The trap of the small business owner is working harder, not smarter. Often, we hear from other business owners, “I work so hard in the business, I’m left with little time to work on it – and improve it.” Undoubtedly, it’s a common problem and one that’s understandable – after all, we should be prioritising our customers! So, how do you find the time, and how do you balance the workload in your business better?
Here are our top tips:
- Focus on your areas of
strength. While its admirable to work on improving
your weaknesses, you’ll likely never be as good as someone else in areas that
you’re weak. Best course of action? Admit
it, and find a solution! Working out
where you add most value and refining/honing your core strengths will give you
a better chance of being a cut above the rest. If you’re a great salesperson,
don’t spend hours struggling with processing your accounts, get a specialist to
help you with the books and spend more time selling!
- Work with people that bring
different strengths to you. A great team isn’t made
up of the same skill sets and personalities. Different perspectives,
experiences and skills make a team stronger. Just make sure you all share the same values
and focus.
- Don’t try and do it all. You’ve heard this
one before. Jack of all trades, master
of none. If you try and do everything yourself,
you’ll likely never seriously scale your business or be the best. Trying to do it all can also lead to burn out
and inefficiency. Looking after your
well-being and balancing your workload better will help you maintain a better
quality of focus in the long run.
- Delegate your way to
success. Many
small business owners struggle with delegation. That’s natural – people like
doing things their way. But, remember, there
are always people out there that can do your job better, faster and more
innovatively. Young talent will always
emerge to replace the old, that’s just the way the world works. Find talent and give them the responsibility
and trust they need to do the job. You
might just find they do it better than you could have imagined.
- Get rid of the clutter. Are you spending your time working on things that will help you achieve your business goals? Getting distracted by a million and one other things? Learning to say no or deprioritising the things that don’t drive real performance are important skills needed to get rid of the clutter. The best question to assess priority and urgency is “what happens if I don’t do this?”.
As a wife and husband duo; the secret to balancing the workload is playing to your individual strengths and communicating incessantly. Don’t bottle in your worries, share and talk about them and reach a solution (chances are your partner is thinking the same thing). Ultimately, working with someone you trust, respect and love is a real privilege and a recipe for success!
