Million Dollar Tips On Managing Your Time

Have you ever noticed that entrepreneurs will scrimp and save every dollar they can but then fritter away hours of their time on unproductive (and often un-fun) activities that add nothing to their 1ncome?

Why IS that?!

The reasons are twofold. First, most business owners don’t truly know WHAT to do with their time, so they end up doing tasks that are either within their comfort zone or the ones they think they’re “supposed” to do.

Or, they focus their time on tasks that keep them busy, thus fulfilling their need to feel productive even though the results add little to their bottom line.

There’s also a hidden, secret reason women biz owners fritter away their time and it’s because of fear.

Getting a handle on your time means potentially challenging beliefs about being “nice,” being “helpful” and other typically feminine ideals.

What women entrepreneurs fear isn’t making necessary changes in our beliefs. We fear upsetting the apple cart, as in possibly hurting someone’s feelings, letting down someone we care about or appearing to be overly focused on success instead of relationships.

I had to face these same challenges as I grew my business first from low 6-figures into high 6-figures, and then when I made the leap into a million dollar business.

Here are three of my favorite strategies for focusing my time on the 6- and 7-figure tasks a million dollar business owner does, WITHOUT hurting anyone’s feelings or risking losing a valuable relationship. In fact, these strategies will help you be MORE available to the people you care about!

Strategy #1 Respect Your Time Like You Respect Other Peoples’ Feelings

Most women biz owners wouldn’t dream of interrupting, barging in on someone, asking for help when someone is clearly busy or take something owned by someone else without first asking permission.

Yet that’s what you’re allowing when you let yourself be interrupted, answer your cell phone every time it rings, frequently check voice mail or obsessively check email. Don’t even get me started on responding to text messages before the print even finishes displaying!

Once you start turning off your phone ringer, scheduling two or three email “batch” times per day and treating your time with the same respect you give to others, you’ll be amazed at how much more you get done and how much peace you add to your day.

Strategy #2 Get Clear On Your Million Dollar Work

Do you honestly think the owner of a million dollar business broadcasts her own newsletter, posts to her blog or surfs the web for clip art? As that business owner I can tell you the answer is “no way!”

Women must focus on the tasks we excel at doing. Things like creating JV relationships, public speaking to share your message to many people or planning your next service or product launch.

These aren’t tasks you add TO your day; they ARE the tasks you do with your day. Once you make the shift and start redirecting your time to activities that help you grow your list, improve your bottom line or leverage your time you’ll instantly see an 1ncrease in your business growth and your feeling of happiness and being on purpose.

Which leads me to strategy #3…

Strategy #3 Get Help From Your Gal Pals

Chances are good that even if you have a team you’re still doing too much yourself and not empowering your team to lead projects or take over tasks still languishing on your to-do list.

Ladies, please! Stop thinking you have something to prove by doing everything yourself. You don’t need to know how to do a task before you give it over to someone else. Banding together is a unique and valuable quality of your Divine Feminine spirit. Your ability to grow your business is in direct proportion to your ability to ask for — and receive — support. Which means hiring someone to help you before you’re in total overwhelm. Trust me, you can make back the cost of hiring someone in just a week or two!

How Do I Know When I Need To Delegate More?

Big clues are when a task sits on my to-do list for more than two weeks. Ditto that for any email gathering dust for more than two weeks in my inbox. If I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed. If I find myself working on Friday, which is my day to spend master minding and easing into the weekend. Or if my husband — and business partner, Richard — gives me that “Gee, don’t you think you’re micro managing everything?” look.

Doubling your revenue is entirely possible once you start letting go of how you currently spend your time and instead invest your time only on the tasks a million dollar business owner would focus on.