Is time management important to my profitable productive business?

For service businesses it’s easy to answer with a resounding YES!

But what about businesses that sell products?

Proper time management implies people spend time on profitable productive tasks.

More time spent on profitable productive tasks means you’ll get close to your goal.

For service based businesses this means that the people with the expertise spend most of their time doing work that results in revenue and profit.  The same applies to businesses which mostly sell products.

How to determine where you’re at

1. List all the “service” tasks that have to be done in the business that are not necessarily customer facing
2. Check you’ve included as many as you can. Think about administrative tasks like bookkeeping or payroll, through to the supply chain & logistics of sourcing and delivering your product.
3. Determine if these are being done efficiently by people with the appropriate level of expertise. Ask yourself “is this task profitable productive for my business”.

What to do next

It’s easy, especially if you take a lazy approach.  Do what gives you the least path of resistance.

1. Choose one task you’ve identified as not being done well and/or by the wrong people.  Think of ways to do this differently & be creative. Just brainstorm. You might not be able to access all these options today, but might be able to later down the track.
2. Then choose the easiest option to implement now & go implement.

Thoughts about your options

Outsource wisely

You can outsource tasks to your staff or to external consultants. Don’t make your Sales Manager print & bind the proposal; give this task to your receptionist. Your Sales Manager should be focusing on leads, prospects & customers. Equally as the business owner you should lead the critical areas of your business, not take time unjamming copiers or running payroll.

Use technology

Don’t get bogged down in your business; keep an eye on the outside world & see how things are changing. Use time saving technology to give back time to you and your staff for more profitable activities.

Analyse Cost vs Benefit – before you implement

Run the numbers to understand the cost and the potential profit drivers to get the most from the change.   Read more about this topic here.

We can certainly assist you in this area – just give us a ring.