There is a direct relationship between how much money you can make out of your business and how much time you have for productivity. Small-business owners waste their time on what I
call N30,000 a month work, like running to get office supplies. Meanwhile, they
forgo the activities that earn N750,000 a month, such as sending the right
email to the right person, or negotiating a lucrative contract, or convincing a
client to do more business with you.
Entrepreneurs don't realize the same 80/20
principle -- the adage that 20 percent of customers equal 80 percent of sales
-- applies to every dimension of business. And that includes time management.
We entrepreneurs are extremely prone to
rationalize, "I can do it myself." Sure, we may be competent to do
that little job. And sure, sometimes you have to do everything when you start
out. But now you're doing a N20,000 or N30,000 a month job and you're not doing
your No. 1 job, which is getting and keeping customers. That job pays N100,000
to N1,000,000 a month.
Many promising businesses have been killed by
those little jobs. When someone says "time management," you probably
think of time logs, goal lists, and "Getting Things Done." But
getting busy is not what makes you rich.
We're tempted to hire out the toughest jobs, like
sales and marketing and public relations. These are extremely high-skill tasks.
It's almost impossible to delegate those tasks to someone else. How about
hiring someone to do your laundry, or sort through your email?
Five things you should do immediately in order to
stop wasting time and start earning the real mullah:
Hire a maid
If you have a significant other, he or she will
thank you. It is easy to find someone who knows how to cook. Easy to find
people who know how to clean. They will love you for paying them N20,000 to
N30,000 a month to do those jobs. Somebody's praying for that job right now.
As a go-getter, your core entrepreneurial skills
can earn you million of naira a year. So there's no reason why you should be
scrubbing your own toilets. In fact, I argue that it is your moral obligation
to hire someone to do that.
The American aristocratic Crawley family thought
it was their duty to have servants and provide them employment. Same goes for
business owners. Nigeria would be back down to 5 percent unemployment if
entrepreneurs stopped taking out their own trash.
Just get over
yourself and….
Get rid of your N20,000 a month stuff. Let's
assume you are no longer wasting time vacuuming your own carpets or listening
to your own voicemails. You are still hurting yourself if you are obsessed with
being "efficient." That is not an 80/20 approach to time. Instead,
ask: "What else am I doing that is so menial, it could be cheaply
outsourced? What am I doing that I should stop doing altogether?"
Hire a personal
assistant.
With some effort you can hire a perfectly
competent person at N20,000 to N30,000 a month and they'll be happy because it
is more interesting work than selling recharge cards. I don't care where they
are. Virtual is fine. In my case, I hired a friend of a friend, Moses, whom I
heard was looking for work. I started him out with pressing my clothes and dry
cleaning my suits. Within two months, he was managing my email box, to ensure
that I only read what really matters. The time he saves me is worth its weight
in gold.
Don't feel guilty about relaxing. The most
productive people are a little lazy. Downtime gives you the mental space you
need to think. You can't be a great strategist when you're hustling from morning
till night. Feed your brain instead, so you're sharp when you're negotiating
the next sales contract.
Focus on your most productive time slot.
Everybody has a timeslot in their day when they do their finest work. You might
be a night crawler or day walker, whichever suits you… I do my best work
between 4pm and 11pm. It's reserved for writing or doing really strategic jobs.
That's the part of my day when I'm most productive. Make these changes and you'll
hit consistent stretches of N700,000 and above in a month. Then and only then
will you reap the true rewards of being an entrepreneur.
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