As an entrepreneur and CEO of my own business, it’s important for me to make the most of my time and put my expertise to use in the right areas. However, this is easier said than done. For many business owners and entrepreneurs, we got to where we are because we are good at business, marketing and coming up with new ways to make money. As beneficial as this might seem, it can also become quite a distraction in the process — simply because we are trying to do too much or do it all on our own.
If you want to grow and scale your business to a whole new level, you need to learn how to let go, delegate, automate and look at the much bigger picture.
Today I’m going to provide you with a few simple tips, tricks, and tools to help with this process. By the end of this article, you should not only have a better idea of how you can increase your productivity and focus, you should also be excited for the next few weeks to come and how these changes can greatly affect yourself, your stress levels and your business.
1 – Stop Trying to be the ‘Jack of All Trades’
As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest struggles for entrepreneurs and business owners is trying to do it all. As much as you’d like to think you can be the ‘Jack of All Trades’ and run all aspects of your business, it’s actually doing much more harm than good. At the same time, if you are doing too many different things at the same time, it leaves you off as being the “Master of None”.
Letting go is one of the hardest things every business owner will need to deal with. Specialize in what you know best (which is your business), then learn to hand off different areas of your business that can be taught, automated and scaled without your ‘hands on’ approach. This will be tough for many new business owners, but it’s necessary to take it to the next level.
2 – Track and Measure Where Your Time is Spent
Time management is one of the most important aspects of a success life/business relationship. Not only do CEOs and entrepreneurs need to make the most of their time, they also need to know where and how it’s being spent. All too often, we may think we are working 8-10 hours per day, but when you throw social media, emails, web surfing, meetings, phone calls and everything else into the mix, it’s actually much less.
While the idea of writing down notes all day and keeping an eye on the clock is what most people will do, there are better ways to track and manage your time. For example, time tracking software is quickly becoming the solution of choice for entrepreneurs and businesses around the world. Such software can track and monitor how you are using your time online (and offline), then provide you with full tracking reports for later viewing.
This might seem crazy at first, but after using such tools and viewing how much of your time might actually be spent ‘not working’, you will quickly focus your time and efforts in the right area.
3 – Implement Automation into Your Business
Keeping with the theme of getting the most out of your time and trying not to always ‘be your business’, business and marketing automation tools are quickly becoming the go-to choice for investment today. You can see my previous article on marketing automation, but I’m also going to give you a few takeaways on just how important automation within your business can actually be.
There are likely many different areas of your business that take up more time on a daily basis than you expect. This include going live with content on your site, checking social media profiles, answering emails and customer support. For the most part, all of these can be outsourced and automated in just a few simple steps. This is especially true with social media and site content scheduling. Having a virtual assistant help with scanning through emails, weeding out spam and passing along only the most important emails to you can result in hundreds of hours saved per week as well — there are even AI virtual email programs that can help with this as well.
Each of these areas will need to be automated and outsourced accordingly, so be sure to review and consider all options before moving forward. Once you realize how simple and effective this process can be, you will have wished to made the change earlier!
4 – Eliminate Distractions and Get in the Zone
Time management and automation are two of the most important focus areas for your business. However, if you are still a mess mentally, working in an unproductive environment or simply never ‘in the zone’, your business and work ethic is going to show for it.
With all of this in mind, you want to make sure you are working in a distraction-free environment. This includes working in a space that you want to be in. It doesn’t matter if you are working from home or in a huge corporate business — the better your work atmosphere, the better work you are going to produce.
Keep all of this in mind before sitting down and getting to work.
5 – Focus on Your Expertise and What Matters Most
At the end of the day, you know what you are best at. With that in mind, you also should know what you enjoy doing most. If you’ve already created a successful business and know the company inside and out, your job and focus should be on forming new relationships and growing the brand with your expertise and passion.
Nearly all aspects of your business can, and should be outsourced, automated and running without you there. This is the ultimate dream for every CEO, entrepreneur and business owner in the world today. Once you’ve mastered the process of delegating out what works needs to be given to who, you can then truly focus on the business as a whole and scale it to that next level.
Take the time to read through the list again, but this time with your own business goals and needs in mind. There is nothing wrong with ‘running your business’, but at the same time you don’t want your business running you.
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