Being the boss in a business can sometimes feel as though you are constantly moving, but not, perhaps, in a productive, forward motion. There are always things to do, but if you are going round in circles, always doing the same things over and over, and neglecting the bigger, more important tasks, then you won’t get anywhere. You might be busy, but are you being productive? There is a big difference.
In order to help you to be less busy and to assist you in doing more useful things in your business, here are some of the things you can do to help yourself and your business as a whole. It’s time to become less busy in your business and start making progress instead.
What Do You Do?
To begin with, it could be that you are so ‘busy’ because you are the only one who knows how to do certain things within your business. This happens frequently, particularly when the business started with just you-you did everything, and you became the ‘face’ of the company. It was you that customers expected to see, and you that they trusted to help them with your products or services.
You may feel that this trust would be lost if you had someone else help you and do some or all of those tasks for you.
That would only be the case if you didn’t train them properly. Having a great training method in place so that your employees can replicate what you do exactly is essential, and although it might take some time to get it right, once it is in place, this system and handbook on how to essentially be you will help you to stop being quite so busy and allow you to do more within your business to boost its reach.
This handbook could even, at a later date, be the basis for a franchise model that will allow you to be even less busy but for your business to be in many more locations across the country, and maybe even the world.
Can You Be Effective and Efficient?
You may not realize it, but there is a difference between being ‘effective’ and being ‘efficient.’ Being effective means that you are working towards a goal and doing the right things for you. Being efficient means that you are working only on a specific task, but you are focused on getting it right. Is it possible to be both effective and efficient? It is, but you need to cut back on other tasks in order to get there.
Delegation is a huge factor in giving yourself more time to be both effective and efficient at the same time. If you are always chasing the next small job, constantly battling through huge to-do lists and getting nowhere, then it is time to delegate some of those tasks so that you can get on with what you need to do in order to build the business.
Some tasks, such as marketing and accounts, can be outsourced to an external company if that makes sense for your finances and where the business is at the moment. Others, such as reducing your customer facing role to work on the business itself or researching which marijuana penny stocks to buy now, will need a team behind you to take on the job. Make a list of everything you do in your business and determine which tasks you need to do, and which would be better for someone else to take on. Once you know this, you can work out just who will do it and how it can be done.
Prioritize Your Work
After you have determined which tasks are no longer yours to worry about, you will be left with the jobs that you do need to do. Looking at them, you might wonder where to begin, but there is a way to work out where to start and which jobs can be left for another time if necessary.
- Break your list of things to do down into four sections:
- Important and urgent
- Urgent and not important
- Important and not urgent
- Not important and not urgent
Once all of your tasks fit into one of these boxes in what is known as the prioritization matrix, you will know exactly which ones to begin working on right away (important and urgent) and which ones can be left for another time (not important and not urgent). Working through in order will ensure that everything is done to the deadlines that have been set, whether by someone else or by yourself, and you won’t feel overwhelmed by what you are trying to do.
Share this idea with your team, as they will also find the matrix useful, and you will soon find that your business is much more effective and efficient because of it.
Don’t Get into Decision Debt
Decision debt can be a problem for business owners who are unsure of their own goals and processes. It is what happens when important (and even not so important) decision are not made quickly enough, and you are left with a raft of decision to make, causing you stress and anxiety, and halting the progress of the business at that point.
When this occurs, you will always feel busy. There will seemingly never be enough time in the day to get everything done with these big (and not so big) decisions looming over you.
This is where your systems and processes will come in useful once more. Over time, as you make decisions, note down the processes and the reasons behind them. It may take some time to get there, but ultimately what you want is a flowchart of decision making so that you can quickly and confidently make decisions in the future. This will reduce decision debt and keep your mind clearer for other work. Plus, you will always know that whatever decisions you are making for the business are the right ones.
