Have you ever tried to control time?

Good luck with that.

We can’t control time any more than we can grow wings and fly.

Stop trying to control time and start concentrating on controlling your actions and activities.

The main difference that separates the successful from the not so successful is what they spend their time doing.

No-one ever made a fortune cleaning, but many have made fortunes building cleaning businesses.

The successful realise that they must spend their time working ON their business, not in their business.

Working IN the business will result in you doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Working ON the business will result in you taking a step forwards every time you do it.

You should be spending a minimum of 30 minutes, every single day, working ON your business.

But before you can do this, you will need to free up some time from your week.

Chances are that you are currently performing a lot of tasks in your business that you shouldn’t be doing.

These tasks are anything that someone else could be doing at a low hourly rate, including bookkeeping, cleaning, filing, and answering phones.

When you stop doing these tasks, you free yourself up to complete more important tasks that will grow your business.

Try the following exercise to free up your time:

List all the low enjoyment, low skill jobs that you are currently performing in your business.

 Forget about how you will get someone else to do them at this point, just list everything that comes to mind.

Examples include:

• Bookkeeping
• Cleaning
• Data Input
• Opening and Closing the Shop
• Answering Phones
• Banking
• Stock Ordering

If it helps, carry around a notepad for a few days and list every activity that you shouldn’t be doing as it comes up.

Be tough with yourself on this.

Often we can make the mistake of thinking we are the only ones who can do a task properly. Even if the task is only completed at 80% efficiency, it will still be beneficial to the business as it will be freeing up your time to grow the business.

Low Enjoyment / Low Skill Tasks you are currently performing

List all of the tasks above that can be outsourced / delegated / stopped, and identify who will take over.

For Example:

Task	Outsource / Delegate / Stop Doing	Who will take over the task (if applicable)
Bookkeeping	Outsourced	Hire a Bookkeeper
Data Input	Delegate	Receptionist

This activity should free your time up considerably, and will definitely provide time to allocate 30 minutes per day to work ON your business.

If needed write a very brief document, in point form, for the new person to use to complete their new task.

Stop doing the menial tasks in your business and free yourself up to work on the tasks that will actually grow your business.