Getting things done continues to be an overwhelming challenge for most small business owners. Sometimes, the list of tasks seems to be beyond attainable and appears to have no end! It’s not that these things don’t have merit or that someone important is asking you for them, it’s just that there’s not enough time in the day- right?

Tradition Time Management Can be Detrimental to aSmall Business Owner
Time management approaches have been sout after by small business owners for decades. The whole industry reached a ground swell about 20 years ago with the advent of the Franklin planner, the Day Timer and a while host of other systems to capture the focus (and investment) of busines people everywhere. Unfortuneately, none of these systems really changed the small business owner’s ability to make better use of the time they have or get better results from the businesses they own. Why… becasue time management as a concept is an illusion! You only have so much time and it cannot be managed like others things because you can’t stop it, reserve it or allocate it to someone else. It’s the most valuable resource you have and you can’t replace what you lose or make more if you waste it.

What does work is the concept of knowing what you need to spend time on that produces the greatest return in your business. Get really clear about what you should be doing to drive revenue, attract more of your best clients and let others do the things that are not your best fit. Let me explain-

Joseph M. Juran was on to something
There’s a universal concept called the Pareto Principle. You may know it as the 80/20 rule. It was first introduced into business by business management expert- Joseph M. Juran and named after Vilfredo Pareto. Simply put, 80% of all activity, results, accomplishments, etc come from 20% of the source. If you belong to a networking group, chances are that 80% of the work is being done by 20% of the members. In the retail grocery business, 80% of a store’s volume comes from 20% of the item selection. And, in most businesses, 80% of your revenues come from 20% of your clients. Likewise, 80% of your profits come from 20% of your product or service offerings.

Juran observed that Vilfredo Perato’s principle had application in the business world as well. In just about all business situations, you can apply this principle. It’s as dependable as gravity! But what does it mean for using your time better?

It’s About Focusing on Results
In most traditional time management systems, much of the focus goes to managing your schedule. Although priority is given to tasks, the main priciple involves getting more done in a given day or week. Unless the business owner has objectively assessed where their revenue, clients and profits come from, there’s no asurance that the things you schedule are the right things for you to be engaged in. As an example, if book keeping is a low prioity task and something you are not good at, why even spend time on it. The best thing you could do is outsource it.

Look at your business and using the Pareto Principle, write down the activities that will produce 80% of the results that grow your bsuiness. If you missed ‘sales and marketing’, you should rethink your business approach. Sales and marketing are the only activities that generate revenue. Everything else (although important to some degree) is an expense. And when it comes to generating the needed sales and revenue, who will be more committed to acheiving this than you- the owner of the business.

Separate the Important from the Minutia
To get a quick handle on this issue, go back and look at your schedule for the last 2 weeks. If you have no schedule, the problem is obvious. If your schedule has only appointments with other people and there’s lots of open space, it also reveals a lack of focus on the important areas. Now, you might say, “I don’t use my calendar for everything I do”. Herein lies the problem. Read on.

Look at all the things you spent time on and the time you spent and create a list with 2 columns; one for important activities like sales, marketing, management, client visits, etc and the other column for evrything else. You’ll quickly see where most of your time goes and why you may not be getting what you want from your business. If your calendar is not detailed enough for this exercise, spend the next 2 weeks writing down everything you do in 15 minute increments. It sounds tedious, but the learning you’ll get will be a major game changer!

Take Control of The Growth Aspects of Your Buisness
Once you figure out where you spend your time, think about the things you should be focused on to acheive growth in your business. Things like evaluating who your ideal clients are and where they can found; who your best referral partners might be; what networking groups or events you need to attend; developing a compelling referral program for your current clients or creating an ad campaign that drives more traffic to your website. All of these activities lead to reveneue generation and deserve time on your calendar.

If you have employees, think about how to give them direction and let them perform with scheduled check in meetings to monitor performance. Look at things in your bsuiness that others could do (inside or outside your business) and get them off your desk. Ask yourself this question everytime you are faced with doing a task. “Who else could do this?” (and if no one knows how) follow up with “who can I train to do this?”

