There’s a sad reality in business: Founders who dream of scaling but struggle to find time to work on it may never achieve the growth they seek. Here’s how to leverage outsourcing, process automation, and other time-optimization techniques to ensure you can make the time for growth.
Life as a founder can be challenging, but it’s also rewarding. You started your business with the intent to maximize your business growth, but it can be difficult to focus on that when you’re caught in the day-to-day grind. The truth is that it may never happen if you don’t prioritize scaling up. You may get stuck working in your business instead of on it, unless you consciously make time for growth.
Here are some key tips for maximizing your time and productivity so you can boost business growth.
Routines reduce cognitive stress
Routines can reduce stress. If you’ve ever struggled with making decisions, it won’t be shocking to hear that it can be stress-inducing. Even decisions about something trivial, such as what to wear, can become overwhelming and drain your mental energy. This is why Apple founder Steve Jobs wore pretty much the same outfit every day, and why Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has adopted this practice.
Having a routine helps create structure in your day. This also reduces your reliance on willpower and motivation, which experts agree are finite and fleeting resources that set you up for failure. A routine creates habits that will become automatic processes, meaning you won’t have to use a lot of energy on them because they’ll be second nature. This will free up your time for more important tasks.
Taking action is another way to reduce your cognitive stress . If something can be done in a few minutes, bite the bullet and do it. Getting things done quickly helps establish a habit, sets a great example for your employees, and reduces your cognitive stress. There’s one less thing on the to-do list.
Stick to a schedule
Like entrepreneur Jim Rohn said, “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” Sticking to a schedule will help ensure you’re getting the important things done, so all priorities should be scheduled. Some businesspersons even block their day into 15-minute increments that keep them on track to hit all their goals. Former U.S. presidents are noted to have done the same, with President George W. Bush scheduling his in 10-minute increments during his tenure and President Barack Obama also operating with very few unscheduled blocks of time.
Max out your CRM
Many businesses have customer relationship management (CRM) software, but don’t fully utilize them to their full potential. This is a mistake. Your CRM can automate many tasks for you as well as track communications to help you figure out which are effective. This means you no longer waste time with ineffective communication strategies, and can instead focus on doing more of what works.
Manage Your meetings well
We’ve all been in meetings that could have been a phone call or an email. Recent studies have shown that salespeople spend just 35.9% of their time at work actually selling. The rest of the time, they’re engaged in myriad other responsibilities, such as meetings, writing emails, entering data, conducting lead research, and scheduling calls. Eliminating unnecessary meetings will boost everyone’s productivity.
For meetings that do need to take place, keep them short and simple. Always review your recurring meetings to see if they’re truly necessary. Limit the number of new meetings you take, and manage the ones you do well. Meetings should always have a clear agenda with clear follow ups.
Take brainstorming breaks
Stress and constantly moving from one task to the next can drain your creativity. Take regular breaks between activities, go for walks, and get fresh air to boost your creativity and problem-solving abilities. Both Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have been known to hold “moving meetings,” where they walked during them. There's a good reason for this: a Stanford study has shown walking can boost creativity by an average of 60% as opposed to sitting. The boost is even effective for a short time after the walk.
Hire experienced people
Growing a business also means growing your team. Making the right hiring decisions is vital, especially for a company that’s scaling up. Employee turnover is costly for businesses and can create a shift in company culture. Hiring qualified candidates pays, literally and figuratively. Promoting from within is valuable, and should be done whenever possible. If you’re looking to scale, however, it may make sense to look externally to bring on someone who’s experienced in helping businesses grow.
Say “no” often, and delegate
Protecting your routine, schedule, and calendar is vital. This means you’ll have to start saying “no” to things. Some entrepreneurs’ default answer is “no,” then they reconsider how the opportunity could serve their current goals. This helps them avoid saying “yes” to every opportunity that’s thrown their way, because not all are good fits for their businesses.
Although you may feel you need to do everything yourself, don’t be afraid of delegation. It can be hugely helpful to free up some of your time so you can work on your business instead of in it.
Contact the experts to help you grow your business
It can be difficult to know where to turn when you’re ready to grow your business but aren’t seeing the traction in your sales team that you hoped for. Are you just not getting enough leads? Are your salespeople not converting the good leads they’re getting? The answer is it could be both, but there are experts who can help you get your sales team functioning as a well-oiled machine.
At MetaGrowth Ventures, we deliver massive growth with minimal investment, so you can ditch the daily grind of “founder selling.” Instead, we’ll help you train your amazing team of dedicated sales professionals – plus hire top-tier additions when needed – to do your selling for you. If you want to build your very own world-class sales team without investing a ton of time, contact us today.
Written by
Joe Arioto