Last week in our Small Business Owner’s Mastermind Call week session, we had a very interesting conversation about some of the challenges that any business owner can face when they don’t have advice.
Sometimes we have thought that we are the only ones who know how to handle specific tasks of a business because we do not want to delegate. I felt a lot about how to fix this and then I said, let’s do what’s called a four-list business systems exercise.
Basically, in an Excel spreadsheet, column one is where you’re going to list everything you do in business, email, billing, billing, going to the bank, cashing checks, whatever, you’re going to list them all the things you do.
It begins with the tasks of the large companies that you will perform and will list them in the first column. Then how much time per week does he spend on that task? Then in the third column, he puts what you don’t like to do, you’re not good at it, you really shouldn’t be doing it. The next column is that you would like to do it, you do it very well, and you want to do more. And finally, a check box.
As your business grows and changes, this will be one of those documents that will give you a clear idea of when you need to hire someone. This is an excellent opportunity for you to outsource things that you don’t want to do and shouldn’t be doing and that someone else can probably do better than you, but it does give you a roadmap.
Maybe you could just hire a virtual assistant for two hours a week to cut that thing off your to-do list that you absolutely hate doing and shouldn’t be doing, maybe you don’t like making phone calls, maybe you’re not doing. customer service calls, maybe you’re not sending thank you cards, maybe you don’t want to make a proposal, maybe you don’t want to communicate with your vendors and get pricing.
Maybe you don’t want to propose; perhaps you don’t want to follow up on our proposal. Perhaps you don’t want to reply to your email, and the list goes on and on. When you first start the business, you are doing it all.
What to do with this worksheet?
This allows me when I am doing a task to share my screen with myself and do the task log; now, it becomes a training module, a system, a process, so to speak, for that item.
So if you don’t take the time to do it, ultimately you have to, or you will always stay small; you will always say stay, never, never grow, or have anything. I’m never going to have a vacation or stuff. And it sounds like I’m tough, but the only reason I’m challenging myself isn’t that I’ve been there; I’ve painted myself in the corner so many times.
Business strategy
Performing this worksheet as a strategy will dramatically increase your closing rate because instead of just telling them about the services, you will have them go through their audit, they will give you their master list, and you will say, well, we want to do whatever we can do that we can. have us make that sign here.
How often is it recommended to do this?
If small business owners, when they are starting, want it to be a list, it will always be ongoing. And if we can create a spreadsheet where they can keep an endless list. So when things are added, they are adding it to the list.
It is a constant document, but I would evaluate it once a quarter. So my clients, when they learn it, they do this on their own.
But I would look at it once a quarter and assess what else you don’t want to do. You know, making sure that you are efficient, and have a mentor who holds you accountable, is much easier.
Alan Reeves Experience
He mentioned McDonald’s to us, Ray Kroc was an absolute genius at locating where food preparation comes down to processes. They created a methodology where anyone can put anyone in there. And as long as they follow a process, they can produce the product. And it wasn’t two hours later that a Harvard Business Review article crossed his screen. And there is an article on five quick tips to scale your business, and one of them was McDonald’s. And that, the idea of process translates very, very well. And it is much easier to do it at first than to try to catch up.
Extra tips
Once your business manages to earn 100 250 300 1,000.00 2 million dollars a year when you begin to calculate what an hour of your time is worth.
It is amazing, and how much money you lose due to inefficiency. So, you know, you just want to do the number of them, take the number that you want to make, be it $ 250,000 a year, be it $ 100,000 a year. Take that as $ 250,000 a year, divide that by 2080 hours, that is, 40 hours a week, your hour is worth $ 120 an hour. So are you spending time doing a $ 120 an hour job when you can delegate it to someone for $ 15 an hour? The best advice I would give you is to hire a virtual assistant.
