Never Have Enough Time?

But Is Time Really Your Problem?

Your time is finite. You only have so much of it. Time, at least for us humans, is a finite resource. Each and every business owner only has so much time in their day, week, month, and year, and they must prioritize how they use it. You must prioritize how you use yours.

When an owner is focusing on any one process, or maybe being the process because they don’t have it adequately documented, and implemented, along with a process for training so that other people can do it, then they are being pulled from other priorities. This is that feeling you get when “putting out fires” all day.

When you have to focus on billing or accounts receivables, you are not focusing on marketing. When you focus on marketing, you are not focusing on collecting money. When you are focused on either of these, you are not focusing on your customers’ experiences.

Likewise, when you don’t have a fully documented and implemented induction (on-boarding & training) process, you have to spend more of your time inducting new employees and getting them up to speed. When you are focusing on induction, you are not focusing on other processes that keep your business going.

When you are in this constant spin cycle, of going from one emergency to another, or one urgent thing after another, you are not able to focus on strategy, vision, and long-term growth and sustainability. You are not able to work “ON your business”, but rather are stuck in a seemingly never ending swirl. You are not able to get off of your daily merry-go-round to think, explore, and take off in a new direction.

Does the following situation sound familiar? You hired a new employee and while you were inducting them, your visits number dropped, or there weren’t enough new customers or patients. Your attention was deflected to the induction process, and your marketing may have dropped off, or your management of schedules fell behind. All because you “didn’t have enough time”.

But this is a fallacy. You have the same amount of time.

You had exactly the same amount of time. All that changed was how you used it.

And why you used it that way was because you lacked a process to maintain the momentum and execution of the marketing, management, or induction processes. And this is likely because you are the marketing, management, and induction processes. Do those processes all live in your head? If any of those processes were not dependent on you, then how would you have used your time?

This is true, not just of billing, marketing, management, and induction, but of every area of operations in your business. When something is not systematized, when it is “owner-reliant” or “owner-dependent”, then the capacity of the owner, your time, attention, and energy, ends up being the bottle-neck for things getting done in your business. You become the limiting factor. And this is simply not scalable. At some point your capacity will be met or exceeded, and you will encounter a ceiling on your growth.

The solution

When systems and processes are put in place, to address billing, marketing, intake, onboarding, performance, metrics review, accounts payable, compliance, induction, etc., then the owner’s time, your time, is freed up to focus on the NEW things that are important for moving your business forward.

“Routine Sets You Free.”

In Scaling Up, Jim Collins writes “Routine sets you free“. It was not until my fourth time through the book that this notion clicked for me. What he means is that once you have decided something and created a process to keep that going, you no longer have to make that decision again. It is done. And thus your brain power, and your emotional energy may be spent elsewhere.

Your time is freed up to focus on strategic moves to keep your business healthy and adapt to changes that will sustain your cash flow, profitability, and growth. Your time is freed up to do the things you love to do, whether that is working directly with customers and patients, spending time with your family, traveling, or working on a new marketing program to double your business. You now get to decide.

Imagine spending even an hour every week focusing ON your business, the same amount of time and energy that you spend on an employee, a task, a client, a customer, or a patient. Imagine spending the same amount of time that you spend maintaining a key piece of equipment, or managing a process, spending that ON your business, making strategic decisions and planning for the future. What kind of results would you realize?

In order to do this, you need to not let you be the limiting factor in your business. You can learn to create processes (the right processes), to delegate, to focus, and to think strategically about your business.

What could your business achieve, what could you accomplish, over the next year, or the next 3 years, if you spent 2 hours each week focusing ON your business? What will your business look like if you treat it this way? What will your business look like, achieve, and accomplish if you work ON it in a sustained and disciplined way for the next several years?

I have learned to do this, and you can too. Check out the process below to get started on this path.

And should you need help putting these processes and building blocks in place, whether you’ve been in business for 2 years or 20, that is why I am here. My business exists to help business owners like you double their profits, triple their time off, and get the business and personal results they desire.