Master Your Time: 3 Game-Changing Tactics to Reclaim Your Life
How is your current workload? Working 50, 60, 70+ hours a week? Want more time back?
You’re not alone if the pandemic has forced you back into the details of your company. Due to the need to fire front-line workers or because one of their employees fell ill or had to take care of a family member, many business owners are now performing duties they haven’t done in years.
Being back in the thick of things is not long-term good for you or your company. In addition to making you personally burn out, doing all the work yourself will make your company less valuable.
The time is now to restructure your business so that it can once again function without your involvement. These three actions should be useful:
Step 1: Sell less stuff to more people.
Most businesses offer too many goods and services, which causes them to become overly reliant on their owner. With such a wide range of options, it can be challenging to hire and develop capable staff. The key is to choose a distinguishing trait and concentrate on attracting new clients rather than adding additional products to your catalog.
Consider Gabriela Isturiz as an illustration. She was a founding member of Bellefield Systems, a business that provides a timekeeping program for attorneys. The company hired an additional 45 people during the following seven years. Despite the fact that many companies charge by the hour, Isturiz only worked with timekeeping for attorneys, which is one of the reasons she was able to integrate with 32 practice management systems used by attorneys and a key factor in why Bellefield’s product was so popular. When Isturiz sold her business in 2019, it went smoothly because she was growing by 50% annually and had EBITDA margins of more than 25%.
Step 2: Systemize it.
Next, concentrate on developing policies and practices that staff members can adhere to. For instance, Nashville-based Bryan Clayton created the landscaping company Peachtree. The majority of lawn care businesses are mom-and-pop shops, but before selling Peachtree to LUSA for a seven-figure gain, Clayton grew it to 150 people.
Why was Peachtree so special? Clayton concentrated on recording his procedures. For instance, a McDonald’s franchisee with 40 sites was one of his clients. Clayton offered to clean the debris from the lanes as part of his lawn care routine since he was annoyed by how many customers left cigarette butts in his drive-through. The drive-through clean-up procedure he had developed was then taught to his staff so that it was used at all 40 of the client’s facilities.
Step 3: Outsource it.
Next, think about outsourcing your less-than-stellar skills. As an illustration, David Lekach created Dream Water, a natural sedative packaged in a five-ounce shot akin to the well-known 5-Hour Energy Drink.
Before selling Dream Water to cannabis startup Harvest One for $34.5 million in cash and Harvest One stock, Lekach grew the business to approximately $10 million in yearly revenue. Lekach considered that his job was “selling Dream Water, not making it.” By doing so, he allowed Lekach and his team to concentrate on selling Dream Water by contracting out the production, packaging, and distribution of Dream Water to a co-packer.
A simple way to determine if you need to outsource or delegate a task is, as you are going throughout your day and you think, “Oh CRAP, I have to do that…” Add that to a list. Everything on your “Oh CRAP” list needs to be delegated or outsourced.
A leader stepping in during a crisis is natural, but that is not long-term sustainable. Pull yourself out of the doing, and you’ll create a lasting business that is much less stressful to run along the way.
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