Whatever type of business you are involved in (solo-preneur, partnership, management, multi-divisonal organization, etc. this approach to using your time to get the most important things done is a ‘life changer’ in terms of how you look at your business the goals you want to reach.

In the end, you’ll be much happier and feel the power of getting vitaul, growth related initiatives accomplished that produce more revenue, good clients and profits for your business.

Change! 

It’s a word and an entire subject.  It’s frequently talked about, relentlessly pursued but seldom achieved.  It’s what we’ve all been conditioned to expect from other people or from things around us.  We want to lose weight but we look to books and trendy diet plans to do it.  We want to get in shape so we look to purchasing a gym membership or buy exercise equipment off the TV.  We don’t like our jobs but we stay there because enduring the unhappiness is easier than looking for a better one. 

It’s no different in business.  We’re not getting enough sales from our website so we consider paying someone to build us a new one.  Our employees aren’t performing as we wish so we decide to do their jobs ourselves.  It’s an endless list of unfulfilled expectations and the only area we seldom take a real close look at is ourselves. 

When 2012 was ushered in with the usual fan fair, the typical mindset was one of “I hope this year is better than last year”.  Or “Man, I’m glad 2011 is over.  Maybe things will turn around in 2012”.  See how it works?  Our subconscious is so trained to look for change to happen everywhere else, we completely disregard the need for us to change how we think, what we do and how we do it. 

Right about now, most of us have fallen into the patterns we are most comfortable with.  We may not like the outcome or the current circumstances but its familiar territory so we put up with it.  Only when something serious happens or we find ourselves gripped with a new found passion do we launch ourselves in a new direction and in fact, change our course.  

What’s Really Required for Lasting Change? 

Change is not an easy goal.  It requires a fundamental desire for something better, more fulfilling or more productive.  The phase ‘I want to give back’ has become all too common as people make decisions about doing worthwhile activities, even if it cost them to do so or they receive no compensation in the process.  So the first thing to understand about ‘change’ is that you need to have a vision of what you want to change to.  Wanting to rid yourself of bad habits like smoking, poor eating or no exercise are powerful motivators for starting but they are insufficient to keep you on track. 

My Recipe for Meaningful Change 

So, what do you want to change to?  If you own a business, what about your business do you want to change?  Whatever it is, it will have to start with you.  Wholesale change in your daily routine will most likely cause you to abandon your efforts.  Small but significant changes can have huge benefits and move you quicker to your desired outcome.  Here are four things that have worked for me.  

1.  Decide what you want from your business and write it down.  Be specific and leave nothing out.  Make sure you include personal rewards like income levels, time off or a favorite charity you want to support.  Write what’s important to you, not what you think you can achieve based on your current status. 

Now, format your goals and print them out so you can display them and look at them daily.  Your subconscious cannot tell the different between current and future events or between reality and dreaming so getting a daily visual dose of these goals will help you align your actions with what you want to accomplish. 

2.  Look at how you spend your time.  How much of your time is spent on truly meaningful endeavors as opposed to minutiae.  Sure, little things have to be taken care of but without a realization of what’s important, many people will work endlessly on minor things and never get anything important done.   

Time is our most precious resource and one we cannot replace.  If you identify your highest priority tasks and devote time to them, you can actually get more done in less time.  In order to do this, you must recognize how you use your time so you can develop the discipline to focus on different more important tasks. 

3.  Take stock of your strengths and weaknesses.  Are your strengths supporting the real drivers of your business?  Are you focused on things you are weak at instead of finding others who can do them better?  Your business will change into what you want if you match your core strengths with your highest priority tasks. 

The reason so many business owners continue to do the same things over and over again is because it’s what they know.  If your highest priority areas are things you don’t know or are weak at, getting help is far better for achievement than trying to master them yourself. 

