Business Is A Tough Gig
What will YOU do with 525,600?
I’m not talking about $$$ here.
I’m talking about time.
The number of minutes in a year.
A commodity which we all have equal amounts of.
There’s no discrimination regarding class status. Race. Religion. Gender. Country.
Every person is allocated 60 minutes per hour. 1,440 minutes per day. 43,800 minutes per month. 525,600 minutes per year.
It’s the only commodity you can’t increase. There’s no interest gained if you put it away and don’t use it.
As a matter of fact, the tick. tock. tick. tock. Of the clock. Marches on. Whatever you do.
It’s the ‘whatever you do’. That matters.
And in this respect, we are not all created equal.
Some people complain about never having enough time to do things. And get little done.
Other people claim there just isn’t enough time in the day to do all they want to do. And do so much more than the average person.
Our view of time governs our life. And what we accomplish.
Some people think time is precious. And is not to be wasted. This is not a notion reserved just for the terminally ill. Who know time is running out. But for the great achievers of the world.
When my partner, Victor Pleshev, the architect who designed the Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover for his mother, and I were travelling 60,000 kilometres per year exhibiting our ironing board cover at any venue where I could spruik, we met many different types of people.
One young man’s words still live on in my head. “I can’t understand why healthy people sleep so much. Sleep is permanent when you’re dead. Life is about spending your time accomplishing things.” I asked him what he did. He was 28 years old. And had just bought the company he was representing. I looked that company up today. He turns over $50 Million per year.
I know mothers with one or two children who can barely get through the day.
I also know mothers with large families who power through the day. Putting all the rest to shame.
Many years ago I read a comment by a famous author of business books, Dan Kennedy, who said “To judge how well a person is doing. Look at how much they do in a week.”
This is the dividing line between the men and women who achieve. And the men and women who just get by.
Running my worldwide business, The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover And Other Goodies, takes an enormous amount of energy. Vision. Tenacity. Persistence. Discipline.
There is no slacking off. Because once I do, someone else will take my place in the hearts of men and women who iron.
My day starts at 4AM. There are always emails from overseas enquiring about my product range. If I don’t answer them within their daytime hours, they’ve gone on to someone else. And I’ve lost a potential customer.
And I schedule each day according to how much time it takes me to do the things I need to do that day. That week. That month.
How do I know how long it takes me to do things? I have a count up timer on my desk. Which I turn on when I’m doing something new. So I know how much time I need to allocate to each task. And these times are recorded on a Mindmeister mind map. Paid version. Not free version.
I know how long it takes me to create a record for a customer in my database. How long it takes to print out labels. Thank you notes. Referral forms. How long it takes to pack each parcel. Prepare the Australia Post lodgement form. And keep my stock inventory up to date.
I know how long it takes to do the GST. And my yearly accounts for my accountant.
I know how long it takes to write a blog post.
How long it takes to prepare my daily emails which I send out to prospects. Introducing my products to potential new institutional clients.
I also have to leave time to make phone calls every day. To introduce myself to customers I’ve never met.
In running my business, time is a commodity to be used wisely. And how long it takes me to do something is crucial to my success in achieving my goals.
A business that doesn’t value its time is a business that’s on its way to nowhere.
The same thing applies to our personal lives. If we have goals. We need to allocate the time to achieve them. Whether it’s learning how to be a better cook. Better domestic goddess. Better gardener. Better quilter. Carpenter. Woodturner. Artist. Hobbyist. Whatever. If you have a goal. And don’t set time aside every day to achieve it. It will stay in the dormant pile.
And the day will come. When your time runs out. Because death is always on the cards.
~Carol Jones, Ironing Diva❤
Life Behind The Scenes With The Ironing Diva are my stories about how my partner, Victor Pleshev, and I created a new life out of the ashes of Australia’s ‘recession we had to have’. How did we design 8 products? And get them to market? How did we build a worldwide business from broke? How did we carve out a rural lifestyle that is the envy of our friends? And our customers? How did we create a beautiful hectare of garden out of a barren paddock sitting atop an infertile rock shelf? It wasn’t easy. But this is the business and the lifestyle that we built from scratch. The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover And Other Goodies.
