Is time management a hot topic for you? Whenever I talk to business owners they have two main concerns, making more money and attempting to work less hours in a week.
In other words getting from 80-100 hrs a week to something like 60-70 hrs/wk. As a business owner, the idea of a 40 hr work week or a business that works without me the owner is someone’s idea of a joke.
In one of our surveys we did with business owners we asked the question, How long would your business last if you were not there (eg. You were hit by a bus and in a coma in the hospital). Everyone laughs at the question.
Many times the owner of a small business ends up doing everything. So they end up working IN the business instead of ON the business. So how do we get business owners working hard on smart things insteading of working hard or thinking about how to work smart?
My #1 time management priority everyday in my business– if it doesn’t add money to the bottom line, I don’t work on it. No money coming in, no point in making a pretty spreadsheet or spending countless hours in a meeting with an undefined purpose.
The The key time management tool for an owner is to figure out what he is worth an hour. That will determine what a business owner should be working on.
For example:
Let’s say your business brings in annual revenue of $750,000. Now you have to figure out what you are worth an hour. Since you are the owner you are the rainmaker, the person who makes things happen. The buck stops with you.
So, if you were working a normal week, and I know you aren’t. Let’s say it’s 40 hrs and you work 49 weeks. Your total hours per year are 49 x 40 = 1,960 hrs. So $750,000/1960 = $383/hr (rounded up).
That means you as the owner is worth $383/hr. So if what you are working on isn’t worth $383/hr; stop it!
Real life example — you are working late each night catching up on paperwork and doing the book keeping and you spend 30% of the week doing it. So that means it is costing you and your business over $18,000/m because you are doing those admin tasks. If you hired someone to do it and pay them $20/hr that means the cost of the person is $960. So if you hired the person and then spent that 30% generating an additional $18,000 less their $960 you are making $17,040. So stop saving a wage it could be costing you a fortune!
To your success and the success of our communities in Canada,
ActionCOACH Canada 