The Importance of Time Management in Building a Successful Business
Time is one of the most valuable resources that we have, and how we manage our time can determine the outcome of our lives, including building a successful business. In this article, we will discuss the importance of time management, how to create time, and the fundamental principles of building a business that relate to time.
When it comes to building a business, the results we achieve are a reflection of how we use our time. All outcomes are a function of the actions we take, which we typically do during the 40, 50, 60, or even 70 hours we work each week. If we want different and better results, we must take actions that match those results. Therefore, the game of building a business is going from the actions we are currently taking to more productive ones.
So, how can we achieve this? How can we get more time and level up our actions? Suppose we take someone who runs a $300,000 company, makes $100,000 a year, and works 40 hours a week. In that case, certain actions are taken every week, and we can say that those actions are worth $50 per hour. On the other hand, if we take someone who runs a $3 million company, makes $500,000 a year, and works 20 hours a week, their time is worth $500 per hour. The actions they take are worth $500 per hour.
If we observe these two business owners, we will notice that their weeks are different. One of them is out doing estimates and checking on job sites, while the other is doing meetings, reviewing business strategy, making plans, and projections, and meeting with key team members. Therefore, the game of building a business is always about finding the least valuable actions we are doing right now and eliminating them, so we have more time available. Then, we must fill that time with more valuable actions and repeat this process over and over again.
To create more time for ourselves, we can use a simple practice or exercise. We need to write down everything we do in a week and categorize them into buckets. For example, this is how much time we spend painting, doing estimates, making phone calls, updating financials, etc. Ideally, we should live by our calendars so we can look at our calendar and see precisely how much time we spend on each task.
Once we have written the list down, we need to put dollar amounts next to each item, figuring out how much we would have to pay someone else to do it. For example, what's the hourly rate for someone you can hire to paint or update your QuickBooks? What about someone who could do sales for you? We can also identify the things that are worth nothing or have zero value, such as spending ten hours a week checking up on job sites. We need to figure out how to hire people that we don't need to check up on at all, eliminating those tasks.
In building a business, the least valuable thing we can do is painting ourselves. Instead, we must focus on managing marketing, doing estimates, and managing projects efficiently. Then, we should hire a project manager, a salesperson, and work with our team to take the next step. Ultimately, we must build leaders as we grow our business.
Managing our time efficiently is crucial to building a successful business. We must identify the least valuable actions we are doing right now, eliminate them, and fill that time with more valuable actions. We can automate tasks, delegate, or outsource them to free up more time for ourselves. The key is to keep repeating this process until we build a successful business that reflects our actions' value.
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