Time is our most precious resource, but it seems like we never have enough of it. The second entrepreneur Aurik ever gave guidance to, was a bakery business owned by a 54-year old man, who had initiated the company at 27. It was highly successful, but he’d not been able to focus on its strategic growth because all his time was tied up in operations. Fourteen years after we rebuilt the business with him, it now creates more than a Billion Rands’ worth of business.
As the owner of a developing business, you can, and should create time to grow the business, and work on it, instead of in it. We'll examine seven strategies that help you create more time, and spend it wisely.
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It can feel all too tempting to try and be everything to everyone. For a growing business, there is extreme value in specialisation, where you provide a specific kind of service to a defined type of customer. By specialising and positioning your business, you’re able to focus, learn your industry, and exploit your business’ unique aptitudes.
The systems you build become the delivery vehicle for your customer service. By building simple, effective systems that positively serve your customers, you will create time to focus on your company’s growth.
A growing business must go through its developmental stages to be successful – there is no such thing as a true overnight success. Identify which stage your business is in, and take the right action for your company. The stages of your business’ lifecycle are:
• Start – where you’re focused on selling your product/service & attracting customers
• Build – where you’ve had enough success to start building effective systems, to ensure you can keep up your level of delivery
• Grow – where you’re able to hire the right people to cater for increased customer demand
• Accelerate – where your business functions so well operationally, that you’re able to innovate and move towards becoming an industry leader
Outsourcing is a great way to carve out the right kind of focused time. Here’s how to choose which tasks you can outsource:
• Which tasks are part of your core business and strategically important? Do not outsource these. This is your work.
• Which tasks are part of your core business but not strategically important? For this, you can collaborate with a service provider.
• Which tasks are not part of your core business, and not strategically important? These tasks can be outsourced.
Using integrated technological systems will help you create more time for your team, and thereby create more value for your company. For example, your accounting software should directly integrate with your banking facilities, otherwise you’re adding unnecessary steps to administrative processes.
Research has shown that, when we multitask, we experience a 38% drop in intellectual capacity. That’s why focusing on a single task at one time leads to better results. Set your priorities and work on one task at a time, without distraction.
In uncertain times, you may find yourself desperately seeking a collaborator, but choosing the right one is key for your company’s success. Select collaborators who are close to your business’ function, and who will help you to build it, not take time away from it.
When your time runs low, so do your inspiration levels. At Aurik, we help you build systems that curate, construct and craft your time, so that you can build your business into an asset of value. Get in touch with us and let’s start building, together.
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