Everything Business

As the owner of a small business, you enjoy great freedom to choose where you will spend time, energy, and resources. You just need to pick the right activities that will provide the expected return, guarding your continued freedom.

Every owner should consider performing these 4 things today:

1. Define your high-payoff activities. Often referred to as the 80/20 Rule, approximately 20% of what we do generates 80% of the results. Thus, you need to focus on what will create and sustain the profitability of your business. Look at past successes to guide the definition of future high-payoff activities. If you don’t have a track record in a high-payoff area, glean from the best practices of others to define what will create the highest potential for your business.

2. Prioritize what must be done first. You need to determine the sequence of performing the high-payoff activities. For example, completing your taxes and making sales are both important. The difference for many owners is selling must take place during core periods of the day while the taxes could be done in the evening. Thus, you need to carefully weigh not only what must be done and but when it should be performed.

3. Budget your time around the highest priorities. Those who do not budget their time are at the mercy of those who do. Where you spend your time is a decision. Remember, you future comes one choice at a time. Therefore, spend it wisely. This is an ongoing task that remains somewhat fluid, requiring you to reprioritize as needed within a given day.

4. Be willing to say, “No!” Even when you have prioritized what must get done and budgeted the time, life’s distractions conspire throughout most days to take you off task. You must be willing to say “No!” so you can shout “Yes!” to your high-payoff activities. When practiced over time, you can politely but firmly avoid the distractions, greatly increasing your productivity.