4.  Invite feedback from others you trust.  Ask people who know you or that have expertise in the areas you want to change to give you critical feedback.  If they are really there to help you, they will give it to you straight.  Take this opportunity to listen.  The value of doing this can be life changing.   

A few years ago, I asked 10 people I knew to look at a project I was working on and give me their candid opinions.  The feedback from 7 of them was brutal but eye opening.  One of them wrote me an 8 page letter which blew me away.  I have never forgotten that experience or the lessons it taught me about what can be learned from people outside my business. 

The Real Secret to Sustainable Change 

In the end, it’s all about changing the way you play your game.  When sports professionals have poor seasons, they usually make changes including their playing strategy.  When movie actors start to decline in popularity they usually change their direction as a way to build a new image with the hopes of rising again in the future. 

Ultimately, your desire for real change boils down to your commitment to do the things that produce different, better outcomes.  Most people will try and ‘tough it out’ by themselves with the all too familiar return to the ‘old ways’.  A few people will get serious and get help.  These are the folks you read about who made miraculous achievements and realized their dreams. 

Want to change your game?  Don’t just treat it as a word or a topic of conversation.  Treat it as the key to your future and get serious about achieving what you really want! 

About the Author:

Steve Smith works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to help clarify their direction and improve their decision making abilities so they can take action and move forward with confidence.  If you have a question about an issue or important decision in your business and you’d like Steve’s council, go to http://bit.ly/Need-Answers-Ask-Steve for answers that you can work with.

Most business owners today aren’t happy with the amount of revenue their business is generating. They’re working longer hours, applying greater effort, spending more for marketing and receiving lower revenue. So what’s going on?

If this is happening to you, it’s important to remember that those results are in direct proportion to the actions you’ve been taking? If you want different results, then you MUST take different actions.

So if that’s all that’s required, why don’t business owners just do that? The answer may shock you. They can’t stop repeating their past patterns of behavior. Their past patterns have become ingrained into their subconscious mind and have established themselves as habits.

How This Works:

Have you ever listened to art experts accurately identify a recently discovered painting as belonging to a specific artist such as Rembrandt? How can they tell who painted that picture? Patterns… that’s how. Even though the painting may look completely different than all the others that artist painted, his or her patterns, sometimes referred to as their “style,” continuously comes through with each and every painting.

The exact same thing happens to business owners as well. All of us have been mentally conditioned to perform our daily activities in a certain way. These activities have become habits through constant and daily repetition. The problem is that the majority of these habits… more than 80% of them… are non-productive. They simply don’t contribute to the generation of revenue for your business.

Imagine Your True Potential!

Imagine what would happen to your revenue if you could reduce that 80% down to 60%. If you replaced that 20% with revenue producing activities, you would DOUBLE your income? Do you know how easy it is to reduce that 80% down to 60%… or even down to 40%… which doubles revenue again? Exciting, isn’t it?

So, what is the cost to you and your business if you fail to change this behavior?  What if you could devote more time and take action on more revenue producing tasks?

What if you could remove the mental barriers that may be sabotaging your success?

What if you could get laser-focused on your highest revenue -producing activities?

How can you learn to do all of this?  Join me on my upcoming webinar ‘Change Your Game in 2012’ and have your best year ever!  I’m going to show you what to look for that’s holding you back and preventing you from having the kind of business success you truly deserve.  I’m also going to show you how to establish a systematic way of running and growing your business so 2012 doesn’t end up being a repeat of 2011!

Why am I doing all this and not charging for it?

My past 25 years of management, marketing and sales in some of America’s most successful companies has given me a wealth of experience (and hard knocks) on how to effectively and profitably build a business and sharing it with committed business owners is the least I can do to support the small business community.

If you want to participate, simply follow this link http://bit.ly/ChangeYourGamein2012  and register.  I can only accommodate a certain number of people, so sign up today.  Additionally, you will receive my e-book on the 17 tops ways to grow your business just for registering for the webinar.

Changing the way you think starts with taking action on different things.  Committing yourself to learning a new approach to business building is a great way to begin the new year!