In business, time is your greatest asset. Time gives you the ability to carefully think through decisions. It allows you to forge plans for the future and ensure every customer interaction is beneficial. If you have enough time, literally every area of your business can be improved. Ultimately, this results in higher profitability and overall success. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs suffer from not knowing how to use your time wisely. Running a business generally means you are constantly racing against the clock. Often times, you’re wishing for more hours in the day. The reality of it is, you simply have to make the best of the time you have.
How Time Can Impact Your Business
Often, a lack of time in business is often seen as a problem for the entrepreneur. However, while the impact of a lack of time on the individual entrepreneur is undoubtedly an important consideration, the issue can also directly impact their business – for example:
- Decisions that are made while struggling with time pressure are more likely to be snap decisions. Decisions that are usually made without the preferred amount of due care and attention. Snap decisions can lead to unfavorable results for the business, potentially harming the business’ processes, finances, or reputation.
- Modern customers have become accustomed to rapid service from the businesses they patronize. This is especially true given the technological advancements offered to businesses. If a lack of time causes a delay in orders, then there is a strong chance that customers will simply take their business elsewhere.
- A lack of time in business also tends to mean that the business is more likely to “tread water”. Struggling to keep up with its existing commitments and workload. This can make planning expansions or furthering growth extremely challenging.
It is clear, given the above, that ensuring a business can effectively manage its time is crucial. But how can this be achieved?
Focusing On The Time You Can Control
Many businesses owners will find themselves wishing there was more time available to get through their to-do list. Unfortunately, creating time is impossible. There is a way, however, to give yourself more hours in the day. This requires that you reclaim time that would otherwise be lost. The vast majority of businesses lose significant amounts of time every day. Reclaiming this lost time can, in a roundabout way, creates more hours in the day.
Tips For Reclaiming Lost Time
- Time being wasted by staff is an issue for almost all companies, so it may be worth exploring ways of combating this issue in order to ensure every hour an employee spends on the clock is used productively.
- Examine the processes your business relies on to function and identify particularly time-consuming areas. When you know where time is being lost, you can research alternative approaches in these problematic areas that can eventually allow you to work more efficiently.
- For product-based businesses, waiting for deliveries of stock or supplies can cause huge amounts of time to be lost every year. It’s therefore beneficial to carry a slightly higher volume of stock than required and to place orders for replacement stock a few days earlier than is strictly necessary.
- For service-providing businesses, contacting clients to confirm appointments can be hugely time-consuming, not to mention the time lost if a client “no-shows” without warning. You may, therefore, find it beneficial to confirm appointments via text message, which allows you to automate the entire process and can even help to reduce the number of “no-shows” your business experiences.
- Finally, all businesses can benefit from focusing on ways to transform what could be considered “lost time” into something more useful – for example, if you spend time creating the perfect pitch to a client that is ultimately not successful, this could be considered “lost time”. However, if you learn from the experience, your business could actually save time in the future by employing different tactics that are more likely to result in success.
In Conclusion
While it is – sadly – impossible to outright create new hours in the day, reclaiming time that would previously have been lost can be incredibly beneficial. You can use the reclaimed time to focus on the core of your business, making the right decisions, and enhancing the customer experience your business can provide – all of which can significantly to your business’ success ongoing in the future.
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