Make More Money in Less Time

Let’s get down to the business of your business. This worksheet is designed to help you find the roadblocks that are preventing you from making the most of your time and energy. These five big mistakes can derail your train and put the brakes on your company’s growth, so let’s work on fixing them before you reach the point of no return.

Get Your Goals On!

Quick…don’t think about this…just answer.

Write down the three most important goals that you have for your company. Be specific.
1.
2.
3.

If you weren’t able to complete this question in less than a couple of minutes, you don’t have clear, detailed, and definite goals that help you steer your business in the right direction.

Before you go any further, give this first question some thought and mull it over a bit. Then write down your top three goals. Think them through.

Be concise, yet descriptive. Be precise with numbers. Be realistic, yet ambitious.

If you did fill in the blanks in record time, congratulate yourself!

Then, sit down and think about it – so you add two more!

Take Time Out for Time

Next, you need to look closely at what you do with your days. Many people think they do a lot, and find they don’t accomplish much, while others think they’re running in circles, but actually get things done.

First, look at your calendar.

You have a calendar, right?
Okay…just checking.
Jot down what’s on your calendar for the next three days.

Next, jot down the things you know you need to do that aren’t on your calendar.

Finally, look at the types of activities that “make it onto” your calendar, and those that don’t. Do you only use your calendar for hair appointments, or do you use it to block out chunks of time on specific days every week that are devoted to important activities for your business?

If you haven’t been scheduling time for accounting, sales, administration, and other critical business functions, start right now. Pull out that calendar and block off time for the next month – then stick to the schedule. Make sure to block out time for your personal life, too. Work/life balance is a sacred thing.

There’s a Process for Every System…

Give yourself a point for each of these standardized strategies and plans that you’ve already created. They don’t have to be formal, but they do have to follow a specific pattern and be consistent. You have to do them the same way every time.

• You have manuals or guidelines that establish how your business will be run.
• You know where to find your customers and know what marketing strategies work best to reach them.
• You manage your sales process with the appropriate tools and have a step-by-step procedure for “closing the sale”.
• You have a profit model that shows exactly how many sales you’ll have to close to meet your income goals.

If you didn’t score four points, now is the time to boost your score by setting down these crucial processes. Once again, be clear, descriptive, and precise. Try to be comprehensive, but don’t get bogged down by improbable scenarios and minute details.

Write your thoughts on this here:

Set a Dollar Value on Your Time

If you know what the value of an hour of your time is, write it here:

If you don’t, determine it right now. Decide how much money you want to make this year. Divide this amount by the total number of hours you want to work to make this money. The number you get is the value of an hour of your time. Now, go back and write it in.

The next part of this section is devoted to the tasks you do all the time that don’t meet your hourly minimum. List the activities you do every week that cost you more in time and money than you will make by doing them.

Keep going until you’ve listed them all.

Clean Out Your Closet…

It’s time to develop a delegating strategy. Take the tasks you referenced above and rank them – with the most important, most time-consuming, and least profitable tasks first. Then it’s time to “clean out the closet” – and pass along these tasks to a new owner. Think of yourself as the entrepreneur’s answer to Goodwill Industries.
Focus on finding people to assume these tasks and free up your time to do more profitable things. Here’s an example or two to get you started:

1. Accounting – Call Aunt Sylvia. She’s a newly retired CPA who says she’s a little bored now that she doesn’t have to work all the time.

2. Web Updates – Call the local community college to see about getting an intern.

Brainstorm a bit. Think outside the box and be creative. There are lots of great ways to find people to take over some of the tasks that must be done, but don’t need to be done by you!

Rank them here:

Start at the top of the list and work downward, finding ways to take these responsibilities off your plate and move them to someone else’s.


Now that you’ve finished, you should have a much clearer picture of the mistakes you may have been making that have been holding you back. If you need a sounding board or some advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to me – I live for this stuff!