It's All About Time

We have all heard the cliché that “time is money” and I’m sure you would agree it is a truism when it comes to business. We might also extend the thought behind the cliché and say that time is in fact a currency and how we choose to spend our ‘time’ is of critical importance. And like any limited resource we must be careful not to let others waste our time.

Let’s take a look at a situation facing many people in business today. Specifically “I can’t find quality people to help build my business”. The strategy that is employed to overcome the problem is often one of curbing business growth, using more time working with current clients and in a sense treading water. However as someone once said about business – if you aren’t going forward, you’re going backwards. In essence natural client attrition is not matched by new client growth and your team members find they aren’t growing and thus the original problem is amplified.

So what’s the solution? In short it’s all about the proper measurement and allocation of your most important business resource – time - not only your time but that of the people who work for you.

I ask a lot of professionals how much income producing time they achieve each 40+ hour week. Answers range from; “I don’t know” to typically 20-25 hours, or approximately 55% of their week. This suggests that 45%, of their week is involved in “pursuits that do not create revenue”. Yet there seems to be little real understanding of what they are doing with this apparently non-productive time.

Of course there is a litany of labels for the wasted 45% - phone calls, administration problems, people issues etc.

The reality is that we can all develop bad habits originating from when they first started a new business. Because you had to do everything ten years ago with two staff – continues on when you have ten staff but the business is busier. Of course if you are not managing or nurturing your own time your employees will have the same problem.

So the answer to the problem of a lack of good staff is not in “I must do more” – the answer is “I must be smarter with the time resource I have. Let us look at an example based on a current unplanned 45% resource usage. Let’s allocate it as follows:-

 15% or 5 hours per week extra income producing (or 225 extra income producing hours per year!)
 15% for business development i.e. building client relationships, skill building of your team, personal marketing for new clients, developing new tools & systems and most importantly looking at new people & new clients on a regular basis rather than as a last minute exercise.
 15% for administration or financial matters i.e. phone calls, emails, accounts, correspondence etc.

You can see there is a huge potential to increase revenue by increasing income producing hours, and business development time.

Unless you plan your time, the urgent drives out the important.

Why not consider some new time categories when developing your ideal week model.

Income time: (we call it “blue” or cash generating time):
- blocks of time for today’s income producing

Investment time: (“black” time for business development)
- blocks of time to create your future

Individual time: (blocks of ‘red’ time for everything else)
- time for personal emergencies, proposals, unexpected client requests, thinking, administration

Consider putting in key systems for your team to allow them to understand the management of time and the need for a planned approach. Find ways to help them block off time with a minimum of interruptions such as a system for only taking appropriate calls from clients and leaving others to a set part of the day. There is no doubt, that focus on the job at hand and doing that for as long as it takes to complete is a smarter way of using blocks of time.

This colour coding strategy for time will see the following objectives met:
1. Improved productivity to make up for the short-term issue of new staff
2. Increased client satisfaction as you and your staff appear more accessible
3. Greater time allocation skills for you and your employees
4. Better clients and more of them because you will have actually focussed time on building the business

Income producing time determines your current income - non income producing time determines your future. To neglect non income producing time is to neglect your future.

Finally as any coach will tell you – many amateur golfers use practise time doing what they already do well. For example if they are good at hitting a golf ball a long way – they’ll spend time with the driver at the range because it is easy to do. Equally if they putt well then it is enjoyable to spend time on the practise green. Professionals on the other hand practise and work hard at the most important things for them to succeed. It is the same with your business time. If you don’t enjoy administration – focus harder on delegating more & giving it to someone who is more proficient. You’ll make more money building on your strengths and being brilliant at what you do best.


David Wolrige