A frequent complaint from business owners is the heavy workload that detracts from more productive tasks while restricting their personal lifestyle as well. The responsibilities of managing the company prevent the owner from effectively operating the company, which limits his income from the company. Long hours and low pay take the fun out of business ownership. In his latest book, Instant Profit, ActionCOACH founder and CEO Brad Sugars explains how managing and prioritizing the activities that consume the hours in one’s day can actually enable more personal leisure time and greater productivity.
“Many business owners,” Sugars said, “have let their responsibilities grow with their company. They now work 80-hour weeks and rarely take vacations. The break out of that rut, the owners need to reconsider the priorities in their work days. In my experience, most owners of small-to-medium sized business can eliminate or delegate a significant percentage of their workload.”
Sugars does not coach his clients to manage their time, he focuses on aligning activities with goals on an annual basis. Working backwards from the annual goals, Sugars guides his clients to analyze the activity required to succeed, and then break that down into detailed tasks per quarter. After Q1, he assesses performance and adjusts the activity levels for Q2 accordingly. With the plan in place to attain long-term goals, the business owner can realistically evaluate his daily workload to eliminate activities that are not in the business plan, and delegate others as possible. As the skills and talent of the employee team are developed and trained, more tasks will qualify for delegation.
Here are seven suggestions from Sugars for achieving better management of business operations and the more effective utilization of a business owner’s personal time:
1. Delegate as possible – assign activities to staff with the appropriate skills. Develop staff skills to accept greater responsibility.
2. Prioritize – maintain the discipline to prioritize daily work according to the business plan. Do not do what’s not on the list – resist the urge to be distracted and to do things that you enjoy more.
3. Touch any piece of paper only once – take action. Avoid setting aside anything for further consideration.
4. Organize – clean up your workspace. Be more efficient.
5. Avoid interruptions – when projects deadlines approach, set your phone to voicemail, mute your cell, and shut the office door.
6. Just say “No” – this is maybe the most effective way to avoid distractions. Use it only as necessary to avoid being seen as uncooperative.
7. Relax – set aside personal time on a daily basis, and for several days. Take vacations, particularly mini-vacations. The harder you work, the more you need to balance your leisure and exercise time.
As a business owner, the key to time-management is to build your personal and business life around your individual needs and desired outcomes through planned and measured activities.
About ActionCOACH
ActionCOACH is the world’s number one business coaching firm, with more than 1,000 offices in 26 countries. To learn more about business coaching and ActionCOACH, go to actioncoach.com.
