What we focus on gets our time, energy, and attention, but how do we know what to focus on to amplify our financial results?
Reactive items: Sometimes there will be an event that needs to be dealt with immediately, but most of the time this is not the case. If you find that you are always being reactive then you are probably not focusing on actions that will produce the best results. Also, this means that you not operating your business in an organized manner, which tends to produce more reactive items.
Minor items that produce little to no value: An example is spending gobs of time and money trying to design and print your business cards. Your business card should be a representation of your business, but if you spend 15 hours trying to design them, then that is overkill. Cleaning excessively and making everything impeccably neat is another waste of time. Cleanliness and neatness are good, but don’t spend an hour each day cleaning your desk, car, or anything else. If you do, then you may have other issues that I am not qualified to fix!
Blaming others: Everyone likes to be right, right? But if you don’t know who is helping you and who is hurting you then how can you run your business profitably? Know who is your enemy and who is your friend. The people surrounding you include your employees, vendors, professionals, subcontractors, etc. They are usually working toward the greater good, but if you do not think so, then take an objective look at the situation, which is probably more positive then your emotions will lead you to believe, to determine if this is the case.
Tasks that can easily be delegated so you can make more money: There is a business owner that I often see cutting the grass, edging, and taking care of the landscaping of his business. It is understandable to do this for your home if you really enjoy this type of work and have the time to do so, but not for your business. Let’s calculate the lost income from this endeavor. Let’s say the landscaper cost an average of $50 a week plus some extras and snow plowing for a total of $3,500 per year total. Then, it takes you an average of 2 hours or more each week to do all the landscaping (don’t forget that you need to have all of the equipment, maintain the equipment, change your clothes before yardwork, shower, change your clothes after, and now you probably need a nap). This can easily equate to spending 5% or more of your time on landscaping work. What if that time was spent trying to grow and develop your business and was equivalent to $10k, $50k, $100k or more of income?
How we spend our time has the largest impact on the profitability of our business. All of the above also relate to letting your emotions rule your decision making versus being well though-out, which I have written about previously. Focus on the right things!
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