Hi everybody! It’s Bill Gilliland here, with the second in a series of business success basics videos, that we’re doing for business owners just like you. So, let’s review, for a minute, let’s look at the overall scheme that we’re working in.
Last week we covered money mastery, this week we’re going to have a look at time mastery, and next week we’re going to cover team, then we’re going to take a look at how we apply systems to the business for the team to run.
And then we’re going to circle it all up with mindset, and in my mind, these are five areas, that you really need to have mastered to be a successful business owner.
So, let’s talk a little bit about time and how to get control of your time. What happens when you don’t get this right.
The first thing that happens is you feel out of control. You feel like there’s never enough time. You are always pushed. You make mistakes. You don’t have time to make good decisions. You’re a hundred percent reactive.
What happens, when you do get this right. When you get it right when you’re in control of your time. Well, you are controlling it, instead of it controlling you. You have a calendar that you can stick to. You are the master of your world.
And what I found is, that other people will actually buy into your calendar, instead of you having to show up, when they want you to.
Let’s talk about how we get control of our time. So, the first step in getting control of our time is actually understanding what we’re doing with our time. What do you need to do? Actually, track your time.
And that’s pretty hard for most of us in this day and age. We’re going in all directions, we’re running in this way, in that way, we don’t have time to keep a log if you can keep a log.
That’s very useful, but what I would suggest is stopping every, say hour or so, and writing down, what you did in the last hour.
Really understanding where our time is going, and how we’re utilizing it. Great! Then you want to map out, basically how many hours a week you’re working, and what you’re doing during those hours. You’re going to find it shocking.
The last time I did this, I found, that I was driving over eight hours a week. That’s a full day! Now, if I could cut that in half I would gain back four hours of my time. It could be time for friends, family, and fun. Or I could be more productive at work.
So, the first step is actually understanding what our time is and where it’s going.
The second step is – mapping it. Not only mapping what we’re doing now but also mapping what we would like it to be.
I like to use a simple pie chart. And so, you start looking at it. You look at percentages, and you add up all your time on.
When you’ve tracked it and, then you come back and you say “Great. Well, I’m spending, forty percent doing whatever it is you do in your business. You’re spending – this and then. You end up with a pie chart, that says: marketing sales, what all the functions that you do in your business, email admin, all the kinds of things. Then you take a hard look at that.
But what should it be? That’s the next step. You may be shocked to find that you’re only spending forty percent of the time doing what it does, that produces money in your business, and you may say, well I need to really be spending over half of my time on that. Maybe I should be spending fifty-five percent of my time doing that.
And then you figure in the administrative part, and you look at the things, that you can outsource. These are the things, that you can download or delegate.
From there, then you have to get it into, what we call a default calendar or a default diary. What you’re doing there is – blocking your time. The key to this is working to the clock, not the task.
You make a weekly ideal calendar now. You can do this, any of your calendars, the Google Calendar, or any others will do it.
You can color-code it, but I suggest you do it on a piece of paper first. (If you’d like a free copy of how to do a default diary just shoot us a quick email, or put in a comment below. And we’ll send you a copy of a paper default diary, that you can use. )
But the idea is – that you block out, that fifty-five percent to do the things, that are going to make you money. And then, you block in the other things around it. This way you end up getting control over time.
So, you end up with a calendar that consists of a whole bunch of boxes. Now, what happens in the way you get control of this.
if you have folks that working for you, that help you book your appointments, work with them. So, for example, my assistant Katie. She has certain times, if someone calls, and would like to meet with me, she’ll know when to book them in. She can look at my calendar and make an appointment.
This is how you take control of your schedule now.
I need to tell you about a success story. I had a guy named Anson Martin, who owns a roofing business and his goal was to get his week (he was working about 60 or 70 hours a week) down to 15 hours working on the business.
We started mapping out his time, and we started looking for the things, that he could begin to assign to other people in his business. We began to look at the things, and found out that he needed to hire somebody.
So, he could focus on the things, that he was good at. Which were: managing people, selling jobs, and doing the things that he was a genius at.
We got him down to 15 hours per week. He generally still works about 40 to 50 hours a week, but he enjoys the things he wants to do, as opposed to the things, that he has to do.
What I’d like to know now, is what you find most useful about the three areas of time. Number one is tracking numbers of time and mapping. And number two – controlling your time. Which of those areas, that you need the most work on?
All the best!
Bill
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