5 Sure-Fire Strategies to Getting More Done in Less Time (Part 2)
By Melanie Benson Strick | August 19th, 2010Ready for three more “Get More Done” strategies? If you missed part one, read part 1 here.
3. Delegate Ruthlessly
A lot of time is wasted when a business owner is doing a task that someone could do better, faster or cheaper than themselves. Now granted, when the cash flow is tight, sometimes it’s really tempting to just keep it all in house and do it yourself.
But have you ever stopped to think about what doing certain activities yourself is costing you? If you spend 10 hours a week doing billing then you aren’t focused on growth. With those ten hours you could be meeting with new clients, creating customer retention programs or even designing a new offering. You could be hiring new team members or even mapping out a new marketing technique. But no….you are convinced that you should be doing a $25/hour task yourself (at the expensive of generating tens of thousands of additional dollars.)
When your mind shifts into how powerful delegation can be to getting more done you’ll discover a lot of tasks that can be completed faster through other people. Or even better, how you can accomplish more of those “bigger dream” projects when you aren’t distracted by the every day minutia.
Here are a few key delegation areas to consider:
• Managing incoming phone calls and emails. A virtual assistant can handle 90% of the routine follow up and free you up to focus on more important tasks.
• Data entry. It’s a $10/an hour job at best – so find someone who can do it for you. Most bookkeeping and invoicing tasks fall under this category although you may pay someone closer to $25/hour.
• Online Marketing. Anything that you’ll have to spend more than 2 hours learning is probably more effective to have an admin or expert set up. For instance, if you spend four hours figuring out how to set up a Facebook or Twitter account when someone else could do it for you in 20 minutes, you’ve now wasted your time. Consider having an online business manager set up your social media accounts, squeeze pages, shopping cart, materials, affiliate programs, etc.
• Client Communications. By creating a schedule of regular communications, an admin support person can ensure that newsletters, blog posts or email updates are sent on time.
• Program Management. Membership sites and group coaching programs often require a lot of hand-holding and new customer training. Delegating this to someone who can stay on top of it not only makes sure you can accomplish brining on lot of new clients quickly – it also helps customer retention!
I’ve got over 101 different delegation ideas to consider but these are a few of the basics. If you’d like to see more ideas on delegatable tasks get a copy of the free resource 101 Ways To Triple your Income and Time Off.
4. Shore up Standards & Boundaries
Standards and boundaries are like castles. Beautiful castles were built in Europe for centuries by aristocrats – but they were vulnerable without to be protected from thieves and other warring nations. When a castle was designed they would build lookout towers to watch for potential danger as well as a drawbridge and moat to keep the castle safe.
In our own lives, our standards are our beautiful goals and lifestyle desires. The boundaries are what we put in place to protect our ability to sustain them. If we are constantly bombarded by distractions, energy drains, problems, and other people’s toxic influences, it can be very difficult to achieve new heights.
In my Extraordinary Results Academy I teach specific steps on exactly how to set up boundaries.
Here are a few ideas for you to get you started:
• Create a disruption free work space.
• Communicate proactively about deadlines, procedures and needs.
• Eliminate (or limit) time spent with negative people.
• Turn off your phone or email when working on projects.
• Stop solving problems for your team by coaching them on how to solve on their own.
• Set up reserves for key resources such as money, supplies, etc.
5. Simplify Your Approach
The other day I watched a friend of mine drive 4 hours all over the city to pick up mail, cash checks and get banking done. Honestly, I was perplexed. Now I get that some people still have checks mailed to them from their clients (aka not all businesses use online payment processing) but the fact that his mailbox is a good 30 miles away from his office AND it took him 3 stops to get it all done blew my mind.
Not to mention that it takes him about 30 hours a month to do the billings for his accounts. WHAT? Wow, what a time consumer.
So I threw out a novel idea. “What if you put all your clients on a monthly retainer. You could give them a price break for paying up front for your monthly services and save both you and your client a ton of time servicing the accounts. “ His response – “I love it.” Has he implemented it? Nope.
Back to the boiled frog theory. It’s easier to keep doing it the way he’s done it for 25 years even though it costs him valuable productivity time. But what about for you? Where could you simplify the way you are doing things so you can get more done (not to mention eliminate of a lot of stress!)
Here are some areas you might consider:
• Scheduling appointments. By using an online scheduling tool you can let other people pick from available appointment times and sync it right into your calendar. Two tools I recommend are www.genbook.com and www.timedriver.com.
• Using Contact Management Systems. Especially if you have more than one person who needs up to date information about prospects, purchases or affiliate relationships, using a contact management system like InfusionSoft, SugarCRM or Goldmine will make your entire team more productive.
• Automate Bonuses and Coaching Benefits. If you have a lot of moving parts, be sure to map out the entire sequence of steps and automate as much as possible using software. If you are using InfusionSoft, this is a great tool to pre-program deliverables.
• Billing and Invoicing Systems. Another area that can suck a lot of time is managing client receivables. Look for ways to stop the on- off payments and the need for monthly billings. Consider packages or set up retainers.
Getting more done starts by making a decision to do what works – not what’s comfortable or what you’ve become accustomed to over time. Make a commitment to implement even just one of these five ideas and track how much more effective you are – and how much more quickly you accomplish your goals.
Did you have a “get more done” breakthrough you can share below? Or maybe a tip you want others to know about? Would love to have you post in the comments below!
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