How to make time for everything in your business
Have you ever wished that if you could just clone yourself, then you’d be able to get so much more done? Making time for everything in your business may seem impossible, but by setting up systems and processes within your business, you can gain more time to concentrate on what is most important.
Is your team too reliant on you?
It happens in almost every business, at some point or another. Your staff member walks into the office and tells you about a conflict at work that they’re currently dealing with. You spend an hour going over some possible solutions to the conflict, some of which you know your employee could have developed on their own.
After they’ve walked away, you breathe a sigh of relief and finally start on your workload, only to be interrupted by phone calls from your administration team asking how to complete a task using some company software. You then spend time explaining how to complete the task, all the while thinking “You could have asked someone else how to do that, or even just googled it….”.
The trade-offs for trying to do everything yourself
It may seem like it is easier to do everything yourself, particularly as a small business owner, but the truth is, very rarely is it the best solution.
Let’s consider for example that you can charge out your services at $300/hour. If you continue to do tasks that you could be paying someone else to do for only $25/hour, then you’re not valuing your time. It’s important to take the time to understand what your time is really worth to you and your business. If you can delegate tasks to others that aren’t in your zone of genius or provide you with a high return for your time invested, then it’s time to start delegating.
The trade-offs for trying to do everything yourself is that you will be losing both time and money and not helping your business to grow and move forward. Once you start to delegate, you will soon see the benefits of increased time available that you can replace with new opportunities.
How to clone yourself
So how can you clone yourself in your business? The first step is to delegate tasks to others in your team, or to outsource to other experts or professionals who can complete the task for you. The next step is to document your systems and processes, so that more than one person is able to step in and complete these tasks at any given time.
Why you need to document your systems and processes
As a business it is important to document your systems and processes so that if you need a team member to step into a different role or a new employee starts, this can be done without any issues or interruptions. This will provide consistency in the work completed, allow for flexibility and assist with minimal disruptions to keep the business running.
Documenting your systems and processes provides a number of benefits including:
- Saves money, time and resources
- Provides consistency across work completed
- Increases employee productivity
- Provides employees with guidance
- Allows for flexibility in the workplace
- The opportunity to continuously improve on ‘how things are done’
The cost of having no documented systems and processes
Having no documented systems and processes in your business can cause a range of potential issues and cost your business more than just time and money. Some of the issues arising from having no documented systems and processes include:
- Employee confusion regarding expectations
- The output received by clients or customers is not consistent
- Employee overwhelm and time wastage
- Reduced productivity due to no guidelines to follow
- Employee procrastination
How to make more time in your business
If you’re ready to make more time in your business, then it’s time to document your business processes and systems.
Like many business owners, if you’re busy working in the business, then taking the initial time needed to work on your business and document your processes and standard operating procedures might seem impossible.
If you feel like you don’t have the time to document your business processes, but understand how important it is, and the benefits it will provide to your business in the long term, then it might be time to reach out for help.
Did you know that our team here at Your Business Momentum can provide you with a ‘done for you service’ that will help you to:
- clarify and document your business systems to reduce friction and increase team adoption
- create an owner-centric, zero-systems business to one that operates like a well-oiled machine
- document the mission critical systems within your business required for the delivery of your products and services
This will immediately improve your team’s efficiency, increase the value of your business, free you from the daily business operations and give you back more time in your business to focus on what is most important.
Get in touch with us and we can book in a time to get started on documenting your business systems, processes and procedures.
Running a business can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t
have to be.