Business Owner Time Savers

The fact is business should not be excessively time-consuming to the business owner. In fact, I’d go so far as to say business owners should not be time-poor at all! That sounds challenging, doesn’t it?

What I’m meaning is that — while so many business owners, particularly start-ups, spend so much time doing all the various tasks in the business, they shouldn’t be!

Tim Ferris gave us a clue when he said:

As I’ve written before, we all have different talents. So, let’s use ours, and let others use theirs. What do I mean?

Well, how about we business owners get on with what we are good at — that thing that made us get into business in the first place — and get others (who have the necessary talents) do the other tasks.

But it costs money, you say!? Sure, but consider how much money you can make in an hour by doing what you do (so well). Then compare that to how much it would cost to have an expert do that task, which you spend hours on and can’t be sure you get right. Are you with me?

By way of example, let me tell you about when I arrived at a client’s business premises once (for our regular meeting). By spending a short while on the phone with customers (current or potential) the owner was pretty much guaranteed to get sales, probably hundreds of dollars worth. However, when I arrived, he was on the forklift shifting stock around — just to save the cost of a forklift driver for an hour or two.

So, in ‘saving’, let’s say $50 on hiring a temp forklift driver, he had an opportunity cost (lost, or at least postponed) of $100′s of sales. Do you see the logic in that? I don’t.

A classic, and very common example is business owners doing their own accounts and tax returns. If they’ve been trained to do that, well fine. But most haven’t, have they? Yet they spend hours and hours — usually nights and weekends (= family time) — preparing these things, often without understanding them.

I think it’s worth relating what Howard G. Hendricks says here:

The cost here — without reiterating family relationships — is often measured in mistakes. Mistakes in the accounts and tax returns — meaning too much tax is paid, or too little — which the tax man usually finds out and stings the business for, badly. And the tiredness leads to mistakes in other tasks too.

Finally, a further reason for time consumption is the lack of systems documentation. This leads to owner dependency — employees don’t know how to do things because there’s no manual — it’s all in the owner’s head. So the owner stays on to make sure things happen — or fix the errors — or just plain do it themselves!

But how does the business owner get to ‘that point’? Below is a list of actions/techniques that will help. Given we’re all different, which of these will be most effective for you will vary according to your combination of needs, strengths, and other circumstances.

Here’s the list — which I should point out is not comprehensive, as your circumstances may dictate other solutions also:

1. Document your systems, and use these clearly spelled out instructions to train your team, so they know what to do and how to do it (or where to look to find out) at all times.
2. Prioritize what must be done — by yourself and by the business. There are many ways of doing this, so you will need to find the one that works best for you.
3. Delegate tasks to the appropriate people (employees, contractors, or service providers), so you can focus on what’s important.
4. Allocate a set time for the tasks you find have a habit of distracting you from what’s actually important — things like emails or phone calls. While these might be called time-wasters, some (at least) do just have to be done.
5. Plan the tasks that remain efficiently.

Now, I know that seems like a really short list. But it packs a real punch. If it’s implemented correctly. So, let’s discuss it further.

1. Document Your Systems

This might sound simple, but many business owners, when they set out to do it find the task is not quite so easy. Basically, what you need to do — and, yes, it’s time-consuming (although the results are rewarding) — is document each step of each task carried out within the business. If you have no problem doing this kind of thing, jump right in. If it’s not your thing, then utilize an appropriately-skilled employee, or maybe hire a temp to do it.

And, remember, the procedures manual — for that’s what it will become — is not a dust gatherer, to be tucked away on a shelf somewhere. It should be the go-to reference for everyone, and the basis for training all employees. It should also be kept up to date — processes do change over time, with new technology or new techniques being adopted. Speaking of technology, you may want to have the document available on your computer system (an intranet), rather than having large folders of paper everywhere.

1. Prioritize What Must Be Done

This is a problem faced by all of us, by people since the beginning of time. Consequently, there are many, many suggested techniques for doing so. I believe the fundamental thing here is to have your business mission at the core of the process. By that, I mean that each task should be evaluated/prioritized based on its ability to contribute to the mission.

One such system was invented by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said:

Following on from this he developed what is called the Eisenhower Matrix (or Box), which looks like this:

The way the matrix works is that you allocated tasks according to their importance, and their urgency. As you can see, anything that is neither urgent nor important is simply deleted from the list. You’ll be amazed at how many things will be in this quadrant!

There are many other techniques, some based on the above.

1. Delegate Tasks To Appropriate People

You will note that the chart in point 2 also assists with the delegation process. However, I would repeat my recommendation to make sure the delegate is appropriately trained and skilled for the tasks allocated. Also, as mentioned, there are important tasks (which, hopefully, you have done before they become urgent) that may not belong with your employees (or yourself) at all.

My common suggestion is, of course, the preparation of your year-end financial statements and income tax returns. But, for many, it may also be other regular statutory (usually tax) forms. My recommendation is — hire an expert, and value their input. And, go and enjoy the hours saved with your family.

1. Allocate Blocks Of Time

Time-wasters come in all shapes and sizes. While, using the prioritization matrix discussed, many of these can be eliminated, there are some things we just can’t avoid. Okay, some of these can be delegated, but the remainder we must control, or they will control us. So, set aside the time that suits you most to nail these things. For example, you might decide that all calls you must make will be done between 11 am and 12 noon. Or you might choose to only answer emails between 1 pm and 2 pm.

Outside of these times, simply ignore these tasks. You might need to lock your door, turn off your phone, log out of email, etc. Do whatever it takes to ensure you truly focus on what’s important.

1. Plan For Efficiency

The above will require discipline — particularly as you settle into this routine. But there’s another side to time allocation — and that’s ensuring it engenders efficiency. So, here are some techniques you can use when allocating your time:

• Work out when you are most efficient (it’s often the first-thing in the morning) and plan to do the most important things then.
• Allocate tasks of a similar nature to the same time-slot — so you get the benefit of repetition efficiency.

Finally, if you really, truly have ‘too much to do’, use Pareto analysis (often called the 80:20 rule) to determine what’s next. This rule says you target things according to the degree of ‘bang for buck’ you will get. That is, you determine which will give you the greatest return for your time/effort and do that first, and so on down the list. This is because the rule says that 20% of your time/effort will give you 80% of your results.

Will these suggestions help you save time? No, but they will help you use it more wisely. I’ll leave the final word to Benjamin Hoff:

This blog was first published on 1 August 2019 at www.beanstalkknowhow.com