How to Get Maximum Results in Minimum Time

The typical business owner, manager, or entrepreneur spends a considerable amount of their day handling crisis and putting out fires rather than running, managing and growing their business. As a result, at the end of the day they find they’ve made very little, if any progress toward achieving their goals.

And, at the end of several years, they find they’re no further ahead than they were years ago. In fact, in many cases, they’re farther behind, because while their expenses and the cost of doing business continued to rise, their businesses failed to grow at a proportionate rate.

If this sounds like you, and you’re frustrated because of it, don’t give up. There’s a reason for it... and thankfully, a solution. And, the good news is, the solution isn’t all that difficult.

The main reason so many business people find themselves in this predicament is very clear to those who understand the simple principle behind it. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize, have never been taught, or fail to grasp this one basic and fundamental concept:

Most People in Business Spend Too Much Time Working in Their Business, and Not on Their Business.

In other words, they’re working so hard trying to keep the ship afloat, that they don’t have enough time (and sometimes energy) to do what it takes to move the ship towards its intended destination.

And, it’s not always the business owner’s fault. Sometimes, the business they find themselves in has just grown so fast that they haven’t had time to keep up with it.

In other cases, the business might be slow to develop because of insufficient cash flow, inadequate resources, stiff competition, poor location, or an apathetic buying market, and it’s all the business owner can do to keep the doors open by running it him or herself. They just can’t afford to hire anyone else to help them.

If this sounds like you, like I said earlier, don’t give up. In the remaining articles I will be posting, you’re going to learn how to work more efficiently ON your business (and help your clients with their businesses) and controlling it, rather than having your business control you by you having to spend your valuable time working IN it.

Working Hard on Your Business Can Produce Results, but Working Smart Can Annihilate Your Competition

You’ve no doubt heard that to get better results, you need to work smarter, rather than harder in your business. Well, that’s a very true statement. And, like the previous statement of working ON your business, rather than ON it, there are a lot of business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs who just don’t understand how to make it happen.

That’s exactly what the information in this article is designed to help you accomplish... to get you to work smarter ON your business, instead of working harder IN your business.

In the course of a day, in any business, job or profession, there are a number of activities or tasks that must be performed. Some of those activities are focused on bringing in new customers, clients or patients. Some have to do with servicing existing customers. And others deal with administrative duties that have to do with paying bills, keeping the business open, and making sure it runs smoothly.

It’s Not How Much You Do, But What You Choose to Do That Makes the Big Difference

 How you prioritize and choose the activities you get involved with on a daily basis, as well as how much time, effort and attention you devote to those activities has a tremendous amount to do with determining the impact you have on the growth and direction of your business.

 The reality is, that when you work IN your business, you’re doing the activities that, at best, produce only average results for you.

 On the other hand, when you work ON your business, you’re doing the 20% of activities that have the potential to produce an incredible 80%, even 90% or more of your results.

To Gain the Maximum Effectiveness in Your Business, You Must Wear the Correct Hat

Earlier, I mentioned that most business owners spend too much time putting out fires and handling crisis, and not enough time running, managing, and growing their business.

 And, the reason for that, is that they don’t have the correct vision of the role they’re supposed to play in the business. Either that, or they are in a crisis situation where time and/or money has gotten away from them, and they have very little other choice but to do much of the work themselves.

 But this is a critical mistake. And it can be a deadly (to the business) one, as well.

If you really want your business to realize the success it’s capable of, and if you really want to enjoy the money freedom and time freedom having or running your own business can afford you, then, it’s critical that you begin viewing your position... your job... your responsibility in the correct and proper manner.

Simply put…

You Must Begin Thinking of Yourself as Business Manager and Business Builder, and Not the Owner, a Producer, an Employee, or a Gap-Filler

Management expert, Peter Drucker said, “Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.”

With that in mind, the most important function you as a business manager and builder can perform in your business, is to make sure your business is constantly developing and offering new and innovative products and services to your customers, that you’re growing by adding new customers to your client base, and that you’re constantly increasing the quality of those customers.

As Drucker says, those are the things that produce results. Anything else you do or get involved with is just a cost to the business.

Well, knowing that, why in the world would you want to do anything other than be involved with marketing your business or innovation... the only two things that produce results?

As the business owner, manager, or entrepreneur, you’re the one ultimately responsible for your company’s growth, for its stability, for providing security for your employees, and value to your customers and clients.

