Being a business owner isn’t easy and there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. Whether you have no team, a small team or even a big team, there is a constant juggle of strategy, client work and administration in order to stay afloat.
Despite having a constant stream of work and amazing feedback from your clients, it can get you down if you’re continuing to feel like you’re on the back foot. But don’t despair! Here are some steps that you can take to see where you could be doing things differently to help make the most of your precious time.
Time tracking
This is one of the very first exercises that I do with my clients and it’s always such an eye opener. Over 3 to 5 days, in blocks of 30 minutes, simply write down what activities you’ve been doing. They could be business or personal, it doesn’t matter.
This gives you an unbiased view of where you spend your time, as opposed to where you think you spend your time. You will quickly be able to identify where you should be spending less time on non-income producing activities, outsourcing tasks or eliminating them altogether. And yes, you will probably be shocked at some of the results (eg social media scrolling), but just knowing how much time you spend in each area gives you the power to make a change.
Revisit your offers
Which offers take the most time for you to deliver? Adding in an hourly rate into the costing of your offers can greatly impact your profitability. You may think it’s great that you’re selling an offer for $500, but if it takes you 10 hours to deliver, plus additional outsourcing costs, then it’s not really that profitable for you. You’d be better off spending the same amount of time on a lower ticket item.
Similarly, take a look at your premium offer (or create a new one if you don’t already have one) and check that it’s your most profitable, using the time allocation above. Focusing your efforts on selling this offer will reduce your overall time spent marketing as you won’t need as many clients to hit your income goal.
Outsourcing
How can you work more inside of your zone of genius? From your time tracking exercise, it will be easy to identify those activities that are taking you away from the bigger impact that you want to make in this world. You should look at outsourcing tasks that don’t light you up, that are outside your zone of genius and that don’t necessarily directly produce income for your business.
One to many
Reducing the amount of time that you spend on a package per client can be reduced by creating an offer that impacts more than one client at a time.
Typically this may involve a course, a workshop, group program or membership. Please carefully consider this option as it may not be the right avenue for your business. There is a lot of set up work involved and it may significantly impact your time and financial resources in the short term.
Values
It’s always important to do a check in with your values. Are you spending time where you feel most aligned? Doing things that are outside of your values will usually mean wasting time, as you struggle to feel motivated and will take you longer to complete.
Switch this to focusing on tasks that align with your values and watch your productivity increase! You’ll get more done in less time.
So, when you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and under time pressure, check in with these five suggestions and I guarantee that you’ll feel happier and more in flow. I know that you’re destined for bigger things and you’re dying to make a bigger impact. Small changes can free up a lot of time.
If you’re still wondering how best to move forward, then My Baseline to Blue Sky package can help you gain clarity. You will know exactly where you should be spending time to meet your business dreams, and the financial impact of all your options.