As a business owner, you have a bird’s-eye view of productivity, efficiency, sales, and most importantly, profits. Imagine, for a moment, the kind of impact that managing your best asset to T might have on your business overall. Chances are that it would have a transformative effect on all facets of your business.
Today, that’s exactly what we’re going to aim to do. But first, what is your company’s most valuable asset? Your capital? Your employees? Your customers?
Equipment eventually breaks down and needs to be replaced. Your staff is extremely valuable, but if you were forced to replace them, there would be a pool of other candidates for the job. Of course, you value your customers; but you also have a system in place that allows you to gain more when others leave.
Believe it or not, your business’s most valuable asset is your time. Time is something you can never get back, and as a business owner, your time, specifically, is the most essential kind of time your company has.
Hands holding goals letters with the background
6 Areas That NEED Your Time
1. Casting Vision
At the end of the day, there’s only one person in your organization who is fully invested in the long-term outlook of your business—you! You need to spend time dreaming about where you want your business to be two, five, or even 10 years from now. Then, focus on aligning your employees with that vision.
2. Setting Company Goals
While you can certainly have other high-capacity leaders help you in this area, you are ultimately responsible for setting your company’s short-term and long-term goals. An effective roadmap needs to be crafted at the very top.
3. Creating New Strategies
This is another area where you can gather input from other high-capacity leaders within your organization. It’s likely that in your many years of industry experience, however, you have an idea of the types of strategies that would and wouldn’t work for your business.
4. Identifying Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
No one in your organization understands your products quite like you. In all likelihood, you conceived them in your mind and spearheaded the effort to bring them to life. Therefore, you also understand the unique qualities that separate your product from others in your market and how to communicate them to prospects.
5. Developing an Effective Marketing Plan
While you may already have an employee who oversees marketing and sales at your organization, it’s important to have your hand in crafting your company’s marketing plan. Given your business background, you have a unique perspective on how to resonate with new customers.
6. Hiring and Training Employees
Particularly if you operate a small business, you may be the only person with the authority to vet and hire new employees. Similarly, you may be the only person with the knowledge to train new employees properly—in which case, you need to ensure that there is ample time in your schedule to invest in their development.
How to Optimize Your Workday for Maximum Success
Now, with only 24 hours in a day, how can you optimize your workday to have the greatest effect on your business’s trajectory and long-term success?
Simply put, your time should only be spent on tasks that have a direct impact on bringing in customers, retaining them, and earning as much profit as possible. This is something I tell all of my clients. While they may understand the importance of focusing on the above-mentioned tasks, there’s a question that inevitably follows:
“But Wayne, how do I possibly find the time for all of these things?”
The answer is actually quite simple: stop. Stop working on tasks that can easily be outsourced or delegated to someone else.
Here’s an easy way to determine just how much of your time is being wasted on unnecessary tasks. Track your time! For two weeks, keep a running list of all of the tasks you complete. Then, identify any line items that don’t require your expertise or experience. Finally, work on reassigning those tasks to other employees and subcontractors who can do the job just as well, if not better.
Many business owners find that they can free up 80% or more of their schedules with this simple exercise. Now, imagine how spending that newfound time on tasks that only you can perform might transform your business!