The fact of the matter is, your business is either moving forward, or it’s going backwards There’s no such thing as stagnation... just staying even.

Even if you have the same number of customers, clients or patients from one year to the next, your business operating expenses, wages, supplies, and the general cost of doing business continues to rise. And without an increase in your customer base, or the monies you derive from sales to your existing customers, your profit margins will deteriorate.

Management Personnel at All Levels Have Building and Growth Responsibilities

If you’re not the owner of the business, but are in a management capacity, the same principles apply to you as they do to the owner of the business. The difference is, that what you manage and build, is the part of the business you have responsibility for, or your job or career.

It’s up to you to make sure those areas are running as smoothly, efficiently, and profitably as possible, and that you’re providing as much value as possible to your customers (who just may be the people you work for or with, or whom you have responsibility over).

If you’ve never thought of yourself as a business builder or manager before or have been involved in nearly every aspect of your business, this may be a major paradigm shift for you. It may not be the easiest thing for you to change your thinking and the activities you engage in on a daily basis. But change them, you must... that is, if you want to reap the maximum rewards from your business.

In order for you to get a firm grasp on your new role as a business manager and builder, it’s important to determine what activities you currently find yourself doing, what the monetary value of those activities are, what activities you should be engaged in, and what kind of difference it would make if you were to devote most of your time and effort to those activities.

Once you determine those amounts, the next step is to do more of the highest-payoff activities and delegate as many of the low-payoff activities to your staff as possible, In some cases, you may find it more advantageous to outsource certain activities that can be done cheaper or more efficiently to an outside firm.

For illustration purposes, let’s suppose you’re a business owner or manager. Let’s analyze the top five daily activities of a hypothetical business that you might be involved in, in the following table.

Notice that you’re spending 9.5 hours a day at work. But only 2 of those hours, or about 20% of your time is spent in prospecting and seeing prospects and customers... the two highest payoff activities. Activities that produce $375 per hour, or about 71% of the results.

And, 7.5 hours, or about 80% of your time is consumed with activities that only produce $155, or about 29% of the total results.

Now, stop and think for a minute. Doesn’t it make sense for you to spend more of your time and effort on the activities that have a higher payoff?

Of course, it does.

But, it’s surprising how few business owners or managers actually take the time to sit down and graph out a chart like the one above that clearly and plainly shows them where their time (and money) is going.

And, why not?

Because as I said earlier, most people are too busy working IN their business that they don’t have time to work ON their business. It’s a common problem, and one that most people usually don’t recognize until it’s pointed out to them.

How serious of a problem is it?

Well, using the figures in our example, you’ll earn about $138,000 a year ($530 a day x 5 days a week x 52 weeks). Not a bad income. But the fact is, you could make this same income with a lot less effort and energy.

You Can Double Your Income by Refocusing and Restructuring Your Activities

Now, if you want to work the same 9.5 hours a day you’re currently working, you could make twice as much money just by doing more of the highest-payoff activities.

For instance, if you were to delegate 3 hours of your administrative work and 1.5 hours of your paperwork to your staff, you would then free up 4.5 hours that could be spent working on your two highest-payoff activities—Prospecting and Seeing Prospects and Customers. This would give your income a tremendous boost.

Let’s say, that after prioritizing and restructuring your activities, you now spend 3 hours on prospecting, 3.5 hours on seeing prospects and clients, 1 hour on administrative work, 1 hour on paperwork, and 1 hour on telephone calls.

What kind of impact would that have on your income? The next table shows a significant improvement.

As you can see, simply by rearranging your priorities—by working smarter—ON your business instead of IN it—you were able to double your income without having to work a single minute longer.

Even if you hired additional staff to take care of your low-payoff activities and paid that person $200 a day (8 hours x $25 per hour), you still make $1,140 a day. This is almost 2.2 times more than what you were previously making.

Now, consider how much money you could make if you were to delegate all of your low-payoff tasks, including Prospecting, to your staff and were to just focus on doing only your highest-payoff activity—Seeing Prospects and Customers.

In this case, you would triple or even quadruple your income!

Watch how this works:

If you were to spend 7 hours a day on your highest-payoff activity, Seeing Prospects and Customers, you would earn $2,100 a day (7 hours x $300 per hour). And, if you were to spend your full day on this activity—9.5 hours, your income would shoot up to $2,850 a day!

