Too much to do, too little time? Solving the small business conundrum.

To date I am yet to meet a small business owner who does not suffer from this syndrome, whether their turnover is $100,000 or $10,000,000.

This is the source of much anxiety for owners, and significantly reduces their quality of life. Rather than being liberated by working for themselves, they become “slaves” to their businesses.

The irony is that in the vast majority of cases being so busy prevents businesses from reaching their potential. Fortunately there are practical steps that any business owner can take to turn this around to grow their businesses AND have more time for family and leisure.

Step 1: put a (true) value on your own time

Business owners often treat their own time as “free”. If we can’t justify paying someone else to do it, we do it ourselves. This is the opposite of what we as owners should be doing – there are a small number of tasks that only an owner can do, and when we are spending our time on low value tasks they won’t happen.

Put a value on your own time – this should be based on the opportunity cost of not doing the highest value tasks. These include business development and setting the strategic direction for the future of your enterprise.

Step 2: set priorities.

Jim Collins famously stated “If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any”. The typical small business owner will have around 100 priorities. Stop it.

You must be very clear on what are the 2-3 real priorities for your business:

-       That your business wouldn’t exist if they aren’t done

-       That bring in the most profit for your business

-       That cannot be done by anybody else

This is a tremendously difficult exercise for most small business owners, especially if you have built your business from nothing. The temptation is to assign these criteria to everything. In reality, there are very few tasks that meet this threshold. If you struggle with this, you can bring in an external advisor who can look at your situation objectively and help you come to the right priorities.

Step 3: get the support you need

The right support can catapult your business to the next level.

As a small business owner, you are unlikely to be able to attract or afford the high level talent of a large business. If this is not addressed, you will be overwhelmed trying to do it all yourself, and your business growth will be stunted.

It is tempting to view external support as a “cost” for your business. Professional support can easily yield 5x to 10x the cost to your business, and is an investment in your growth. The right thinking is to consider what it costs you NOT to have the right support to grow your business. Getting the right support is an INVESTMENT NOT A COST.

Step 4: as your business grows, you will need different skills

A business with $100,000 turnover is different to a business with $1,000,000 turnover, which is different to a business with $10,000,000 turnover. The transition points will vary from business to business, but for any business there are definite points where you need to learn a new set of skills to continue to grow – failure to do so will result in stagnation of your business.

When you are involved in your business on a daily basis it is likely that you won’t even notice when you reach these points. An external advisor can be invaluable to help you identify the changing dynamic of your business, and what skills and additional support you need to continue to grow.

Taking these four steps will be far from easy, but with the right support any business is able to dramatically improve their performance. If you need to get started, perhaps the easiest way is to make an appointment with your business advisor to formulate a plan for your business.

This is an article for Business Blindspots Tasmania. To ensure you receive our regular updates from expert business advisers across a range of areas follow our LinkedIn group.