Never Enough Time

In the previous post I wrote about the seven barriers to business success and how one of them is us the Owner! Which is not surprising when you consider there is no schooling to train for this position and so we are left to train on the job. However the bigger hindrance is that there is never enough time to do everything that needs doing. So here are some solutions.

1. The 45 Minute Solution
Add 45 minutes to your work day; this adds half a day to your work week! Add the time to the start of the day or the end of the day or a combination of both. Come in on a Saturday morning. BUT, and this is a big but, don't fill that time up with more of the "urgent" activities. Use it to do the "important" things that will bring success to your company. Remember the model: Important Versus Urgent.

2. The Procrastination Solution
Yes you heard it here first; procrastination is a good thing (as long as it is done right)! So you have your to do list and you know darn well that there is no way you will complete everything on the list. So procrastinate .... on some. Mark each item on the list either a Must do or a Should do or a Nice to do. Immediately cross out anything you consider Nice to do; you are never going to get to them anyway so get rid of them. The Should do's are the candidates for procrastination. Leave them for another day until they become Must's or Nice's. Remember the model: Must Should Nice.

3. The No Interrupt Solution
Our days are made up of a long series of interruptions. Studies have shown that the smallest interrupt, like 30 seconds, takes us 10 minutes away from what we are doing. Suffer just 12 small interruptions in a day and you have been diverted from your work for 2 hours! If you have an office close the door for 1 hour a day; your staff won't die and it is unlikely the building will burn down. If you don't have an office go to a coffee shop or sit by the lake and think. Wouldn't that be incredible? One hour of thinking about your business without any interruptions! Turn off your emails; turn off your cell. This must be focused think time. Remember the model (with thanks to IBM): Think!

4. The Meetings Management Solution
If you are plagued by meetings after meetings take control. Manage the meetings. This can be simply done by following these rules:

• Have an agenda
• Start on time (regular late comers will soon learn to arrive on time)
• Have an end time for the meeting and keep to it
• Deal with the decision items first followed by information items
• Only invite those who really MUST be there
• If you are invited decide if it is really necessary to be there
• Control the conversation ~ keep to the topic

Remember the model: Manage Meetings.

It doesn't matter which way you look at it there are only seven days in a week. Take charge of your time if you want to build a successful business that one day you can sell. Don't let you become the barrier to your business's success. Take charge of your time.

Seven Barriers to Business Success

Through the work we have done with hundreds of business owners and the experienced gained from building our own businesses we have learnt that there are seven key barriers preventing business success. In this blog I will summarize the seven; in future blogs I will deal with each in more detail.

1. The Owner
Yes that's us! We are our own worst enemy. Think about it; we didn't learn how to be a business owner at school. We weren't able to apprentice for the job before taking over. When we first became a business owner we had neither the knowledge nor experience. We would never have hired ourselves for the position:-) And on top of all that we don't have the time to do everything that must be done.

2. People
A business is not a business until it has more than one person. A key barrier to success is not being able or willing to find the right people to do those things that need doing but shouldn't be done by you! These do not have to be full time employees with generous benefit packages. Today we have many options. Part time assistants; virtual assistants; web sites like odesk.com; out sourced work and so on.

3. Money
Business growth devours money. Money for the people we must bring on to overcome Barrier #2. Money to build a web site. Money to move into an office. BUT not only do we need money we must also manage our money. A lack of good financial management has killed many a large organization; it is also fatal for small businesses.

4. Customers
I am afraid the truth hurts ~ despite the wonderful products we have to offer, despite the superb quality of the service we provide people are not going to flock to our door. They have to be enticed. Not only must there be effective marketing strategies to get their attention there must also be sales campaigns to help them buy. Yes, as I said the truth hurts. We need customers and to get customers we must sell! Actually we like to say "bring them into our community".

5. Focus
You are a business owner and so you love building successful things. You get easily distracted by new exciting shiny objects. You are never short of great ideas and so it is all too easy to lose focus and chase the new idea. Losing focus on the destination, losing focus on the core business, losing focus on the important activities will prevent business success. Luckily there are many tools to help stay focused; we will cover them in a future blog on focus.

6. Processes
The reality is that a business is just a bunch of processes that allow us to profitably produce and distribute our products/services in exchange for money. The key word is "profitable". If the processes don't work the business won't work. By nature business owners are not great business analysts but time and effort must be expended to ensure that processes are in place and are working.

7. Plans
Philip Orsini (author and sucessful business person) wrote "Companies don't fail because they grow. They fail because they don't plan their growth". Without plans there is no destination, there is therefore no road map to follow, there is no focus (there's that word again) and so there is no means for getting to nowhere. Your success is left to luck or even worse miracles. As Peter Drucker ~ the greatest of all business gurus ~ said; "Miracles are great but they are so unpredictable"!

So these are the Seven Barriers to Business Success. Over the next few weeks I will deal with each in more detail and provide solutions to overcome the barriers.

I recently read the Economist's special report on entrepreneurship. It contains an interesting snapshot of the psychological traits of entrepreneurs.

• They are unusually, excessively confident. They know they will turn their dream into reality. This confidence raises the probability of success but also creates forecast expectations that are rarely met.
• Entrepreneurs are hugely attached to their companies. Which is great because they will do almost anything for "their baby". However, it also creates difficulties when it is time to hand over the reigns to others.
• They are very tolerant of risks which is a very good thing because there are loads of risks!
• Now this one is fascinating. In a study done by Cass Business School in London they discovered that a disproportionate number of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. Included in this group are Richard Branson, Ted Turner and Henry Ford. For those who like facts ~ 20% of British and 35% of American entrepreneurs are dyslexic.

By the way the Economist is a superior weekly news magazine that covers world events and issues (www.economist.com).