Delegation Doesn’t Happen All at Once, nor Is It Always a 100% Thing

Now, it’s probably not realistic to think that a person can delegate all of their low-payoff activities to a staff person... at least not right away. But, that’s not the important thing.

What is important, is that you become aware of what activities and tasks you’re spending your time on, what it’s costing you to spend that time on them, and that you delegate or off-load as much and as many of your low-payoff activities to another, lower-paid person.

Suppose, for example, that you can find a person to do your prospecting for you. And, let’s say that for every hour this prospector works, he’s able to set up one appointment for you.

Let’s do the math. It costs you $75 for the hour it takes the prospector to set up the appointment, but it also frees up that hour for you to spend in a selling situation, in which you can earn $300.

Your net gain (supposing you are successful in closing the sale), is $225 ($300 minus $75).

Now, if your prospector is good—as good as, or even better than you are—it may be to your advantage to pay him $100 or even $150 an hour to set your appointments—providing they’re good, solid appointments that can lead to a sale. Or, you may consider giving him a bonus for the sales you make as a result of the appointments he sets for you.

You see, the more low-payoff activities you can delegate, the more time you’ll have to spend doing the higher-payoff activities—activities that can boost your income up several notches very quickly.

Don’t Let the Cost of Hiring Staff Scare You... If Done Right, It Won’t Be a Cost at All

I know what you may be thinking—especially, if you think like most business owners or managers.

“Come on, get real. There’s no way I can pay someone that kind of money to do my prospecting for me.“

I’ll admit, on the surface, it does look like a lot of money. (And, I’ll not kid you, it is a lot of money.)

But if I were to give you $300 for every $75 you handed me, how many times would you continue handing over $75? My guess is, that you’d do it as often as you could, right?

Sure, you would.

Now, what if your business isn’t the kind of business where you meet with your prospects in a one-on-one selling situation by appointment? What if you operate a retail, or walk-in type of business? How does this concept apply to you?

Well, to put it quite simply—the very same way.

All Businesses May Not Operate in the Same Way, but Basic Business Principles Apply to All Businesses

Look, it doesn’t matter what type of business you operate, the principles are the same. Sure, you may not have a person who does your prospecting or appointment setting for you. But you do have activities that rank higher as well as activities that rank lower on the priority scale.

The activities listed in the previous tables were merely used as illustrations. It’s up to you to determine just what activities you are spending your time on, then place a dollar value on them, and rate them according to their importance.

You are the one who has to determine exactly which activities and tasks are the most profitable for you to undertake each day. The idea is to try and delegate as many of the lower payoff activities and tasks to lower paid employees, associates, or outsourcing vendors as possible, so you can free up your valuable time to spend on those activities that will give you the most return for your investment of time, money, and effort.

Like I said earlier, if you find yourself spending 80% of your time doing the activities that bring you 20% of the results, it may not necessarily be your fault. It could be that you were never taught how to prioritize your tasks and proportion your efforts.

Or, it may be that your business just grew so fast, or that because of market conditions or other circumstances your business is so slow, that out of necessity, you’ve found yourself wearing all kinds of different hats.

A New Paradigm... a New Outlook... a New Way of Seeing Your Role in Your Business

Whatever the reason, you’ve got to put that behind you, now. You’ve got to change the way you look at yourself, your business, and the role you play in it. You can no longer think of yourself as a chiropractor, an insurance agent, a plumber, a carpenter, or doctor.

Being a carpet cleaner, a real estate agent, an attorney, a restaurant owner, or retailer is no longer enough. Whatever business you are engaged in, and no matter what your primary duties are in it, you must begin to see yourself as a business manager and business builder.

Sure, if you’re a physician or dentist, you’re most likely the one who provides the health or dental care. And, it’s the same with any of the other businesses or professions.

But, if you want your business to grow and to provide you with the income it’s capable of, you’ve got to begin looking at things differently. You have to begin delegating and off-loading some of the “busy work” or lower-payoff activities to others. And, that means you must have people working with you - either a staff in your employ, or companies or independent contractors you can outsource to.

If you think you can’t afford it, I urge you to think again.

Just go back to the previous tables and plug in your own activities, assign dollar amounts to them, and see how much money you’re missing out on.

