The Myth of Needing More Time

by smallbizbee · 8 comments

What if I told you the idea of needing more time to accomplish your small business goals is a myth? That’s right, it’s a myth. You don’t need any more time than you currently have to grow or start your small business. Don’t believe me?

Take a look at the list of the Top 50 Entrepreneurs Ever, pretty successful people right? In that list there are some of the most innovative, creative, and truly visionary (not to mention rich) people who have ever done business. And they accomplished all of their feats in the same 24 hours a day you and me have.

How is it that Henry Ford invented the assembly line, Sam Walton redefined discount shopping, and Howard Schultz’s love for coffee turned Grande Late into a household phrase when you are struggling to find an extra 5 minutes to start on your business plan? Two words…Time Management.

If you look over the list of dirty business words and phrases, you’ll see that many of them have to do with time, or our perception of time. We always think we don’t have enough when the key is doing the right things with the time we have.

Steps to Effective Time Management for the Small Business Entrepreneur

One: This week skip your favorite TV show and with that time create a list of everything you need to get done for your business in the next week, month, and (gasp!) year. This will be a very long and daunting list.

Two: With this list, prioritize based on 3 categories…

Bare Minimum Necessity

Moneymakers

Nice to Have

Bare Minimum Necessities include things like writing your business plan, setting up phone line or business infrastructure, or anything else that absolutely has to be done before you can open your doors for business, or effectively grow your current business.

Moneymakers are those things that will produce income/revenue right away.

Nice to Haves are just as the name suggest, Nice to have, but may not add value immediately.

Three: Now attach a realistic time needed to accomplish each task…now add 25% to that number. If for example I think writing a business plan will take 2 hours, I am going to allot 2 ½ hours to accomplish that goal (things always take longer than estimated).

Four: Move everything you have marked as Bare Minimum Necessity to the top of the list. Next are the Moneymakers, and finally the Nice to Haves.

Five: Believe it or not you now have your prioritized road map for the next YEAR! And you have a realistic estimate of how much time you will need to accomplish EVERYTHING on your list! The hours needed may be huge, and you may be feeling like you’ll never get it all done, but believe me you are better off knowing what you are up against so you can manage your time, than running blindly through the mine field only to give up because you are feeling overwhelmed.

Also this is a nice sanity check, if you have 10,000 hours worth of stuff you would like to get done in the next year you may be setting yourself up for failure, time to reprioritize a manageable workload for the upcoming year. A full time job is roughly 2000 hours a year, so base your small business workload off of this (especially if you are still working your day job).

Six: Nothing to it but to get to it. Start working your way down your list. Need 2 ½ hours to write your business plan? No problem, skip that movie, or stay up an hour later than normal twice this week. Find the time, sacrifice some of your “free time” (yes you have free time - you did something today for at least a few minutes that wasn’t productive). Get real about what you need to get done, and do it!

Seven: Continue to monitor your progress on your list. And be sure to do a check that you are allocating your precious time to those activities that have the most positive impact on your business. Don’t spend 8 hours trying to create the perfect logo for your business, if taking 30 minutes to make some sales calls will bring in revenue now.

Eight: Micro manage yourself. If you’ve given yourself 2 ½ hours to write your business plan, write out how you will use those two hours. Any task longer than 15 minutes needs it’s own mini time management plan, or you will end up using your time in a less than productive manner, or wasting it all together. If you’re wasting 15 minutes here and there it will add up over the course of a year. Let’s say you have 50 task on your to-do list…you waste 15 minutes on each task and you’ve cost yourself 12 ½ hours. What could you do with an extra 12 ½ hours?

For example your 2 ½ hour mini plan to write your business plan may look like this:

15 minutes – Compile all business plan resources I need. Templates, models, and tips collected online.

30 minutes – Write outline

45 minutes – Add research and round out the plan

30 minutes – Edit and review

15 minutes – Send plan to an expert or trusted source for second level review and feedback.

15 minutes – Review process. Was there anything I didn’t get done in this 120 minutes that needs to be added to my priority list.

Time management for the small business owner is all about planning, and allocating your precious time resources accordingly. By prioritizing your list of things you need to do from those that need to be done now, to those that add immediate value, and then leaving the rest for any additional time you may have, you’ll be laying a solid foundation to accomplish more in the 24 hours we’re given each day. You have exactly the same amount of time as everyone else; you just need a road map on how to use it most effectively.

Thanks for taking your valuable time to read this.

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