce commodity it is.
A great
exercise to bring this home is to track what you do in one day. You can write a diary as you go through
the day or simply recall what you did at the end of the day. List the tasks you did; then write the
hourly market rate of each task you did next to the task.
Did you
spend time on low-level tasks such as email cleanup, filing, order-taking,
order filling, or handling routine customer questions? Or did you spend time calling up power
partners, dreaming up new products or services, or restyling your marketing
message so that it’s more impactful and reaches more customers?
What was
the average hourly rate of the tasks you did today? Multiply that by 2,000 hours and compare it your gross
revenues. If your gross revenues
were higher than the value of the tasks you did today, then your revenue might
be stagnant. If your annualized
day was worth more than your gross revenues, then congratulations; you’re
moving up and giving yourself a raise.
Your business is likely growing.
If you’d
like a raise, then the first thing to do is to start delegating the lower level
tasks that are eating up all your time.
They might be a comfortable way for you to pass the time, but they could
also be keeping you stuck, overwhelmed, and moving toward burnout.
We all
have the same amount of time each day.
If we can free up our time to focus on more powerful action items that
move our business forward instead of the chores that clog our progress, then
our success will accelerate.
