Costs are skyrocketing across the board — Raw goods and materials are rising due to inflation and tariffs; the cost to transport your products increase by the day with fluctuation in oil and gas prices and wages continue an upward trajectory. Business owners find themselves struggling to maintain profitable margins while minimizing impacts to customers and consumers. However, one critical business commodity remains untouched by cost variables yet is your most precious asset: Time.
Whether you have built your business from scratch, expanded an existing concept or even inherited a family operation, there are never enough hours in the day. Especially during critical growth periods you likely wear unlimited hats from management to procurement and even housekeeping. Keeping a handle on not letting this precious commodity slip away is a key factor of any owner’s success. Below are a few tips for managing yourself so you can make the most of those crucial 24 hours in any one day:
Start with the Basics: Especially if you are in a very lean, start-up phase for your business, stay focused on the key tasks at hand so essential to-do items don’t slip away. Make a list of the must-dos first, such as setting up insurance, liability coverage needs, physical plant requirements licenses and permits if you are short on time. Other ideas and details can wait when you are super pressed for time.
Move Items to a “Secondary” List: As you attempt to tackle your key needs each day, inevitably other tasks and ideas will come up. Instead of getting side tracked off your daily requirements, start a running list of other items you need to do and then time prioritize them — For example, can that email reply be done tomorrow? Move it off today’s list. Does your web site need a refresh but you are short on filling orders? Drop it over to the ‘can be done in the next month’ list. Each day, take a look at those items on your secondary lists and determine which can be done that day, giving you the satisfaction of eventually getting them off your to do list.
Invest in Task Management Tools: Especially as your business expands, keeping track of tasks and deadlines can swallow up available time each day. Depending on your needs, take a look at automated task management tools and apps such as Slack, HubSpot and Monday. One key benefit of using an automated tool — You can designate activities as ‘now’ or ‘later’ with specific deadlines much like your Secondary list, but the app or web site can help you put those tasks aside then remind you when it’s time to pay attention. Think of automated tools like a digital assistant to better help manage your available time each day.
Beware of Vampires: No, it’s not Halloween — ‘Vampires’ can be small tasks that slowly suck away your free time. This term is also frequently used for appliances needlessly plugged in all the time when not in use, slowly draining electricity and increasing your bill. Time Vampires are those small things that drain your free time during the day. For example, do you spend 20 minutes each day sorting through potential spam email? Consider installing an email filter that puts all likely spam into a separate folder that you or an assistant review once per week, not as it comes in each day. Not stopping what you are doing every day to evaluate junk email can save you almost two hours of time cumulatively which is two hours you can spend being more productive.
Don’t be Afraid to Outsource: It’s tempting as a business owner or manager to try and do as much as you can yourself. Need to run payroll and file tax forms? Common thinking is “if I do it myself I will save money on an outside firm or contractor.” However, spending hours each week loses you that valuable, unrecoverable asset — Time. While it may cost money to outsource key tasks, freeing up your valuable time for other growth-focused endeavors may allow your business to expand and increase revenue, more than making up sunk costs for outsourcing.
Make the Most of Extra Time: The most important take away from time management is what you decide to do with that resource. Just like if you decide to invest a tax refund versus spending it on a splurge, how you allocate extra time each week can have a big impact. Have you been meaning to get more involved in your industry? Take that extra 1-3 hours of week you save by prioritizing and outsourcing to attend a networking breakfast or local meeting. Do you find yourself absolutely burned out, struggling to stay motivated? Use precious extra time for a walk, yoga class or time with friends — Your overall work motivation will drastically improve!
