You’ve accepted it. It may have taken some time to acknowledge properly, but you’ve now accepted that as a business owner, your own time is incredibly valuable and that you need to use it wisely.
In my last article (7 Reasons To Get Yourself A Bookkeeper), I made this my 1st reason. Telling you that in order to get the most out your time, then ditch the bookkeeping duties and get someone else to do it for you.
But then what…… You’ve freed up your time, but how do you make sure that you make the most out of this shift. Well, in one word its all about FOCUS. Firstly we need to consider how you are able to focus on something in the place, and secondly, what you need to focus on.
How To Focus
I recently read a great article by Nadya Khoja called “3 Ways to Manage Your Time and Boost Productivity”. It highlights a distinct difference in how different people are able to focus on tasks in hand, from the “Maker”, who likes to concentrate on one project at a time and struggles with distraction, to the “Manager” who is adept at moving between tasks and switch their focus accordingly.
Personally, I see this as too simplistic, as I believe there to be many more categories out there that you as a business owner my slot into. The key thing to note is that we are all different, and we all need to find out where we are on that scale in order to get ourselves focused properly.
Me. I love the idea of having my day scheduled out and broken down into clearly defined chunks, and whenever I’ve decided to adopt such an approach, I have loved spending the day getting everything sorted and in place to run such a system. But actually doing it……. It never quite happens. I’m more on the other end of the scale, finding enjoyment and enthusiasm for throwing myself into a set task until completion (setting up the system), but then I’m more naturally inclined to find the next piece of work that I can get absorbed in.
If you feel you are more of a “Manager”, then:
- Prepare a schedule for your full day, broken down into chunks.
- Review regularly to ensure that you are not allowing jobs/tasks that others could be doing for you to creep back in.
- Check to make sure you’ve been able to complete your expected workload within its allotted time. If certain tasks take longer than expected, make sure you allow for that the next time you undertake the work, so as not to put too much pressure or disruption on your schedule.
If you feel you are more of a “Maker”, then:
- Prepare your schedule on a weekly or monthly basis so that you can work on and complete projects at a time, rather than tasks.
- To remove distractions, set aside a portion of time each day (or week) where you will have your meetings, respond to e-mails or be available to others. Outside of that, put those devices away, and get to work.
- Be disciplined and finish the project in hand before jumping onto the next idea that you’ve had.
What To Focus On
In case I’ve left you in any doubts, it’s not the little things. I’m not saying to disregard attention to detail – that’s different. If something doesn’t have a significant impact on the performance of the business, then it should be passed on to someone else to complete or be responsible for.
Running a business is not easy, so you need to take the opportunity where you can to narrow down the areas that you should be focusing on. I think Neil Petch in his article “Prioritizing Your Business’ Growth: Three Key Areas Entrepreneurs Should Focus On” has it right by identifying the following 3 areas:
- Your Product/Service
- Your Team
- Your Marketing Mindset
Your Product/Service
If you are a business owner, then it’s probably you who has created your product or designed your service. They have come into existence because of you, based on your beliefs about what your customers want and how you believe you can provide a solution to them.
In all of this, you are the key ingredient, and that is why you need to continue to devote time to nothing other than striving to make your product/service even better. And when you achieved that, go and make it better again. If you pass this on to someone else, that is the moment that you hand over your business and place yourself as a general manager just waiting to be swallowed up by the competition.
Your Team
Building the right team is critical for your future success. Everyone that works for you (whether employed or sub-contracted) needs to be the right fit for you. Be it small or large, having the right team is vital. The right team will work together and make your vision happen, the wrong team (or even just a single wrong person within your team) can have a tremendously destabilising effect on your business and needs to be avoided.
When looking to add people to your team, don’t compromise, only consider the people with the best attitude and the best ability, so that they can make your business better.
And your existing team? Well, attitude is key. If they don’t have the right attitude then you need to take action, or else they will just weigh you down. Gaps in ability can be addressed by training and mentoring, but shortcomings in attitude are much harder to resolve.
Your Marketing Mindset
Now, I don’t mean that you should do all of your marketing yourself. I just mean that you should be the lead contributor to the mindset of your businesses marketing. As I stated before – you are the key ingredient here. It’s your passion and vision that has created the business, therefore it should be your passion and vision that informs the marketing effort. By capturing that, you can instil your excitement into your customers and drive forward your business.
Focused Now? Then Get going!
There’s no doubt in my mind that being able to properly focus on your business and utilising your own time effectively will have one of the biggest impacts in your ability to grow and succeed.
So go and figure out what it takes for you personally to focus properly, and then get working on those 3 key areas to drive you forward.
As ever, I would love to hear your comments. Do you have any other advice for helping people to focus, or do you feel there are other areas of a business that need to be focused on by the business owner?
