Using Your Business Time Wisely

"What is the best use of my time right now?" Those are the words that I had framed and placed on a wall in my office many years ago. They are powerful words. It is an important question - one that business people should be asking themselves numerous times throughout their day. Am I using my time wisely?

I believe there are two main factors to consider when answering that question. The first involves your focus. Do you - and your employees - spend your time focused on what has the greatest long term effect on the bottom line? Business owners need to focus on the revenue stream. An associate of mine owns a business that publishes a specialized newspaper. When you ask him what business he is in he will say, "I am in the business of selling advertising." He often says that it does not matter how good his publication is if he can't sell advertising. He can have the greatest publication in the country but if he does not sell advertising he will be out of business. I am not saying that he does not want to produce a good newspaper - he does. He has an excellent publication. But it is the advertising that keeps him in business. What do you think the best use of his time is?

The second factor is the direct trade-off between performing a function which can EARN money for your business versus a function that can SAVE money for your business. Let's start by looking at an extreme situation. If you are a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees, would you be smarter to stay home on Sunday to cut your grass so you do not have to pay the landscaper $100 or are you better off to play in the baseball game and earn the salary that a player makes for one game? The answer is obvious.

Many business owners are so concerned about not paying for a service that they do the work themselves. By performing the service themselves, they miss the opportunity to earn two, five or ten times as much money by making a sale. Often, I hear the excuse that they are doing "paperwork at a time when they could not be meeting with a customer anyway." But the question is still the same, "What is the best use of their time?" Maybe they should be writing or revising their marketing plan. Maybe they could be rehearsing their next sales call. Maybe they could be planning product improvements. Maybe they could be analyzing the competition. The answer to the question is "Perform the function that will produce the best long term results to the bottom line.

Sometimes the business owner spends time supervising a function rather than doing it herself. She has hired someone else to do it. The same analysis is required. Is she better off out-sourcing that function so she does not need to spend time supervising it or dealing with its problems? Even though the out-sourcing may cost more than hiring someone, the business owner must consider her time supervising that function as well as the other resources that the functions consume from the business.

As much as we want to take pride in what we produce and as much as we dislike paying others, we need to realize what adds to the bottom line. Many people believe that Studebaker made a fine quality automobile. Have you driven a Studebaker lately?

What is the best use of YOUR time RIGHT NOW?