After you’ve done this exercise, I’m sure you’ll be convinced that there’s no way you can afford to not be without someone in your employ or at your hire to delegate to.

Once you’ve discovered that you can double, triple - even quadruple your income without having to work a minute harder or longer, you’ll be hooked, and you’ll never turn back. It’s that powerful.

Remember, the more low-payoff activities you can delegate to others, the more successful you’ll become. This is undoubtedly one of the most common sense, but least practiced secrets of success...

Delegate as Much as Possible, as Quickly as Possible!

Now that we’ve walked through the illustration and you have the basic concept down, let’s take a minute and identify your five highest-payoff activities and the amount you can earn from each one. Record the information in the following table...

Well, how’d you do? Have you found yourself like so many other business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs, spending less than 30% of your time on your two highest-payoff activities?

What did you determine to be your highest-payoff activity? And what is the dollar value of that activity?

Was it as much as $100? $250? $500? Or did it go as high as $1,000 or more?

What about your lowest-payoff task? What was it? How much time did you determine you spend on it? And, what is its dollar value?

Were you surprised to find out how much time you’ve been spending on your lower-payoff activities and how little time on your highest-payoff activity?

Can you see the value of delegating the lower-payoff tasks to someone else, so you can spend more time on the high-payoff tasks? Have any ideas come to mind for accomplishing that?

If you divide the amount of money you earn per day (C) by the number of hours you work per day (A), you’ll get your average hourly income.

This next statement is critically important, so please pay close attention: Whatever your hourly average income is, with very few exceptions, you should not be doing any activity that produces less than this amount.

Now, take a look at the activities you participate in, in your business. Are there any that generate less than this amount? If so, you must take steps to eliminate them from your agenda and pass them on to others who are qualified to handle them, and who earn less per hour than you’re capable of.

Let me put it another way...

If You Want to Increase Your Productivity... You Must Figure out Ways to Delegate Your Low-Payoff Tasks to Somebody Else!

Even if you’re a one-person operation and think you can’t afford to hire a staff to do most or all of the low-payoff tasks for you, you must hire that person.

If you find yourself spending most of your time doing low payoff tasks right now, then like most business owners, you’re not working ON your business—you’re working IN your business.

And, until you’ve learned how to work ON your business, rather than IN it, you’ll never be able to make the kind of income you want, or that your business is capable of earning.

Remember what I said earlier—you won’t be able to download or delegate everything at once. It may take some time to find the right persons to share your load. The best people are those who enjoy and have a desire to do the kind of work you want to delegate to them.

Some people are “numbers-oriented,” and really enjoy working with figures, formulas, and facts. Others absolutely despise those tasks, and no matter how hard they try, how much you train, and how well you compensate or reward them, they’ll never be able to make a go of it.

So, don’t be discouraged in the beginning, if it takes a while to get to the point where you’re spending most of your time doing the higher-payoff activities. If you keep at it, eventually, you’ll find yourself spending most of your time and effort doing the things that bring the greatest rewards—both financially, and personally.

And, you’ll be surprised at the improvement in attitudes and responsibility others around you assume, as you give them more of your trust.

If your business is one in which you engage your prospects and customers in face-to-face selling, and you find that by delegating less important tasks that you have more time to spend in those selling situations, you’ll delight as your income takes quantum leaps.

If your business is engaged in other kinds of operations, you be amazed at the increase in productivity you’ll realize because you’re able to spend more time and effort doing the things that bring an increase in efficiency and effectiveness of the operation of your business.

As the owner or manager of a small or medium-sized business, you have a tremendous advantage. Just by making a few changes in the way you conduct your business, you can turn your business around and double, triple, or even quadruple your effectiveness and your profits.

Large businesses and corporations don’t have that luxury. Often, decisions must go through committees, channels, and discussion groups just to get approval to begin a test or pilot program to see if they even have a chance of working.

But, you’re able to make changes on the fly—changes that have the potential of making you huge amounts of profits very quickly. And it all begins with you taking control of the activities you choose to engage in on a daily basis.

You can do it. You can make the changes that can take your business to new heights. And you can do it beginning now.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

Tony and his team have helped 600+ startups, many becoming multi-billion dollar companies. There's a reason larger companies happily pay Tony $5,000 per hour. If you're SERIOUS and have a marketing budget, then connect with Tony here.